Katja Windt - Böcker

One of the great challenges in flexible production and supply chains is the availability of necessary information at any time and any place. As a result of increasing dynamical and structural complexity of structures and processes in production it is often impossible to make all necessary information available to a central instance in real time and to perform appropriate measures of control in terms of a defined target system. A fast and flexible adaptation to changing basic conditions ought to be achieved by establishing autonomous logistics processes.In this context several fundamental questions concerning autonomous cooperating logistics processes were investigated:The identification problem: What are autonomous logistics processes and how do they differ from conventionally managed processes?The description problem: Which changes will autonomy cause in order processing?One of the first results is a definition for the term autonomy for applications in engineering science. The constituent characteristics of this definition were considered within the development of the catalogue of criteria in order to describe autonomous logistic processes. Regarding the modelling of autonomous processes, first requirements for modelling methods were specified. To validate the research results, a production-logistic shop-floor scenario and a practical scenario based on the real business processes of an automobile terminal were developed. Simulation studies concerning autonomously controlled allocation of parking areas document comprehensive opportunities for improvement.

One of the great challenges in flexible production and supply chains is the availability of necessary information at any time and any place. As a result of increasing dynamical and structural complexity of structures and processes in production it is often impossible to make all necessary information available to a central instance in real time and to perform appropriate measures of control in terms of a defined target system. A fast and flexible adaptation to changing basic conditions ought to be achieved by establishing autonomous logistics processes.In this context several fundamental questions concerning autonomous cooperating logistics processes were investigated:The identification problem: What are autonomous logistics processes and how do they differ from conventionally managed processes?The description problem: Which changes will autonomy cause in order processing?One of the first results is a definition for the term autonomy for applications in engineering science. The constituent characteristics of this definition were considered within the development of the catalogue of criteria in order to describe autonomous logistic processes. Regarding the modelling of autonomous processes, first requirements for modelling methods were specified. To validate the research results, a production-logistic shop-floor scenario and a practical scenario based on the real business processes of an automobile terminal were developed. Simulation studies concerning autonomously controlled allocation of parking areas document comprehensive opportunities for improvement.

Many new technologies – like RFID, GPS, and sensor networks – that dominate innovative developments in logistics are based on the idea of autonomous cooperation and control. This self-organisational concept describes „...processes of decentralized decision-making in heterarchical structures. It presumes interacting elements in non-deterministic systems, which possess the capability and possibility to render decisions. The objective of autonomous cooperation and control is the achievement of increased robustness and positive emergence of the total system due to distributed and flexible coping with dynamics and complexity“ (Hülsmann & Windt, 2007). In order to underlie these technology-driven developments with a fundamental theoretical foundation this edited volume asks for contributions and limitations of applying the principles of autonomous cooperation and control to logistics processes and systems. It intends to identify, describe, and explain – in the context of production and distribution logistics – the effects on performance and robustness, the enablers and impediments for the feasibility, the essential cause-effect-relations, etc. of concepts, methods, technologies, and routines of autonomous cooperation and control in logistics. Therefore, the analyses collected in this edited volume aim to develop a framework for finding the optimal degree as well as the upper and lower boundaries of autonomous cooperation and control of logistics processes from the different perspectives of production technology, electronics and communication engineering, informatics and mathematics, as well as management sciences and economics.

This contributed volume collects research papers, presented at the CIRP Sponsored Conference Robust Manufacturing Control: Innovative and Interdisciplinary Approaches for Global Networks (RoMaC 2012, Jacobs University, Bremen, Germany, June 18th-20th 2012).

Many new technologies – like RFID, GPS, and sensor networks – that dominate innovative developments in logistics are based on the idea of autonomous cooperation and control. This self-organisational concept describes „...processes of decentralized decision-making in heterarchical structures. It presumes interacting elements in non-deterministic systems, which possess the capability and possibility to render decisions. The objective of autonomous cooperation and control is the achievement of increased robustness and positive emergence of the total system due to distributed and flexible coping with dynamics and complexity“ (Hülsmann & Windt, 2007). In order to underlie these technology-driven developments with a fundamental theoretical foundation this edited volume asks for contributions and limitations of applying the principles of autonomous cooperation and control to logistics processes and systems. It intends to identify, describe, and explain – in the context of production and distribution logistics – the effects on performance and robustness, the enablers and impediments for the feasibility, the essential cause-effect-relations, etc. of concepts, methods, technologies, and routines of autonomous cooperation and control in logistics. Therefore, the analyses collected in this edited volume aim to develop a framework for finding the optimal degree as well as the upper and lower boundaries of autonomous cooperation and control of logistics processes from the different perspectives of production technology, electronics and communication engineering, informatics and mathematics, as well as management sciences and economics.