The development of intelligent manufacturing systems represents a worldwide tendency. The areas of multi-agent systems and intelligent mobile agents offer a promising approach to such developments. Advances in electronic information exchange and multimedia have opened new opportunities for team work in networks of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), leading to the establishment of virtual enterprises. These advances identify new requirements in the areas of distributed information logistics infrastructure, information access control and intelligent interfaces with human users. The late 20th century market requires greater flexibility and agility from the manufacturing process, while taking the immense legacy from the past in manufacturing into account. These new approaches to manufacturing automation have to be carefully observed in the context of the globalization of the economy, and must also take into account the social, economic, and re-engineering needs within the enterprises. This text examines the subject.