Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) Approach to Production Systems and Organisations

Theoretical study of complex systems receives more and more attention as most sciences broaden their perspectives. First, the paper overviews a few important complexity approaches, then it argues that complex adaptive systems (CASs) are especially important for production control research. As examples, firstly, a CAS based scheduling mechanism is described in which agents apply reinforcement learning to handle complex production control tasks, secondly, a semi-formal model of production networks is given combining stochastic processes, graph or network theory, and CASs. Further research issues are also highlighted. Keywords