Method for managing production system operations

A method for managing operations of a production system, comprising:

• partitioning the system into a plurality of subsystems;
• for each subsystem, at least one computing device coupled to a memory, executing instructions for:
• creating an agent to associate with the subsystem;
• providing to the agent one or more goals for the subsystem;
• and
• providing to the agent an overall objective function for the system;
• and
• executing, using the at least one computing device, an optimization algorithm involving the agents to manage system operations based on the goals and the overall objective function, wherein the optimization algorithm implements a heuristic algorithm for an agent comprising:
• providing a policy for the agent;
• ordering the goals from a highest goal to a lowest goal, the ordering being in order of a value rate, to create a set of ordered goals;
• selecting the highest goal as a current goal;
• and
• in an iteration over the goals:
• identifying a value of achieving the current goal;
• and
• searching for a time period where a speed reduction of the subsystem to which the agent is associated yields a smaller loss in production value than the value of achieving the current goal;
• if a time period is found, adding the speed reduction of the subsystem during the time period to the policy of the agent;
• checking whether the current goal is the lowest goal;
• if the current goal is the lowest goal, ending the iteration over goals in order to apply the heuristic algorithm to the next agent available;
• if the current goal is not the lowest goal, selecting the next ordered goal as the current goal;
• and
• continuing the iteration over goals.