Enhancing Workflow Management in the Manufacturing Information System of a Small-Medium Enterprise: An Agent-Based Approach

  • Authors:

  • Ernesto Montaldo;Roberto Sacile;Antonio Boccalatte

  • Affiliations:

  • DIST—Department of Communication, Computer and System Sciences, University of Genova, Via Opera Pia, 13-16145 Genova, Italy. ernesto.montaldo@unige.it;DIST—Department of Communication, Computer and System Sciences, University of Genova, Via Opera Pia, 13-16145 Genova, Italy. roberto.sacile@unige.it;DIST—Department of Communication, Computer and System Sciences, University of Genova, Via Opera Pia, 13-16145 Genova, Italy. antonio.boccalatte@unige.it

  • Venue:
  • Information Systems Frontiers
  • Year:
  • 2003

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Abstract

One shortcoming of manufacturing information systems is their inability to integrate and to enhance different information and related functionalities, such as those found in workflow management. Software agents, once added as a new software layer to an existing system, can overcome this problem. Of the fields applying software agent technology, manufacturing, and especially workflow management, is perhaps the most promising for the development of distributed systems. This potential is reflected in the several ongoing research projects that focus on workflow management and share the final aim of integrating and coordinating plant and business activities.The approach presented in this paper can be regarded as an agent-based architecture applied to an existing workflow management system in order to manage new functionalities, e.g., customer relationship management in electronic commerce. This approach is particularly suitable for small medium enterprises with simple manufacturing information requirements and simple or nonexistent computer based workflow management.The model and some important features of system implementation, such as the knowledge modeling graphical user interface, the communication model, and a simple practical example of the architecture's use, are described.