Abstract: A method and apparatus for scheduling in an automated manufacturing environment, comprising are disclosed. The method includes detecting an occurrence of a predetermined event in a process flow; notifying a software scheduling agent of the occurrence; and reactively scheduling an action from the software scheduling agent responsive to the detection of the predetermined event. The apparatus is automated manufacturing environment including a process flow and a computing system. The computing system further includes a plurality of software scheduling agents residing thereon, the software scheduling agents being capable of reactively scheduling appointments for activities in the process flow responsive to a plurality of predetermined events.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for implementing an automated processing environment employing specialized, autonomous, active software agents are disclosed. The software agents are specialized by the type of entity they represent and the function they perform in the process flow. The apparatus includes a process flow comprising a plurality of manufacturing domain entities and a plurality of such software agents for scheduling a first subset of the manufacturing domain entities for consuming the process resources provided by a second subset of the manufacturing domain entities. The method includes instantiating such software agents and then permitting them to operate as programmed.