Elizabeth Fong,ITL, NIST

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An Agent-based Manufacturing Application
Developed by NIST OMG Agent Working Group
Meeting at Burlingame, CA September 11, 2000
Elizabeth Fong,ITL, NIST Nenad Ivezic, MEL,
NIST Yun Peng, UMBC Tom Rhodes, ITL, NIST
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NIST Mission to assist industry in the
development of technology ... needed to improve
product quality, to modernize manufacturing
processes, to ensure product reliability ... and
to facilitate rapid commercialization ... of
products based on new scientific discoveries.
Working with Industry and Government to Develop
and Apply Technology, Measurements, and Standards
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ICM Project Focus
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ICM Project Objectives

• Demonstrate integration of EC services with
  technical data interchange.
• Enable exchange of business and technical
  information for supply-chain participants.
• Provide a flexible test-bed to collaborate in
  testing and evaluating standards-based tools and
  integration technologies.

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ICM Testbed

• A collaborative environment for NIST and
  industry to integrate, test and evaluate IT
  technologies, specifications, and tools for
  manufacturing.
• Develop and demonstrate prototype systems based
  on open standards.
• Identify and integrate software tools for
  improving business and manufacturing process in
  e-commerce.
• Test case implementation and conformance testing
  of standards.

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Testing Framework

• Design goals
• Apply and evaluate use of agent technology
• Apply and evaluate web-based technologies
• Evaluate use of emerging standards,
• (XML, RosettaNet PIPs, OAG BODs, IPC
• GenCam)

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Objectives for ICM Agent Work

• Identify potential benefits of adopting an agent
  approach for improving B2B E-Commerce
• Implement and evaluate the impact of agent
  technology for supporting complex EC applications
  with selected web-based PCA/PCB business
  processes, e.g., RFQ, Ordering, ECO,
  Introduction of New Products, etc.
• Provide a software infrastructure for ICM testbed
• Open and distributed
• Scalable and extensible
• Component-based

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Potential Areas for Agent Application in
Manufacturing Services

• Flexible Customer-to-Supplier Interfaces
• Optimized Negotiation of Service Cost and Terms
• Efficient Engineering Change Order (ECO)
  processing
• Efficient Intra-Enterprise Technology Adoption
  and Adaptation
• Efficient Inter-Enterprise Interaction
  Technology Support

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Some Agent Types

• Interface Agents Translation/Transformation
  Services
• Human to application software
• Software to software
• Software to files, databases or web documents
• Legacy system to another legacy system
• Information Mgt Agents Search Retrieval
  Services
• - Searching and discovery
• - Information filtering
• Brokering Agent Smart Yellow Page Services
• - Interest matching
• Negotiation Agent Analysis Services

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RFQ Scenario in ICM Testbed

• A B2B Multi-Agent System RFQ Scenario
• RFQ issued from OEM to EMS over the Web
• EMS asks for additional information
• Technical information from GenCAM file will be
  accessed
• Bid is shipped to OEM

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Request for Quote (RFQ) Scenario
7. Fill the form
10. Convert bid to internal form
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GCMAS Design
Multi-Agent System for RFQ
recommend-one
recommend-one
tell
tell
Send Data
reply
Send Bid
tell
Queries/answers (XML-RPC)
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The GenCam Standard

• GenCAM is a standard describing business and
  technical data for manufacturing PCA/PCB
• GenCAM specification is produced by IPC
• NIST built a conformance test for GenCAM
• NIST is building boards and assemblies using
  GenCAM
• GenCAM will express product description in XML

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GenCam Specialist Agent (GCA)
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Multi-Agent System for RFQ Inter-Enterprise
Supply Chain Integration
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GCMAS Design

• Platforms and Tools
• Platform machine independent (windows 98/NT,
  Unix/Linux)
• Languages
• Java (Sun Microsystems JDK1.2.2) for all agent
  code
• Python-1.5.2 (for GenCam access methods)
• XML (between GCA and GenCam Object Base)
• Tcl/Tk , CLIPS (knowledge-base prototype)
• XML/RDF (used to evaluate DAML)
• Packages
• Jackal for agent communication (from IBM
  alphawork, developed by UMBC under the auspices
  of the CIIMPLEX project, a NIST ATP sponsored
  initiative
• Access method for accessing the GenCam Object
  Base
• Apache 1.3.12 (and JServ1.1) for EMS web server

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Expected Impact of Agent Solutions

• Save Steps
• - Automatically initiate actions
• - Eliminate human intervention
• Save Time
• - Provide product information on-demand
• - Support supply chain information integration
• Save Cost
• - Improve and optimize business processes
• - Offer an agent-framework for developing new
  applications (reuse)

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Questions?