摘要
隨著人事流動與人事成本比例的提高，工作流程自動化能夠有效的降低成本和提高產能，這也是企業組織和政府單位所期望達成的目標。在工廠的製造流程中通常會經由一些工作流程和操作來生產一件產品，而這些工作流程和操作都會需要利用製造資源(包括人力和機器)來支援完成這項工作。因此在工作流程排程中，一項關鍵的問題是當工廠管理者接收到一份訂單時，必須要能夠確定這份訂單能夠在期限下利用可用的資源完成，並且滿足訂單需求。本篇論文的目標在於提出一個有效和有系統的方法，來解決在製造業中工作流程的排程問題。為了解決這個問題，我們的方法是基於時間派翠網路(Time Petri Net)建立工作流程與資源活動的模型，以及利用契約網協定(Contract Net Protocol)和多代理人系統(Multi-agent Systems, MAS)來達成工作流程與資源之間的協商。此外我們的工作流程排程演算法是結合最小成本流演算法(Minimum Cost Flow)、次梯度演算法(Subgradient algorithm)、啟發式演算法(Heuristic algorithm)和負載平衡(Load Balance)的概念來計算工作流程中每個操作所需要的資源，以及執行的時間區間和生產的數量。最後我們是運用Java代理人開發框架(Java Agent DEvelopment Framework, JADE)軟體平台來實現整個排程系統，並且利用流程圖和甘特圖的方式驗證排程結果。
並列摘要
Workflow automation can effectively reduce costs, increase productivity and achieve the goal of business organizations and government agencies. Usually it requires workflows and operations to manufacture a product in a factory. These workflows and operations will need to make use of manpower and machines to complete the production processes. The manpower and machines are resources in the manufacturing systems. In workflow scheduling, an important issue for order managers is to determine whether the requirements of an order can be met by the deadline using the available resources. The objectives of this paper are to propose an effective and systematic approach to solving workflow scheduling problems in manufacturing sector. To solve this problem, our approach is based on Timed Petri Net (TPN) to construct models of workflows and resource activities, and uses the Contract Net Protocol (CNP) as well as multi-agent systems (MAS) to achieve the negotiation between the workflow and resources. In addition, our workflow scheduling algorithm combines the minimum cost flow algorithm, subgradient algorithm, heuristic algorithm and the concept of load balance for the calculation of resources and time interval and the production quantity of each operation in workflow. Finally, we develop a multi-agent scheduling simulation software based on the Java Agent DEvelopment Framework (JADE) and use flow charts and Gantt charts to verify that the scheduling results.
參考文獻
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