Research On Negotiation For Manufacturing Project Scheduling And Control In Mould And Die Virtual Enterprise

Virtual enterprise (VE) is the main organization form of agile manufacturing. At present, much researche work on VE has been carried out all over the world. Most researches are focused on the long-term stabile cooperative alliance, while few are on the project-driven VE. So the theory and methodology suitable for the project-driven VE are immature by now. In mould and die industries, a project-driven manufacturing is the representative production mode. In order to respond rapidly customer orders VE becomes an efficient solution for mould and die enterprises. This dissertation aims at solving the problem of quickly organizing a project-driven VE in mould and die industries, and providing metholologies for implementing die project collaborative production, the main of them are shown as follows:Firstly, based on the analysis of features and requirements of a die manufacturing industry in the network-times, a project-driven VE model is proposed, which including the workflow model of manufacturing project negotiation schedule and control, and the processing models described by the Unified Modeling Language.Sencondly, considering uncertainties of the duration and cost of the project tasks in a project-driven VE, a multi-issues stochastic model is established, and the corresponding fundamental and conceptual definitions are given. On the basis of this model, three methods for project negotiation schedule and a monitoring method for project negotiation are put forward. The three methods are introduced as follows:(1) A Sequential Negotiation Scheduling Method (SNSM) is proposed. During the SNSM's negotiation processing, project tasks and their protenial partners are handled sequentially with inclusion of tasks' duration and cost. First, a negotiation sensitivity index is constructed and used as a means of deciding the sequence of the tasks to be negotiated. Second, for anyone in the task sequence, the sequence of the partners to be negotiated with is decided according to the partner's duration-cost expectation. Thus, the complex and multi-dimensional problem of project negotiation scheduling is simplified as a serial sequential decision problem. Third, based on the method of the utility analysis, the serial sequential negotiation mechanism and the rules to modify theutility model are given.(2) A Concurrent Negotiation Scheduling Method (CNSM) is proposed. During the CNSM's negotiation processing, project tasks and their potential partners are handled concurrently with inclusion of tasks' duration and cost. First, partners' scheme vectors are generated based on the negotiation order of project tasks and potential partners. Then, a performance index of the partners' scheme vector is put forward, which is used to select an optimal partners' scheme vector to negotiate with the coordinator. Lastly, based on the method of the effectiveness analysis, the parallel negotiation mechanism is established.(3) A Hybrid Negotiation Scheduling Method (HNSM) coupled with the advantages of SNSM and CNSM is proposed. During the HSM's negotiation processing, the optimal partners' scheme vector is determined, and then the negotiation sequence of the corresponding partners is decided by their essentiality index. Based on their theory mechanisms, methods and computational results, the three methods of SNSM, CNSM and HNSM, are analyzed comparatively, and the evaluation model of robust stability is created.(4) The method of project schedule control based on negotiation is investigated. The criterion rules to estimate rapidly the schemes' feasibility are established. And the methods of searching feasible schemes based on constraint satisfaction problem is provided. At the same time, the renegotiation mechanism is founded. The method of how to evaluate the least deferral time and how to change the project objectives is put forward.Finally, based on the theories and methods described, a prototype system of collaborative project scheduling and control for mould&die virtual enterprises is designed and developed. The function modules and structure of the system are introduced and a portion of the system interfaces is shown .An example is also given.