Elizabeth Fong,ITL, NIST Nenad Ivezic, MEL, NIST Yun Peng, UMBC Tom Rhodes, ITL, NIST An Agent-based Manufacturing Application Developed by NIST OMG Agent Working Group Meeting at Burlingame, CA September 11, 2000

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

ICM Project Focus

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.

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.

Testing Framework Design goals: - Apply and evaluate use of agent technology - Apply and evaluate web-based technologies - Evaluate use of emerging standards, (XML, RosettaNet PIP’s, OAG BOD’s, IPC GenCam)

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

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

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

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

Request for Quote (RFQ) Scenario OEM 3.Send RFQ Internet EMS Web Server Or Human Operator Human Operator 2. Compose RFQ 8. Resend Form 9. Bid 4.Additional Info 7. Fill the form GenCam Files 5. Query Info 10. Convert bid to internal form Bid Eval 11. Submit Bid 6. Send Info 12. Ship Bid

Multi-Agent System for RFQ Web Assistant Agent Broker Agent Gateway Agent advertise ask-one achieve Submit RFQ Receive Bid Queries/answers (XML-RPC) OEMEMS GCMAS Design GenCam Specialist Agent GenCam Objects Base ZOPE advertise tell recommend-one reply Send RFQ Send Bid Request Data Send Data recommend-one tell Designer/ Buyer Agent Web Server Servlet1 Servlet2 Web Browser Manufacturer/ Bid Agent

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

GenCam Specialist Agent (GCA) Queries (XML) Responses (XML) GenCam Specialist Agent GenCam files GCOB ZOPE access methods Web Assistant Agent (GCA) KQML Component Web Communication Component Web Server Sevlet1 Servlet2 Web Browser XML Java Objects

Multi-Agent System for RFQ: Inter-Enterprise Supply Chain Integration Supply Chain Interaction Agent achieve reply ask-one tell advertise Bidding Specialist Agent Intra-Enterprise Broker Agent Human-Computer Interaction Agent advertise recommend-one tell advertise recommend-one tell Bid Legacy System/DB EMSOEM Inter-Enterprise Broker Agent Show BidCheck/ Approve Bid

GCMAS Design Platforms and Tools  Platform: machine independent (windows 98/NT, Unix/Linux)  Languages:  Java (Sun Microsystem’s JDK1.2.2) for all agent code  Python (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 (and JServ1.1) for EMS web server

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)

Questions?