Abstract: Faced with international competition, industrial production increasingly requires implementation conditions which, in some cases, lead to seek new techniques for workshop control. This is the case when it is asked to establish Just in Time management in a Job Shop having the characteristics of working with small series. A new approach for the organization of the ‘control’ function in such a context is presented here. This approach relies on the use of the holonic paradigm on an isoarchic architecture and on a decision-making capacity based on a multicriteria analysis. The various concepts of this approach are addressed first. Then, the multicriteria decision mechanisms that are used are detailed, as well as the implementation and instrumentation phases. The first results that were obtained are presented.
Abstract: This paper presents a holonic and isoarchic approach to the Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS) control. This approach is based on a flat holonic form, where each holon is a model for each entity of the FMS, with a unifying level of communication between holons. After description of this model, called PROSIS, the interaction protocol and decision rules are presented. The objective is to increase the FMS productivity and flexibility, particularly on responsiveness aspects. This responsiveness is achieved through decentralized generation of the production tasks. The reactive behaviour of the FMS control is illustrated by the example of a flexible turning cell, upon occurrence of a failure or of an urgent batch order, and the resulting Gantt charts are shown.
Abstract: The application of Quality tools and methods in industrial management has always had a fundamental impact on the control of production. It influences the behavior of the actors concerned, while introducing the necessary notions and formalizations, especially for production systems with little or no automation, which constitute a large part of the industrial activity. Several quality approaches are applied in the workshop and are implemented at the level of the control. In this paper, the authors present a typology of the various approaches that have successively influenced control, such as statistical process control, quality assurance, and continuous improvement. First the authors present a parallel between production control and quality organizational structure. They note the duality between control, which is aimed at increasing productivity, and quality, which aims to satisfy the needs of the customer. They also note the hierarchical organizational structure of these two systems of management with, at each level, the notion of a feedback loop. This notion is fundamental to any kind of decision making. The paper is organized around the operational, tactical, and strategic levels, by describing for each level the main methods and tools for control by quality. The overview of these tools and methods starts at the operational level, with the Statistical Process Control, the Taguchi technique, and the "six sigma" approach. On the tactical level, we find a quality system approach, with a documented description of the procedures introduced in the firm. The management system can refer here to Quality Assurance, Total Productive Maintenance, or Management by Total Quality. The formalization through procedures of the rules of decision governing the process control enhances the validity of these rules. This leads to the enhancement of their reliability and to their consolidation. All this counterbalances the human, intrinsically fluctuating, behavior of the control operators. Strategic control by quality is then detailed, and the two main approaches, the continuous improvement approach and the proactive improvement approach, are introduced. Finally, the authors observe that at each of the three levels, the continuous process improvement, which is a component of Total Quality, becomes an essential preoccupation for the control. Ultimately, the recursive utilization of the Deming cycle remains the best practice for the control by quality.
Abstract: Supply chains and more particularly supply chains networks are more
and more subjected to extreme dynamic operations, where it is asked to each actor more flexibility and reactivity on the one hand and a specialization bringing more productivity on the other hand. Companies try to achieve the common goal of satisfying customers’ needs through partnership. Negotiation between partners is thus required involving each partner management and production organization. This situation makes difficult to obtain the best response with respect to the need of
each customer. For that, a new approach is proposed for customer-supplier relationship control, in which the partnership is considered in the context of an association of potential suppliers within a network: an isoarchic control model for supply chains network based on a holonic architecture. The decision-making mechanism is produced thanks to the properties of a decision-making centre, called Autonomous Control Entity (ACE), associated to each actor of the logistic network, which makes it possible to quantify a multi-criteria evaluation. An implementation of the simulation of such a system is done via a distributed simulation environment HLA (High Level Architecture). A case study is presented.
Abstract: Ambient intelligence applied to manufacturing systems will deeply transform approaches to production organization and control. Infotronics technologies will enlarge the capabilities to interact, to react and to customize control systems with innovative possibilities that should already be envisaged and thoroughly studied. Indeed, beyond identification, traceability and security applications that are generally considered, these technologies offer the possibility to associate to each entity, constituting a production system, a decisional intelligence. Autonomy properties are thus associated to the entity. Under these new advances, a control system based on the holonic paradigm and an isoarchic architecture, named PROSIS (Product, Resource, Order, Simulation Isoarchical System), was proposed. This approach provides a range of ambient services to the holonic entities. The aim of this paper is to present the service oriented architecture in the PROSIS control system. After presenting the holonic control system (PROSIS) model, the ambient services that can be provided are described and the way these services could be delivered are presented.
Abstract: An approach that relies on the use of the holonic paradigm, on an isoarchic architecture and on a decision-making capacity based on a multicriteria analysis is presented. The various concepts of this approach are addressed first. Then, the multicriteria decision methods based on AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) and its generalization ANP (Analytic Network Process) are detailed, as well as the implementation phases. The first obtained results on a case study are presented.
