The Holonic Production System: A Multi Agent Simulation Approach Open Access

iBusiness, Vol. 2, No. 3, pp. 201-209, September 2010

9 Pages Posted: 20 Nov 2011

See all articles by Gandolfo Dominici

Gandolfo Dominici

University of Palermo - d/SEAS

Paolo Renna

Università degli Studi della Basilicata

Pierluigi Argoneto

Università degli Studi della Basilicata

Luigi Cuccia

Center for Complex Network Research

Date Written: June 3, 2010

Abstract

Today’s turbulent markets are facing unpredictable and sudden variations in demand. In this context, the Holonic Production System (HPS) seems to be able to overcome the operational and economic problems of traditional production systems. The HPS’ ability to adapt and react to business environment changes, whilst maintaining systemic synergies and coordination, leverage on its network organizational structure, assuring both flexibility and profitability. In this paper we study HPS experimentally, modeling holon-firms as agents. In our simulation, holon-firms interact both with each other and with the external environment without predetermined hierarchies and following their own aims and internal decision rules with a negotiation-based control system. The Multi Agent System Approach we propose aims to evaluate and test the performance of the HPS to adjust to changes in market demand by simulating variations in holon-firms’ capacity and reconfiguration costs in real time in a distributed enterprise network. Hence we demonstrate that, through a collaborative negotiation approach, the HPS results in a better adaptability and improved network responsiveness.

Keywords: Holonic Production System (HPS), Multi Agent System (MAS), Distributed Enterprise Network

JEL Classification: M11

Suggested Citation

Dominici, Gandolfo and Renna, Paolo and Argoneto, Pierluigi and Cuccia, Luigi, The Holonic Production System: A Multi Agent Simulation Approach Open Access (June 3, 2010). iBusiness, Vol. 2, No. 3, pp. 201-209, September 2010 , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1961978

Gandolfo Dominici (Contact Author)

University of Palermo - d/SEAS ( email )

Viale delle Scienze, edificio 13
Palermo, 90124
Italy

Paolo Renna

Università degli Studi della Basilicata ( email )

Via dell'Ateneo Lucano 10
Potenza
Italy

Pierluigi Argoneto

Università degli Studi della Basilicata ( email )

Via dell'Ateneo Lucano 10
Potenza
Italy

Luigi Cuccia

Center for Complex Network Research ( email )

177 Huntington Ave. 11th floor
Boston, MA 02115
United States

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