Agent-based workflow management for RFID-enabled real-time reconfigurable manufacturing

Recent developments in wireless technologies have created opportunities for developing reconfigurable manufacturing systems with real-time traceability, visibility and interoperability in shop floor planning, execution and control. This chapter proposes to use workflow management as a mechanism to facilitate an RFID-enabled real-time reconfigurable manufacturing system. The workflow of production processes is modelled as a network. Its nodes correspond to the work (process), and its edges to flows of control and data. The concept of agents is introduced to define nodes and the concept of messages to define edges. As a sandwich layer, agents wrap manufacturing services (e.g. machines, RFID devices and tools) and their operational logics/intelligence for cost-effectively collecting and processing real-time manufacturing data. Some referenced frameworks and architectures of manufacturing gateway, shop-floor gateway and work-cell gateway are constructed for implementing the RFID-enabled real-time reconfigurable manufacturing system. The shopfloor gateway is mainly discussed where three key components (workflow management tools, MS-UDDI and agent-based manufacturing services management tools) are integrated. By means of web service technologies, each agent can be registered and published at MS-UDDI as a web service that can be easily reused and reconfigured as a workflow node according to the workflow of a specific production process through workflow management to a server for reconfigurable goals. The methodologies and technologies proposed in this chapter will allow manufacturing enterprises to improve shop-floor productivity and quality, reduce the wastes of manufacturing resources, cut the costs in manufacturing logistics, reduce the risk and improve the efficiency in cross-border customs logistics and online supervision, and improve the responsiveness to market and engineering changes.