A Dynamic Multi-Agent Based Scheduling for Flexible Flow Line Manufacturing System Accompanied by Dynamic Customer Demand

Nowadays, the manufacturing enterprises endeavor to avoid the risk of losing competition, and strive to respond precisely to the customer demands by improving their flexibility and agility, while maintaining productivity and quality. In this thesis a multi-agent based dynamic scheduling for flexible flow line manufacturing system is presented while considering dynamic customer demand. A case of unplasticized polyvinyl chloride (uPVC) door and window manufacturing company is considered to confirm the design of Multi-Agent System (MAS). A multi-agent dynamic scheduling system is developed based on Prometheus methodologyTM. The Prometheus methodology is employed for specifying, designing, implementing and testing agent oriented software systems in a detailed manner. Moreover, JACK agent platform is used as an implementation platform. Simulation test platform based on existing case study is developed for validation and verification of the proposed MAS. Two scenarios are defined to compare the conventional system with the proposed system. In the first scenario the acceptance rate for both conventional system and multi-agent based dynamic scheduling system is evaluated and compared. In the second scenario the effect of changing number of order is evaluated for both systems. The simulation results show that the proposed multi-agent dynamic scheduling system outperforms (acceptance rate, changing number of order, lead time) the conventional system. Furthermore, it was found that the proposed system performs better in terms of run time. Keywords: Dynamic Scheduling, Multi-Agent System, Prometheus Methodology, JACK, Dynamic Customer Demand