An adaptable human-agent collaboration information system in manufacturing (HACISM)

Intelligent agents are built based on theories, architectures and languages. The basic deliberative agent theories include beliefs, desires and intentions. However the deliberative agents lack flexibility to manage unseen problems. It is because the existing knowledge base does not cover the unanticipated circumstances. This research project extends and enhances the features of the deliberative agents, demonstrating the usefulness applied to the manufacturing industry. This paper focuses on the human-agent interactions and how management can optimise profit for the organisation. The garment manufacturing industry in Hong Kong is selected for demonstrating how an existing industry can utilise different types of agents to enhance its transactions and manufacturing procedures to adapt to a dynamic business environment. These agents learn new facts from the end-users to generate suggestions to assist end-users in decision-making for the quota management and material usage by using rules, fuzzy logic and an artificial neural network. Thus, agents can provide flexible human-agent collaboration