Integrated yet distributed operations planning approach: A next generation manufacturing planning system

Abstract

Present paper envisages the need for an innovative operations planning system to handle the challenges and opportunities offered by next industrial revolution called Industry 4.0 or smart manufacturing. In specific, to embrace the increasing level of automation in manufacturing industries, the obligation of joint consideration of multiple operations functions is realized. On the other hand, quick response to dynamic conditions created by machine failures, change in demand, uncertainty in supply, etc., is important in captivating the advantages of the digitization in industries. Easing out the computational complexity, imposed by the integration of multiple functions, therefore, becomes an important aspect of next generation manufacturing planning systems. Consequently, in this paper, an agent-based approach is engineered around the opportunities offered by modern digital factory viz., intelligence at the shop-floor and ubiquity of wireless communications. While intelligence at shop-floor allows distributing the decision-making tasks to various functional agents, the communication among the agents makes it feasible to incite integrated view through the coordination agent. The approach is demonstrated for a representative industrial environment of an automotive plant. Further, comparison over conventional approaches, computational comparison, effect of degree of integration, and performance of the approach under dynamic conditions are investigated. Finally, the approach is comprehensively evaluated to analyze its robustness and implications in various manufacturing settings. This extensive investigation shows that the proposed operations planning system has capability to apprehend the benefits from next generation intelligent factory. © 2019 The Society of Manufacturing Engineers