Process Planning and Scheduling for Distributed Manufacturing

This is the first book to focus on emerging technologies for distributed intelligent decision-making in process planning and dynamic scheduling. It has two sections: a review of several key areas of research, and an in-depth treatment of particular techniques. Each chapter addresses a specific problem domain and offers practical solutions to solve it. The book provides a better understanding of the present state and future trends of research in this area.

Lihui Wang is a professor of virtual manufacturing at the University of Skövde's Virtual Systems Research Centre in Sweden. He was previously a senior research scientist at the Integrated Manufacturing Technologies Institute, National Research Council of Canada. He is also an adjunct professor in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at the University of Western Ontario, and a registered professional engineer in Canada. His research interests and responsibilities are in web-based and sensor-driven real-time monitoring and control, distributed machining process planning, adaptive assembly planning, collaborative design, supply chain management, as well as intelligent and adaptive manufacturing systems. Dr Weiming Shen is an Senior Research Officer in the Integrated Manufacturing Technologies Institute, National Research Council of Canada. He is also an Adjunct Full Professor of Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo. His research interests are in Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, Concurrent Engineering, Collaborative Design and Manufacturing, Virtual Design and Manufacturing, Virtual Enterprises and Supply Chain Management, e-Commerce / e-Businesses, and Knowledge-Based Systems.