Intelligent manufacturing demands that systems make decisions and organize work according to production goals and operating conditions, while continuously adjusting through feedback. From a complex adaptive systems (CAS) perspective, this paper identifies two coupled mechanisms in human production organizations: individual autonomy and collective coordination. Individual autonomy enables actors to form local decisions using available information; collective coordination aligns those decisions with shared goals and joint constraints. Learning and adaptation improve both mechanisms over time. Building on this insight, a production‑system model is formalized to capture the interaction between local decision rules and coordination processes, leading to the Recursive Autonomous Agent (RAA) framework. RAA combines goal‑driven autonomous agents with a recursive organizational structure. Goal contracts define local objectives and operating boundaries, while capability contracts support the selection and composition of production units. Common interfaces allow coordinated groups to act as units within larger organizations, linking equipment, production lines, and factories hierarchically. RAA thus offers an engineering approach for next‑generation intelligent manufacturing, translating requirements of intelligence, openness, and system‑wide integration into mechanisms for autonomy and coordination.
Review