Developing an agent-based workflow management system for collaborative product design

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to develop a prototype of agent-based intelligent workflow system for product design collaboration in a distributed network environment. Design/methodology/approach – This research separates the collaborative workflow enactment mechanisms from the collaborative workflow building tools for flexible workflow management. Applying the XML/RDF (resource description framework) ontology schema, workflow logic is described in a standard representation. Lastly, a case study in collaborative system-on-chip (SoC) design is depicted to demonstrate the agent-based workflow system for the design collaboration on the web. Findings – Agent technology can overcome the difficulty of interoperability in cross-platform, distributed environment with standard RDF data schema. Control and update of workflow functions become flexible and versatile by simply modifying agent reasoning and behaviors. Research limitations/implications – When business partners want to collaborate, how to integrate agents in different workflows becomes a critical issues. Practical implications – Agent technology can facilitate design cooperation and teamwork communication in a collaborative, transparent product development environment. Originality/value – This research establishes generalized flow logic RDF models and an agent-based intelligent workflow management system, called AWfMS, based on the RDF schema of workflow definition. AWfMS minimizes barriers in the distributed design process and hence increases design cooperations among partners.