Abstract
Due to globalisation and distributed manufacturing systems the development and
manufacture of products is no longer an isolated activity undertaken by either one discipline
or a single organization but has become a global process. Using e-manufacturing companies
can now outsource to manufacturers outside their geographical area and make them
dependent on the production capabilities and responsiveness of the suppliers. Hence there is
need for the suppliers to provide reliable information on the state of the orders being
processed. E-manufacturing promises companies to exchange the required information with
their suppliers by increased visibility to the shop floor and providing a platform for
information interchange. The paper discusses the development of an e-manufacturing
resource agent to enable manufactures to predict the probability of their outsourced
machinery being available and the probability to complete an order without having a
breakdown. The Maintenance Free Operation Period (MFOP) method is used to develop the
agent. This means that the manufacturer will be expected to have a guarantee that no
unscheduled maintenance activities will occur during each defined period of operation with
the predefined level of confidence.