Cloud-Based Design and Manufacturing (CBDM)

The information technology industry has benefited considerably from cloud computing, which allows organizations to shed some of their expensive information technology infrastructure and shifts computing costs to more manageable operational expenses. In light of these benefits, we propose a new paradigm for product design and manufacturing, referred to as cloud-based design and manufacturing (CBDM). This chapter introduces a definition and vision for CBDM, articulates the differences and similarities between CBDM and traditional paradigms such as web- and agent-based technologies, highlights the fundamentals of CBDM, and presents a prototype system, developed at Georgia Tech, called the Design and Manufacturing Cloud (DMCloud). Finally, we conclude this chapter with an outline of future research directions.

This chapter will introduce multi-user computer-aided engineering applications as a new paradigm for product development, considering past collaborative research and the emerging wave of cloud-based social and gaming tools. In a historical context, computer-aided design and engineering models have become much more complex since their inception in the middle of the twentieth century. However, the way design teams approach these models has, at least in one sense, not changed much; a given model can still only be accessed by one user at a time, despite the fact that the entire design team needs to evolve the model. Single user applications have become a productivity bottleneck and do not provide interfaces or architectures for simultaneous editing of models by a collaborative team. Single user applications convert any hope for process concurrency into a serial sequence of design activities. When the single user designer experiences difficulties, the process halts until the designer can reach out to other experts to resolve the problems, which usually requires some form of external collaboration. Unfortunately, single user applications are deficient when it comes to complex and globalized product development. The chapter herein will consider how multi-user architectures will change the single user paradigm from serial to simultaneously collaborative, promote new on-demand access methods like cloud serving, and bring long hoped for efficiencies to product development. We will investigate three research areas of importance to this emerging paradigm: (1) multi-user CAx architectures, including cloud serving; (2) multi-user CAx requirements; and (3) multi-user CAx standards. Of these three, architectures are most investigated, with numerous proof-of-concept prototypes, while requirements and standards, the least investigated, partially explain the reason for non-adoption and non-commercialization of this powerful new paradigm.

Design can be viewed as a knowledge intensive process, which requires more and more collaboration between design resources within and without an enterprise for product innovation. A company’s capacity for product innovation essentially means the ability to discover, use, and manage different kinds of design resources. However, design resources are distributed unevenly within or across organizational boundaries. In order to benefit from the outsourcing of design knowledge within different design resources, with lower costs and within a shorter time, is a great challenge for enterprises. The design knowledge must flow quickly and reliably from when and where it is located to when and where it is needed for design activity. Unfortunately, there are many barriers having a negative influence on quick and reliable knowledge flow between knowledge owners and knowledge demanders. The lack of supporting mechanisms (e.g., a knowledge service platform) between service providers and consumers is one of the barriers. Thus, there is a need to develop mechanisms to overcome the barriers and thereby improve the performance of knowledge flow. This chapter introduces a cloud-based knowledge service environment, i.e., a distributed resource environment, which enables companies to utilize collective open innovation and rapid product development with reduced costs. The definition, function, structure, and characteristics of a distributed resource environment are presented. Then, the concept of a cloud-based knowledge service framework is proposed to organize the knowledge sources in a distributed resource environment. The knowledge sources are composed of design entities’ knowledge cloud and resource units’ knowledge cloud. The former is the knowledge consumer and latter is the knowledge provider in a distributed resource environment. Next, a cloud-based knowledge service framework is presented for the well effective operation of a distributed resource environment. Two agents, i.e., a knowledge service publishing agent (KSPA) and a knowledge service consuming agent (KSCA) are developed to implement the online knowledge service. KSPA can be used by knowledge providers to encapsulate and publish their design knowledge as a service into the service market, whereas KSCA can be used by knowledge consumers to request knowledge service from the service market. Finally, an inner-enterprise distributed resource environment is implemented to verify the proposed knowledge service paradigm.

This chapter leads to the achievements of research and applications in Cloud Manufacturing (CMfg) carried out by the authors’ team. First of all, the meaning of Big Manufacturing is given, and the challenges and strategies for manufacturing industries as well as the content and development of manufacturing informatization are analyzed. Then the definition, concept model, system architecture, technologies, typical technical characteristics, and service object and content of CMfg are put forward. Moreover, discussions are shown to prove that CMfg is a new paradigm and approach to realize manufacturing informatization, which materializes and extends Cloud Computing in the manufacturing domain. The current status of the technologies, applications, and industries for CMfg in China are presented. Concerns are mostly focused on the 12 key technologies for the CMfg System (also called Manufacturing Cloud), including system overall technology, sensing technology for manufacturing resource and capability, virtualization and service technology for manufacturing resource and capability, construction and management technology for virtual manufacturing environment, operation technology for virtual manufacture environment, evaluation technology for virtual manufacturing environment, trusted service technology for virtual manufacturing, management of knowledge, model and data, pervasive human–computer interaction technology, application technology of service platform, informatized manufacturing technology system, and product service technology. The academic research results of the authors’ team are presented. Furthermore, four typical CMfg cases which have been successfully implemented in group enterprises and mid-small enterprise clusters are described as well as cases introducing smart manufacturing into smart city. Finally, future works and development prospect for CMfg are raised.

Cloud manufacturing (CMfg) is a new way to promote the further development of manufacturing industries. In this article, an envisioned picture of future manufacturing with CMfg which supports different advanced manufacturing modes, including intelligent manufacturing, sustainable manufacturing, agile manufacturing, and personalized social production mode was described. Some important technologies for building resources/capabilities and knowledge services platforms of CMfg were introduced. Several typical applications of CMfg, such as manufacturing communities, virtual industry clusters, 3D printing, cloud service evaluation, and hybrid cloud manufacturing were discussed.

Cloud manufacturing has emerged as new manufacturing paradigm providing a service-oriented approach to integrate distributed manufacturing resources and to utilise available manufacturing capabilities for collaborative and networked production. With increasing demand for complex customer-oriented products, cloud manufacturing presents provides a promising solution to address the challenges involved in customised specification and production across the supply chain. In this chapter, a concept and architecture is proposed to enable the dynamic customisation of products based on the availabilities of the production network from the cloud manufacturing concept of Manufacturing-as-a-Service (MaaS). An overview of the MaaS concept and architecture is described, which include the core components for product configuration, manufacturing service management and the integration of factory-IT systems. In addition, the proposed manufacturing service description used to enable the provision of customised options is presented. Finally, a case study is presented which demonstrates the feasibility of MaaS concept for customised products. This is followed by an evaluation of the implemented cloud manufacturing platform provided from an industrial perspective.

Today’s global enterprises have faced with a growing increase in the competitiveness that forces them to adopt and develop new strategies and methods. Recent researches have proposed the Cloud manufacturing as the new paradigm for global manufacturing enterprises. The first challenge in cloud manufacturing paradigm is the manufacturing data integration concept. The integration of enterprise-level business systems with manufacturing systems is found to be one of the inevitable drivers for productivity. However, integrating heterogeneous and autonomous data sources through enterprises which are numerous in number and also in approaches is a significant challenge. Moreover, the data integration should involve the integration of autonomous, distributed, and heterogeneous database sources into a single data source associated with a global schema in Cloud manufacturing paradigm. In this chapter, the concepts of Cloud manufacturing data integration have been discussed comprehensively. Discussing the dominant researches for both manufacturing ontology models and solutions proposed as enabler approaches in global manufacturing data integration, the chapter illustrates two main characteristics of an efficient global Cloud manufacturing ontology model. The first characteristic emphasizes on a consistent manufacturing data model, while the second one looks for an efficient management structure to fulfill the improvements and developments in manufacturing discourses. The chapter uses the axiomatic design theory to propose an efficient idea for a global Cloud manufacturing ontology model. The proposed idea fulfills the first axiom of the axiomatic design theory which insures the capabilities of the proposed ontology model to fulfill the characteristics of an efficient global manufacturing ontology model. The capability of the proposed approach is discussed by proposing implementation structures for a manufacturing ontology model based on the international standard organization standards related to ISO 10303, ISO 15531, and ISO 18629. The proposed Cloud manufacturing ontology model can be considered as the basic step toward achieving the global Cloud manufacturing.

Cloud-Based Design and Manufacturing (CBDM) refers to a product realization model that enables collective open innovation and rapid product development with minimum costs through a social networking and negotiation platform between service providers and consumers. Because of the diversity of cyber resources constituting CBDM systems and because CBDM systems are Internet-enabled, cyber-physical platforms, new types of cybersecurity systems that provide real-time, dynamic, and preemptive protection will be needed. In this chapter, an overview will be provided of emerging global-scale cyber information exchange frameworks that will enable this type of cyber protection. Further, a reference architecture utilizing information obtained from global cyber exchanges for dynamic cyber protection of CBDM systems will be proposed.

This chapter presents the challenge of teaching creativity in design through project-based learning (PBL) in a collaborated distributed educational setting. First, PBL engineering class examples regarding computer-aided design for a toy modeling and original design/modeling for a remote controlled robot are presented, as a starting point of this challenge, from two different institutions, or the University of Tokushima in Japan and Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the USA. After reviewing these classes, several critical elements are identified for the success of these classes. Considering these elements, PBL provides not only an effective approach for teaching creativity in education in a university setting, but also could be applied more generally in a global setting. The second part of this chapter presents the challenge of teaching creativity in a global project using the web-based design and manufacturing of a dental milling machine, followed by a dental headrest project by the process of expectation management. Reviewing the critical roles of conventional learning management systems in these PBL classes and the current trends of cloud computing, this chapter shows the potential of cloud-based design and manufacturing to support creativity in design education.