Future Work

In this book we have presented a conceptual model for holonic manufacturing execution and a mapping for two BDI frameworks – JACK Teams and GORITE that specifically support the development of teamed agent applications. Within the manufacturing domain, we have demonstrated that it can be used to successfully model small batch manufacture. The key benefit that our model offers over existing approaches is its ability to model holarchies in a resource independent manner.

In this book, we have described how the conceptual model was successfully applied to the management of a manufacturing cell. However, it is our belief that the modelling framework can be applied uniformly and efficiently at all levels of an enterprise and for the modelling of both its business processes and its manufacturing operations. Also, the framework’s focus on execution makes it well suited to the modelling of highly dynamic virtual enterprises.