Flexible Mass Customisation: Managing Its Information Logistics Using Adaptive Cooperative Multi-agent Systems

Since the last decade, the consideration of customer demands is of increasing importance for manufacturing enterprises. This situation provides a great opportunity to small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) to improve their competitiveness within the global economy. Due to their proximity to the customer, flat management structures and the resulting flexibility, SMEs are able to implement an efficient consumer response (ECR). However, modern industrial products are often characterised by a high complexity of design, functionality, necessary manufacturing and assembly processes. The complexity of modern products may overextend the available skills, knowledge and capacities of a single SME, or it may force this SME to spend great efforts in research and development activities to meet the customer’s requirements.