Towards adaptive management systems in manufacturing

Over the next few years the nature of manufacturing will change fundamentally. On the one hand, the surge in automated production facilities for reducing costs will continue. On the other hand, as customers gain influence, demand becomes less certain and processes more complex. In future, successful firms will be those that achieve an adaptive and agile management of production, rather than those with rigidly optimized production processes. This thesis responds to these new requirements by promoting manufacturing management systems which are operationally supported by automated and adaptive control systems, i. e. agent systems. Since the issue of coping with complexity and uncertainty becomes a crucial one, the proposed approach is based on cybernetics, a science studying viable structures of control systems. In this book, the reader gains insight into how concepts from the fields of management cybernetics, production logistics management, artificial intelligence, and object-oriented concurrent programming are integrated into a powerful framework which facilitates the development of effective management support systems in manufacturing.