Ilka Habenicht

The FABMAS multi-agent-system prototype for production control of water fabs: design, implementation and performance assessment

In this paper, we describe a hierarchically organised multi-agent-system prototype that is used for production control of semiconductor wafer fabrication facilities (wafer fabs). Starting from requirements for modern production control systems and advanced production control algorithms, we design the hierarchical system. We suggest a three-layer hierarchy. We describe production control algorithms for each layer of the hierarchy. We consider the performance measure total weighted tardiness. After the design step, we discuss the implementation of the system prototype as a multi-agent-system (MAS). Our implementation is based on the PROSA reference architecture for holonic manufacturing systems. The MAS approach especially allows for a distribution of the system on a computer cluster. We present the results of computational experiments with the system prototype. Furthermore, we suggest future research directions.

Simulation in manufacturing planning of buildings

Optimal planning of construction projects requires an efficient allocation of available resources. Labor, material, equipment are to be planned, coordinated and quickly adapted to varying conditions. Frequent (design) changes during the construction period, diversity of trades and the high complexity of interacting processes in building manufacturing require innovative ways to support process-influencing decisions - a tool which allows testing interventions and adjustments in the manufacturing process, including individual sub-processes with the best possible efficiency. In this context, the discrete-event simulation comes into place. A research group simulated the manufacturing process of a hotel project in all details in order to examine applicability of simulation in the construction industry and to scrutinize and adjust it according to the construction specifics. The approach taken, the challenges encountered and insights gained will be presented in this article.

Simulationsstudien zur Baustellenlogistik und der Bauausführung mit Multimodellen

Es wird der Arbeitsablauf der Simulation von Bauprozessen, angefangen von der Datenbereitstellung aus dem Multimodellcontainer uber die Datenaufbereitung im SiteSim Editor bis zur Durchfuhrung der Simulationsstudien und der Auswertung der Ergebnisse dargestellt. Einleitend werden die verschiedenen Anwendungsbereiche der Simulation im Bauwesen aufgezeigt. Es werden Datenanforderungen in Abhangigkeit von der Zielstellung der Simulation abgeleitet. Die im Rahmen des Projekts Mefisto entwickelte Multimodellmethode und der Multimodellcontainer, MMC, sind eine wichtige Voraussetzung fur einen effizienten Einsatz von Simulation im Bauwesen. Anhand zweier Fallstudien werden die Anwendungsmoglichkeiten der Simulation in Logistik und Montage demonstriert und die beschriebenen Ansatze evaluiert.