On the open job-shop scheduling problem: a decentralized multi-agent approach for the manufacturing system performance optimization

Abstract

This paper investigates a dynamic integration of the process planning and scheduling operations of a typical Open Job-Shop manufacturing system. For this purpose, a modified CNP-based negotiation protocol - through a multi-agent modelling for jobs and operating machines - is proposed. This approach allows the introduction of an agents’ hybrid behavior, considering both the own return and the system profit achieving the production performance maximization. Finally, a series of simulation runs are conducted in order to compare the performance of the proposed protocol with a recent optimization approach that uses a simple composite dispatching rule.