Computers & Chemical Engineering, Vol.22, No.S, 271-277, 1998
Integrated on line production and financial scheduling with intelligent autonomous agent based information system
This paper proposes a methodology to cope the development of a system achieving the integration of financial and production planning with on-line predictive/reactive transaction-oriented scheduling in batch process industries. The best solution of delivery dates is found taking into account the trade off between customer satisfaction (meeting due dates) and company liquidity (minimum net cash-flow constraint). The resulting schedules are improved by means of an objective function to be minimized under the constraint of minimum cash by a simulated annealing (SA) algorithm. Production schedules are updated with process data. Predictive models upgrading control set points and product recipes close the loop of the managerial production cycle. A planning layer with, autonomous web-based agents in an order-entry information system is used to obtain a quick feedback and response of the whole system to order requests. This system architecture can be used in an inner-network information system within a manufacturing Networked Enterprise(NE). In addition to the knowledge in rear time of the electronic market, the integrated system performs the status/usage profile of the resources including the net cash-flow. These new capabilities in scheduling assure better financial decisions and a quick response to clients, a response which is backed up with a system that outputs an updated optimal price-time trade-off of the order requested. The methodology is illustrated with a case study.