What Can Agents Do in Industry, and Why? An Overview of Industrially-Oriented R&D at CEC

The Center for Electronic Commerce (CEC) embodies over fourteen years of experience in applying agents to industrial problems. We have found such a fit in three areas: coordination of industrial designers, simulation and modeling of complex products and processes, and scheduling and control of production systems. This presentation outlines several trends in modern manufacturing, describes how these trends affect the three problem areas, discusses the features of agents that make them attractive candidates for implementing such systems, and reviews example applications from CEC’s portfolio in each of these areas. 1. Trends in Manufacturing Three trends in modern manufacturing present challenges that agent technologies can address. Manufactured products and the systems that produce them have become more complex. The manufacturing process is increasingly spread out over a supply network rather than being concentrated in a single firm, and the variety of products that a firm must offer is increasing while the time to bring them to market is decreasing. 1.1 Increased Product Complexity A comparison of the features available in a modern automobile with those in a Model T illustrates how the functionality of products has increased. A modern vehicle may include air conditioning, automatic transmission, power steering, power brakes, roll-up windows, turn signals, cruise control, seat belts, air bags, radio and tape player, adjustable seats, and a host of other features that did not exist or could not be installed in an automobile earlier in this century. Similar technical enhancements have enriched many other products, including appliances, machine tools, and aircraft.