Multi-agent System Integrating Process and Quality Control in a Factory Producing Laundry Washing Machines

Manufacturing companies are currently forced to reconsider their production processes by adopting more flexible, robust and adaptive systems, aiming to improve their competitiveness. Multi-agent systems (MAS) technology is suitable to address this challenge by providing an alternative way to design these complex systems based on the decentralization of the control functions over distributed entities. This paper describes the installation of a MAS solution in an industrial factory plant producing laundry washing machines. The installed solution focuses on the integration of quality and process control and contributes for the maximization of the factory profitability facing changing conditions, by applying self-adaptation procedures at the local and global levels. The preliminary results show improvements in the production efficiency and product quality, as well as a reduction of the scrap costs.