Akram A. Bou-Ghannam

Agent-based approach for manufacturing integration: The ciimplex experience

The production management system used by most manufacturers today consists of disconnected planning and execution processes and lacks the support for interoperability and collaboration needed for enterprise-wide integration. This situation often prevents the manufacturer from fully exploring market opportunities in a timely fashion. To address this problem, we are exploring an agent-based approach to intelligent enterprise integration. In this approach, a set of agents with specialized expertise can be quickly assembled to help with the gathering of relevant information and knowledge, to cooperate with each other and with other parts of the production management system and humans to arrive at timely decisions in dealing with various enterprise scenarios. The proposed multiagent system, including its architecture and implementation, is presented and demonstrated through an example integration scenario involving real planning and execution software systems.

An agent-based infrastructure for enterprise integration

Some of the features that make Jackal (Java-based Applications Communication using KQML Agent communication Language) extremely valuable to agent development are its conversation management facilities, its flexible, blackboard-style interface and its ease of integration. Jackal has been developed in support of an investigation of the use of agents in enterprise-wide integration of planning and execution for manufacturing. This paper describes Jackal at a surface level and at the design level, and demonstrates its use in a multi-agent system that supports intelligent integration of enterprise planning and execution.

Agent development with Jackal

Jackal is a Java-based tool for communicating with the KQML agent communication language. Some features that make it extremely valuable to agent development are its conversation management facilities, flexible, blackboard style interface and ease of integration. Jackal has been developed in support of an investigation of the use of agents in enterprisewide integration of planning and execution for manufacturing.