Future Generation Computer Systems
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This paper focuses on agents and their interplay in manufacturing on two levels: one is the production plant control level employing agents that cope with malfunctions of production units in order to keep the production flow up and running. The other is the production plant configuration level incorporating agents for the investigation of improved production plant topological layouts in an anytime fashion. The interplay of agents from both levels represents a new approach in production plant configuration, taking into account the highly dynamic flavour of the scenario imposed by the liability to machine failures. We present experimental results and experiences with our implementation of the lower level and propose an elaborate architecture of the upper level.