Digital Factory and Agent based Manufacturing Execution System – An approach for a combined planning and control system for complex manufacturing logistics

The increasing variety of products associated with a reduction of lot sizes leads to a growing complexitiy of logistics at small and medium-sized businesses. Nevertheless those companies want to maintain their flexibility and adaptability of their manufacturing systems. The creation of a flexible and versatile manufacturing logistics system for small and medium-sized businesses is thus investigated within the scope of a research project at the Leibniz Universität Hannover. Key component of the approach is a Digital Factory model as basis for the production planning. Within this model the entire production of a exemplary scenario including the required information flows are simulated. The simulation was furthermore used to enable the development of an optimal and realistic configuration of the manufacturing system on basis of different scenarios. Conducted studies affected both the planned implementation of RFID technology for the monotoring of movement data and the application of lean methods in the production process. In order to control the material flow within the real production process a Manufacturing Execution System (MES) was developed. This system is composed of software agents to reach a maximum degree of flexibility with regard to the application situation. These agents process information autonomously and share those with each other. Within this system the movement of parts is monitored and are compared to the specifications of the Digital Factory model. If deviations of from scheduled to real production processes occur, the staff is informed systematically and measures to counteract are taken.