A multi-agents based E-maintenance system with case-based reasoning decision support

whole product life cycle, no matter where the product and the consumer are located. The combination of modern information processing and communication tools, commonly referred to as Tele-service, offers the technical support required to implement this remote service maintenance. However, this technical support is insufficient to face new remote maintenance decision-makings which requires not only informational exchanges between customers and suppliers but also co-operation and negotiation based on the sharing of different complementary and/or contradictory knowledge. It requires an evolution from Tele-service to E-service and E-maintenance in particular where the maintenance decision-making results from collaboration of maintenance processes and experts to form a Distributed Artificial Intelligence environment. For this purpose, a Problem-Oriented Multi-Agent-Based E-Service System (POMAESS) is introduced in this paper. The protocol of negotiation for multi-agents and the Case-Based Reasoning-based decision support function within this system are discussed, emphasised at the service maintenance problem solving. A prototype system based on these methodologies is developed to demonstrate the feasibility. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.