Integration of planning systems and an agent-oriented MES

Today, industry is confronted with a fast changing market. Customers demand a high-quality, low price and tailored product. This requires flexible manufacturing systems. At K.U. Leuven, a Manufacturing Execution System (MES) is designed that allows to adjust execution to quickly changing circumstances. This paper discusses how this MES can cooperate with existing planning systems. A collaboration mechanism is presented and the advantages of this collaboration are discussed.