Technology and Policy Challenges to be Met for Introducing Holons into Factory Automation Environments

A holonic system is envisioned to have a high degree of openness to incorporate new resources at runtime, and is reconfigurable to make new product types with legacy hardware configurations. This paper describes ongoing industrially-geared research into identifying a roadmap (as part of a larger business-case analysis) for introducing the holonic paradigm into the next generation of factory automation environments. The research goal is to formulate a vision of holonic manufacturing grounded on inter-dependent arguments. First the ‘policy’ based on understanding the implications of adopting this new factory automation approach on microand macro-economic decision-making. Second the ‘technology’ based on how to best develop and deploy holons by pragmatic use of intelligent software agents.