SMART FACTORY: Real Time Multi-Agent Resource Allocation, Scheduling, Optimization and Controlling OBJECTIVE Real Time Multi-Agent Resource Allocation, Scheduling, Optimization and Controlling System for Factories is designed to increase resource efficiency through flexible real time planning of equipment, manpower and materials of shopfloors in real time. DOMAIN OF APPLICATION Designed system can be applied in any mechanical assembly plant which has high complexity and dynamics of operations as well as high uncertainty in supply and demand which require high level of adaptability in reaction on unpredictable events in real time. It is also very useful when one need to take into account specific domain knowledge on products and materials, equipment and workers and to provide individual approach to each order or resource, support the frequent change of product / technology settings, to produce small series of different products, according with the diverse skills of workers who continually respond to unforeseen events such as new VIP order coming, equipment failure, delay in materials, etc. ADAPTIVE SCHEDULING METHOD Unlike traditional enterprise resource planning systems operating mainly in batch mode, the proposed system is working constantly in real time, adaptively rearranging the plan considering any of the real world events appearing in the system. For this purposes the system can be installed on a customer's server and can work continuously, without stopping, in real time responding to orders and other events imposed by the operator or coming from other systems (Fig. 1). Fig. 1. New order screen showing the sequence (workflow) of main business process.
The system is constantly striving for quick respond to new events coming and also to proactively improve operation plan by the use of free time machine or workers slots, by the chain of moves and rearrangements of previously scheduled operations or transferring them to other resources. For this aim the system uses software agents representing interests of orders, resources, workers, machines, operations and materials, as well as the relationship between the operations (Fig. 2). As a result the work plan of the department is built not by a classical combinatorial search, but as a balance between the interests of all participants. Fig. 2. Network of scheduled operations (on the left - events window) This approach allows to react on events and to minimize the manual changes of schedule taking into account the dynamically changing situation. Also the system can plan specific orders, take into account particularity of machines and labors and many other factors that make the task of resource scheduling so complex and time consuming. In addition, at any time the user can intervene to the process of planning and interactively refine the plan or shift the operations, drag & drop them, add or remove them, can check completed operations - and the plan will automatically be revised and re-scheduled. Other operations will catch up forward, will be redistributed or back out respectively looking for availability of other resources. Also new working plan for labors will be formed (Figure 3). Users can simulate the new orders coming and check how it can be planed in the current production plan and how this order could affect other orders, for example, shift or even push out the less important orders. The user also can see how much new order production would cost according with current performance of the enterprise resources.
Fig. 3. New task appointment after completion of the previous work SYSTEM FUNCTIONALITY The proposed system automates the full lifecycle of shopfloor management performing the following functions: Specification of machines, processes and technology workflows; Automatic import of technology workflows from CAD programs (e.g. ADAM); New orders or other important events input at any moment of time; Evaluation how the new order will affect the previous order, already planed and launched into execution; Possibility to check the cost of this order under new circumstances; Ability for adaptive and flexible refinement and adjustment of the production plan for events that can be manually fine-tuned; Proactive improvement of the production plan; Visualization of the scheduled plant in real time; Support of different scheduling strategies with different criteria; Communication and coordination of the production plan with all stakeholders and its adjustment in case of need; Assigning of the workday plan to every worker; Feedback from workers on tasks performance; Operational control of production plan execution; Automatic reports in real time. The system also can integrate with existing programs, such as warehouses, payroll workers, materials accounting, etc. FURTHER SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT The next step of system development is a network of planning subsystems interacting with each other; resource optimization of each company unit through supporting their agreed work plans and coordination in real time. MAIN ADVANTAGES
Real time working allows to increase the efficiency of decision-making, improve customer service, reduce costs and time, risks and penalties. Expected impact to resource efficiency time cut working in real-time mode is estimated as 15-25% annually. DELIVERY COSTS & TIME System cost and time of delivery to consumers is determined by the functionality, the number of orders and resources need to be planed, number of workstations, technical equipment configuration (e.g. touch screens, working terminals, etc.), amount of user training and technical support, as well as other specific requirements to advance, customize and integrate the system for the customer, which takes usually from 3 to 6 months. Price list is available by request. FOR CONTACTS Smart Solutions - Software Engineering Company 443013, 17 Moscovskoe Shosse, office center Vertikal, office 1201, Samara, Russia. Please send requests by email to e-mail box: info@smartsolutions-123.ru Tel./Fax: + 7 (846) 279-37-79, www.smartsolutions-123.ru/en
APPENDIX: EXAMPLES OF USER INTERFACES 1 SPECIFICATIONS List of equipment (resources for operation) List of labors (working staff)
Specialty shopfloor staff Types of manufacturing operations List of orders
2 FORMING PARTS AND ASSEMBLY UNITS Due to the order
3 AUTOMATIC PLANNING (TIMETABLE FORMING) OF ASSEMBLY UNITS in accordance with technological workflow requirements for every machine and labor Dependencies (consistency) between labor s tasks Production plan
4 AUTOMATIC ADJUSTMENT TABLE WITH NEW EVENTS COMMING with the general planning criteria and preferences for Resources Example 1. A) The original schedule (before the change) B) Change: a delay of operations (indicated with red)
Example 2. A) The original timetable before the change B) the process of order cancellation: Rescheduling
5 AUTOMATED LABORS TASKS FORMING (in accordance with manufacturing requirements operations) A) Plan before change B) Changed plan
6 DELETING OF OPERATION А) The operation is marked B)The operation is deleted
C) Rescheduled plan 7 SEPARATIING OF OPERATIONS А) The initial schedule
Б) The marked operation is separated 8 THE LIST OF TASKS FOR EACH LABOR AND SHIFT-DAILY TARGETS FORMING Shift-daily targets
Order properties The task performance (marked orange)
Report: all shift-daily targets