Closing the loop: A software-defined approach to agile production planning and control

Traditional production planning and control (PPC) remains hindered by fragmented tools and manual processes, limiting agility in reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMS). This paper introduces a closed-loop, software-defined system that fully automates PPC by synchronizing digital planning services with real-time shop-floor data. A middleware-based approach enables seamless integration and a novel Schema-Aware Colored Petri Net (SCPN) formalism is used to robustly orchestrate complex PPC workflows, creating a task-agnostic system where planning services can be flexibly exchanged. The approach eliminates information silos and allows for rapid, automated responses to disruptions. Validation in an industrial-scale automotive use case demonstrates the system’s effectiveness by achieving sub-two-minute replanning times and yielding a 10.3% higher cash flow than static production models, highlighting its scalability and economic impact.