After a preface on current trends in modern production systems, in which we define production models such as flexible, agile, and holonic manufacturing, the concepts of agent and multiagent systems (deriving from distributed artificial intelligence, as well as from decision and information technology) are introduced as a natural requisite to achieve the peak performance demanded by today s modern manufacturing. The reader is provided with the fundamental information needed to recognize the domain characteristics that indicate the appropriateness of an agent-based solution. In this respect, one of the most crucial aspects of agility in modern production systems seems to be the ability to manage information about production, market, and business processes effectively and promptly, i.e., to be able to manufacture it into more fruitful integrated information. In other words, information in modern production systems must be processed throughout the whole supply chain, similarly to materials and products, because it is itself a sort of material needed by the company s industrial processes.

Multiagent systems seem to provide one of the most promising technologies to render modern production systems agile. How agility can be achieved by making agents work effectively in a modern production system is the main goal of this book.