In his preface to this book, Professor Raffaele Pesenti (University of Palermo, Italy) makes an excellent case for its publication. This he says is a time when we are rushing towards globalisation and today's market environment is characterised by an ever increasing pace in production, decreasing product cycle times, and an increasing shift from mass production to mass customisation. This is a trend which most management cyberneticians are aware of, and they appreciate, particularly in the manufacturing sector that new management software architectures must be produced.
To understand this book we need to appreciate that because of our changing approaches to management we require to move away from the traditional type of information systems. The authors of this text introduce alternatives to the traditional methods and in particular those that are “agent‐based”. Such agents will act as replacements for the centralised information systems. Whilst all the ideas are not new and the Japanese as far back as the early 1990s became interested in agent‐based manufacturing, this book helps us to understand agent‐based systems.
The first chapter explains agent technology and its use in modern production systems. The presentation is far from simplistic and the authors treat the subject matter in depth with constant citations from the literature. There is, however, a tendency to be “wordy” in as much as the ideas could on occasion be explained more succinctly. It may be, of course, that joint authors as well as contributing writers are more verbose. Even so, the resulting style is both readable, interesting and most important of all, informative.
There are six more chapters each with useful introductions. They cover: issues in designing agent‐based manufacturing systems; agents for planning, scheduling and control; agent‐based simulation; agent system implementation. These chapters were followed by two final ones concerned with “Past Successes” and “Future Challenges”. For readers who need a background or further information about some of the concepts or about systems that have been introduced, comprehensive references are given at the end of each chapter and are fully cited in the text. It was useful too, to have conclusions set out at the end of the chapters.
The authors stated their aims clearly at the outset. They wished to highlight the practical facets entailed in the application of agent and multiagent systems (MASs) technology to manufacturing and control systems. There are many other books published in this field but few, if any written with the goal of enhancing production using this approach so that it is more “agile”, at low cost and without the “usual revolution involved in implementing a new system”. Only those who work in the “real world” will be able to judge its contribution.
Potential readers will come from a wide range of researchers, managers, manufacturing engineers and others who are intent on improving and developing the most efficient manufacturing capabilities.
