Cloud manufacturing architecture: a critical analysis of its development, characteristics and future agenda to support its adoption

Purpose: In the last decade, cloud manufacturing (CMfg) has attracted considerable attention from academia and industry worldwide. It is widely accepted that the design and analysis of cloud manufacturing architecture (CMfg-A) are the basis for developing and applying CMfg systems. However, in existing studies, analysis of the status, development process and internal characteristics of CMfg-A is lacking, hindering an understanding of the research hotspots and development trends of CMfg-A. Meanwhile, effective guidance is lacking on the construction of superior CMfg-As. The purpose of this paper is to review the relevant research on CMfg-A via identification of the main layers, elements, relationships, structure and functions of CMfg-A to provide valuable information to scholars and practitioners for further research on key CMfg-A technologies and the construction of CMfg systems with superior performance. Design/methodology/approach: This study systematically reviews the relevant research on CMfg-A across transformation process to internal characteristics by integrating quantitative and qualitative methods. First, the split and reorganization method is used to recognize the main layers of CMfg-A. Then, the transformation process of six main layers is analysed through retrospective analysis, and the similarities and differences in CMfg-A are obtained. Subsequently, based on systematic theory, the elements, relationships, structure and functions of CMfg-A are inductively studied. A 3D printing architecture design case is conducted to discuss the weakness of the previous architecture and demonstrate how to improve it. Finally, the primary current trends and future opportunities are presented. Findings: By analyzing the transformation process of CMfg-A, this study finds that CMfg-A resources are developing from tangible resources into intangible resources and intelligent resources. CMfg-A technology is developing from traditional cloud computing-based technology towards advanced manufacturing technology, and CMfg-A application scope is gradually expanding from traditional manufacturing industry to emerging manufacturing industry. In addition, by analyzing the elements, relationships, structure and functions of CMfg-A, this study finds that CMfg-A is undergoing a new generation of transformation, with trends of integrated development, intelligent development, innovative development and green development. Case study shows that the analysis of the development trend and internal characteristics of the architecture facilitates the design of a more effective architecture. Research limitations/implications: This paper predominantly focuses on journal articles and some key conference papers published in English and Chinese. The reason for considering Chinese articles is that CMfg was proposed by the Chinese and a lot of Chinese CMfg-A articles have been published in recent years. CMfg is suitable for the development of China’s manufacturing industry because of China’s intelligent manufacturing environment. It is believed that this research has reached a reliable comprehensiveness that can help scholars and practitioners establish new research directions and evaluate their work in CMfg-A. Originality/value: Prior studies ignore the identification and analysis of development process and internal characteristics for the current development of CMfg-A, including the main layers identification of different CMfg-As and the transformation process analysis of these main layers, and in-depth analysis of the inner essence of CMfg-A (such as its elements, relationships, structure and functions). This study addresses these limitations and provides a comprehensive literature review

Towards a Cyber-Physical Manufacturing Cloud through Operable Digital Twins and Virtual Production Lines

In last decade, the paradigm of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) has integrated industrial manufacturing systems with Cloud Computing technologies for Cloud Manufacturing. Up to 2015, there were many CPS-based manufacturing systems that collected real-time machining data to perform remote monitoring, prognostics and health management, and predictive maintenance. However, these CPS-integrated and network ready machines were not directly connected to the elements of Cloud Manufacturing and required human-in-the-loop. Addressing this gap, we introduced a new paradigm of Cyber-Physical Manufacturing Cloud (CPMC) that bridges a gap between physical machines and virtual space in 2017. CPMC virtualizes machine tools in cloud through web services for direct monitoring and operations through Internet. Fundamentally, CPMC differs with contemporary modern manufacturing paradigms. For instance, CPMC virtualizes machining tools in cloud using remote services and establish direct Internet-based communication, which is overlooked in existing Cloud Manufacturing systems. Another contemporary, namely cyber-physical production systems enable networked access to machining tools. Nevertheless, CPMC virtualizes manufacturing resources in cloud and monitor and operate them over the Internet. This dissertation defines the fundamental concepts of CPMC and expands its horizon in different aspects of cloud-based virtual manufacturing such as Digital Twins and Virtual Production Lines. Digital Twin (DT) is another evolving concept since 2002 that creates as-is replicas of machining tools in cyber space. Up to 2018, many researchers proposed state-of-the-art DTs, which only focused on monitoring production lifecycle management through simulations and data driven analytics. But they overlooked executing manufacturing processes through DTs from virtual space. This dissertation identifies that DTs can be made more productive if they engage directly in direct execution of manufacturing operations besides monitoring. Towards this novel approach, this dissertation proposes a new operable DT model of CPMC that inherits the features of direct monitoring and operations from cloud. This research envisages and opens the door for future manufacturing systems where resources are developed as cloud-based DTs for remote and distributed manufacturing. Proposed concepts and visions of DTs have spawned the following fundamental researches. This dissertation proposes a novel concept of DT based Virtual Production Lines (VPL) in CPMC in 2019. It presents a design of a service-oriented architecture of DTs that virtualizes physical manufacturing resources in CPMC. Proposed DT architecture offers a more compact and integral service-oriented virtual representations of manufacturing resources. To re-configure a VPL, one requirement is to establish DT-to-DT collaborations in manufacturing clouds, which replicates to concurrent resource-to-resource collaborations in shop floors. Satisfying the above requirements, this research designs a novel framework to easily re-configure, monitor and operate VPLs using DTs of CPMC. CPMC publishes individual web services for machining tools, which is a traditional approach in the domain of service computing. But this approach overcrowds service registry databases. This dissertation introduces a novel fundamental service publication and discovery approach in 2020, OpenDT, which publishes DTs with collections of services. Experimental results show easier discovery and remote access of DTs while re-configuring VPLs. Proposed researches in this dissertation have received numerous citations both from industry and academia, clearly proving impacts of research contributions

Cloud Manufacturing Model to Optimise Manufacturing Performance

Being predicted as the future of modern manufacturing, cloud-based manufacturing has drawn the attention of researchers in academia and industry. Researches are being done towards transforming every service in to cloud based service-oriented manufacturing mode in the manufacturing industry. There are many challenges that would arise when travelling towards this paradigm shift which is being addressed by researchers, but there are very few researches that concentrate on the elastic capability of cloud. Elastic capability makes this paradigm unique from all the other approaches or technologies. If elasticity is not achievable then the necessity of migrating to cloud is unnecessary. So, it is imperative to identify if at all it is necessary to adopt cloud-based manufacturing mode and discuss the issues and challenges that would arise to achieve elasticity when shifting to this emerging manufacturing paradigm. This research explores the importance of adopting cloud-based manufacturing mode to improve manufacturing performance based on the competitive priorities such as cost, quality, delivery and flexibility and proposes an elasticity assessment tool to be included in the cloud-based manufacturing model for the users to assess the challenges and issues on the realisation of elasticity on the context of manufacturing, which is the novelty of this research. The contribution to knowledge is a clear understanding of the necessity of cloud based elastic manufacturing model in the manufacturing environment for the manufacturing SMEs to gain a competitive advantage by achieving the competitive priorities such as low-cost, high-quality, and on-time delivery. Finally, the research suggests the best combination of manufacturing parameters that has to be emphasised to improve the manufacturing performance and gain a competitive advantage

Agent and cyber-physical system based self-organizing and self-adaptive intelligent shopfloor

The increasing demand of customized production results in huge challenges to the traditional manufacturing systems. In order to allocate resources timely according to the production requirements and to reduce disturbances, a framework for the future intelligent shopfloor is proposed in this paper. The framework consists of three primary models, namely the model of smart machine agent, the self-organizing model, and the self-adaptive model. A cyber-physical system for manufacturing shopfloor based on the multiagent technology is developed to realize the above-mentioned function models. Gray relational analysis and the hierarchy conflict resolution methods were applied to achieve the self-organizing and self-adaptive capabilities, thereby improving the reconfigurability and responsiveness of the shopfloor. A prototype system is developed, which has the adequate flexibility and robustness to configure resources and to deal with disturbances effectively. This research provides a feasible method for designing an autonomous factory with exception-handling capabilities

Go with the Flow - Design of Cloud Logistics Service Blueprints

By adopting principles of cloud computing to the \ logistics domain the paradigm of Cloud Logistics is derived. It \ appears to be a promising paradigm in order to evolve logistics \ into being more flexible and collaborative. Yet, appropriate \ concepts that enable the cloud logistics paradigm are missing. \ In the paper, existing body of literature is reviewed and a \ definition and a framework of cloud logistics is given. Further, \ service blueprinting is combined with domain engineering and \ general morphological analysis in order to create a suitable \ method for designing cloud oriented service blueprints. Those \ are focusing on domain-specific flows and transformations \ enabling cloud oriented business collaboration. The method \ is applied to the logistics domain and a cloud logistics service \ blueprint is designed. Finally, the concept is evaluated with \ real use cases from logistics service providers

Cloud manufacturing system for sheet metal processing

Cloud computing is changing the way industries and enterprises run their businesses. Cloud manufacturing is emerging as an approach to transform the traditional manufacturing business model, while helping the manufacturer to align production efficiency with its business strategy, and creating intelligent factory networks that enable collaboration across the whole enterprise. Many production planning and control (PPC) problems are essentially optimisation problems, where the objective is to develop a plan that meets the demand at minimum cost or maximum profit. Because the underlying optimisation problem will vary in the different business and operation phases, it is important to think about optimisation in a dynamic mechanism and in a number of interlinked sub-problems at the same time. Cloud manufacturing has the potential to offer decision support as a service and medium of communication in PPC. To solve these problems and produce collaboration across the supply chain, this paper provides an overview of the state of the art in cloud manufacturing and presents a model of cloud-based production planning and production system for sheet metal processing.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

A Review Of Cloud Manufacturing: Issues And Opportunities

Cloud Manufacturing (CM) is the latest manufacturing paradigm that enables manufacturing to be looked upon as a service industry.The aim is to offer manufacturing as a service so that an individual or organization is willing to manufacture products and utilize this service without having to make capital investment.However,industry adoption of CM paradigm is still limited.This paper compared the current adoption of CM by the industry with the ideal CM environment.The gaps between the two were identified and related research topics were reviewed. This paper also outlined research areas to be pursued to facilitate CM adoption by the manufacturing industry.This will also improve manufacturing resource utilization efficiencies not only within an organization but globally.At the end,the cost benefits will be passed down to end customer

Cloud computing contribution to manufacturing industry

Manufacturing industry has been always facing challenge to improve the production efficiency, product quality, innovation ability and struggling to adopt cost-effective manufacturing system. In recent years cloud computing is emerging as one of the major enablers for the manufacturing industry. Combining the emerged cloud computing and other advanced manufacturing technologies such as Internet of Things, service-oriented architecture (SOA), networked manufacturing (NM) and manufacturing grid (MGrid), with existing manufacturing models and enterprise information technologies, a new paradigm called cloud manufacturing is proposed by the recent literature. This study presents concepts and ideas of cloud computing and cloud manufacturing. The concept, architecture, core enabling technologies, and typical characteristics of cloud manufacturing are discussed, as well as the difference and relationship between cloud computing and cloud manufacturing. The research is based on mixed qualitative and quantitative methods, and a case study. The case is a prototype of cloud manufacturing solution, which is software platform cooperated by ATR Soft Oy and SW Company China office. This study tries to understand the practical impacts and challenges that are derived from cloud manufacturing. The main conclusion of this study is that cloud manufacturing is an approach to achieve the transformation from traditional production-oriented manufacturing to next generation service-oriented manufacturing. Many manufacturing enterprises are already using a form of cloud computing in their existing network infrastructure to increase flexibility of its supply chain, reduce resources consumption, the study finds out the shift from cloud computing to cloud manufacturing is feasible. Meanwhile, the study points out the related theory, methodology and application of cloud manufacturing system are far from maturity, it is still an open field where many new technologies need to be studied.siirretty Doriast

Evaluation and integration of a postprocessing tool into a container-based cloud platform

In times of Cloud Computing and emerging technologies, more and more manufacturing enterprises are in search of new ways to utilize said concepts and technologies to reduce time and money spent on the production of parts. As a result, Cloud Manufacturing as a new paradigm has been introduced and fundamentally changes the way how manufacturing enterprises do their business. With Cloud Manufacturing, networked manufacturing is made possible and companies are able to order production parts and manage virtualized resources directly on the manufacturing platform. Rent'n'Produce, a research project of the Institute for Control Engineering of Machine Tools and Manufacturing Units, at the University of Stuttgart, focuses on the realization of a Cloud Manufacturing platform. Current functionalities include a flexible production assignment, a detailed order management and the possibility to schedule created resources. To extend functionalities of Rent'n'Produce, this work will focus on the integration of a Postprocessing Tool to generate a Numerical Control programming language, which can be used to execute commands on a machine tool. Requirements are defined and different Postprocessing Tools are compared to find the most suitable solution for the integration. The most suitable Postprocessing Tool is then prototypically integrated in Rent'n'Produce to showcase the new implemented workflow.In Zeiten von Cloud Computing und neuen Technologien, sind immer mehr Produzierende Unternehmen auf der Suche nach neuen Möglichkeiten um besagte Konzepte und Technologien umzusetzen, um Kosten sowie Zeit bei der Produktion von Werkstücken einzusparen. Infolgedessen, hat sich Cloud Manufacturing als ein neues Paradigma etabliert und verändert grundlegend die Vorgehensweise in Produzierende Unternehmen. Mit der Einführung von Cloud Manufacturing, wird eine vernetzte Produktion ermöglicht und Unternehmen können Werkstücke und virtualisierte Ressourcen auf der Plattform verwalten und beauftragen. Das Forschungsprojekt, Rent'n'Produce, welches am Institut für Steuerungstechnik der Werkzeugmaschinen und Fertigungseinrichtungen an der Universität Stuttgart durchgeführt wird, arbeitet derzeit an der Realisierung einer Cloud-basierten Plattform für Fertigungsbeauftragungen. Aktuelle Funktionalitäten beinhalten eine hochflexible Fertigungsbeauftragung, ein detailliertes Auftragsmanagement und die Möglichkeit erstellte Ressourcen im Belegungsplan zu verwalten. Um die Funktionalitäten von Rent’n’Produce zu erweitern, liegt der Fokus dieser Arbeit auf der Integration eines Postprocessing Tools für die Generierung einer Programmiersprache für die Numerischen Steuerung, welcher anschließend von einer Werkzeugmaschine verwendet werden kann. Mit der Definierung von Anforderungen und das Vergleichen von verschiedenen Postprocessing Tools wird das optimalste Tool für die Integration gefunden. Das passende Postprocessing Tool wird dann prototypisch in Rent’n’Produce integriert, um den neu implementierten Prozess zu veranschaulichen