a b s t r a c tThis paper discusses a manufacturing execution system (MES) that prefers and attempts to follow a given schedule. The MES performs this task in an autonomic manner, filling in missing details, providing alternatives for unfeasible assignments, handling auxiliary tasks, and so on. The paper presents the research challenge, depicts the MES design, and gives experimental results. The research contribution resides in the novel architecture in which the MES cooperates with schedulers without inheriting the limitations of the world model employed by the scheduler. The research forms a first development, and a list of further research is given.

This paper presents a systematic description of a reusable software architecture for multi-agent systems in the domain of manufacturing control. The architectural description consolidates the groups' expertise in this area.Until now, the research took a manufacturing control perspective at multi-agent systems. The research focussed on providing benefits to the manufacturing control domain by designing a novel type of control system.This paper takes a software architectural perspective at multi-agent manufacturing control. The systematic description specifies a software product line architecture for manufacturing control. The paper describes the assets of the software product line architecture and how the assets can be combined.

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