Achieving holonic control - an incremental approach

Holonic manufacturing is a concept of considerable promise as it can provide the flexibility and responsiveness required by virtual enterprises. However, if this promise is to be realised, two key issues need to be addressed. First, migration strategies must be developed to enable existing manufacturing systems using conventional controller technology to progressively incorporate holonic manufacturing concepts. Second, holonic manufacturing principles must be applied and integrated at all levels of the production planning and control process. In this paper, our primary concern is the first issue – we present and evaluate the technical feasibility for a strategy to incrementally introduce holonic manufacturing principles into existing production control systems. We believe that this approach , through its adoption of a strong part-and-task execution focus, will provide a sound platform for addressing the second issue of application and integration.