A NEW METHODOLOGY FOR DESIGNING E- MANUFACTURING PLATFORMS WITHIN VIRTUAL ENTERPRISES

Abstract: The new manufacturing paradigms, starting with agile manufacturing and lean production, are leading our society towards a new generation of concurrent enterprises involving virtual enterprise architecture and concurrent engineering methodology for e-Enterprise. A continuing adaptation to the global market needs can only be achieved efficiently if also the planning and control processes are optimized both horizontally (Automatic Control Systems) and vertically (Management Control System). Consistent improvement in performance and realization of (fast reactive) highly dynamic enterprise objectives requires a tight integration of the units of the enterprise. Taking into consideration that the entities of the eEnterprise are cooperating in order to achieve the global goal, a problem appears: how to cooperate not knowing the internal models of the entities who are cooperating? In order to obtain at some moment a real-time solution, a certain form of negotiation appears to be necessary. Contract agents can implement an automated negotiation mechanism. The mathematical background provided by game theory, then provides a decision support for the contract agents. It also allows to model the behavior of the agents in a negotiation