A collaborative framework for social media aware manufacturing

doi:10.1016/j.mfglet.2014.11.002

Manufacturing Letters

Volume 3, January 2015, Pages 14-17

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mfglet.2014.11.002 Get rights and content

Abstract

The growing use of internet could make product manufacturing a collaborative and collective process. Social media provide the opportunity to many businesses to optimize the manufacturing process, by taking into consideration the needs, the background and the experiences of a wider external audience. The paper proposes a framework using social media combined with a Live Streaming process, in order to optimize: (a) the design process (CAD) of a product, using the opinions of potential customers and (b) the manufacturing process (CAM) of a product, and more specifically the selection of cutting conditions, using the experience of other external expert technicians.

Introduction

In their effort to become more competitive, enterprises promote their products with advanced marketing methods. The improvement of their products and services can then be tailored to the clients and markets trends. The more information an enterprise possesses, the better success they can expect for their upcoming products. The volume of this information and the need for analytics in the last decade has shown exponential increase, primarily due to the universal adoption of Internet and the social media booming. Latest improvements in technology provide many useful tools for the productive management of this information [1], [2], [3], [4].

Social media depend on mobile and Web-based technologies to offer highly interactive platforms through which individuals and communities share, co-create, discuss, and modify user-generated content [5]. In addition with the social network in working environment, cloud-based design and manufacturing (CBDM) has recently been proposed [6], [7], [8], [9].

In contrast to television and radio broadcasting, Internet drastically changes the role of users who can be updated but also interactively communicate and express opinions on various internet platforms which utilize social media [10], [11], [12], [13].

Enterprises of today should adapt to this new reality and strengthen their competitiveness by a more dynamic inclusion of consumers to the production processes.

This work sets the principles and identifies the processes which can leverage the collection and use of information and opinions from external audience (consumers and technicians) towards evaluating and influencing the production processes. In this context, two stages of the manufacturing process are prioritized: (a) the design process (CAD), at which the opinions and views of the consumers will be requested via a social network, and (b) the process planning and more specifically the selection of cutting conditions (CAM), at which the opinions and the experiences of external experts will be considered as expressed in a social media live streaming process. Both of these stages are managed by the respective enterprise moderator.

Section snippets

An open and interactive product manufacturing framework

The creation of a product follows several stages from the concept of the idea until the final production. These stages involve between others: (a) the CAD process, where the design of the product is conducted, and (b) the process planning of the product, in which for each machining operation, the proper cutting conditions are selected. This work proposes the inclusion of a new phase to the typical product manufacturing procedure. This new phase exploits the live-streaming practice in the design

Exploitation of collaborative manufacturing

There are two possibilities relating to the content which can be either private or it can be available to anyone interested. In the private mode a member subscription will be needed. Another addition that enterprises can include is the creation of a chat room per user level.

Visitors through a chat box have the possibility to contribute to the formulation of a product. There is a filter possibility of the chat box from the moderators, who are people designated by the enterprise and have as a

Conclusion

Online chatting can improve manufacturing, by giving the opportunity to exchange ideas, opinions and experiences between a practically unlimited number of people related with a specific product. Other social media (such as Facebook, twitter) have not been initially chosen since their orientation is on either distributing content and networking or on exposing posts, so they’re not prioritized for the collaborative manufacturing but in the future such a potential will be considered.

This work has

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Research LettersA collaborative framework for social media aware manufacturing

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

An open and interactive product manufacturing framework

Exploitation of collaborative manufacturing

Conclusion

CIRP J Manuf Sci Technol

Manuf Lett

Manuf Lett

Adv Eng Softw

Bus Horiz

Comput Aided Des

Bus Horiz

Research Letters
A collaborative framework for social media aware manufacturing