In the 80's, Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) concept was adopted as a solution to all the problems in manufacturing. However, it was soon realized that the evolving demands for manufacturing systems were not handled by CIM. New alternatives rise, and especially Agent-Based Manufacturing and Holonic Manufacturing Systems, for coping with today's manufacturing systems requirements. From an informational point of view (i.e. their database), manufacturing systems are very complex. Thus special attention is given to the representation and handling of incomplete information. From a developer's point of view, the ability to reuse code (i.e. functionality) across several entities greatly reduces developing efforts. Thus, inheritance of behaviours is proposed as a way to achieving code reuse. This paper presents a framework for the development of intelligent manufacturing systems, which allows the modelling of incomplete information and inheritance into each agent/holon. A prototype for an already described system for dynamic scheduling of manufacturing orders is also presented.
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