Manufacturing services collaboration: connotation, framework, key technologies, and research issues

Manufacturing resources sharing and collaboration has become the inevitable trend to optimize the operation of manufacturing industry. The development of various advanced manufacturing systems (AMSs) and new-generated information technologies (New ITs) prompt the emergence of various industrial Internet platforms. In this context, it provides a brand new opportunity for enterprises to conduct manufacturing resources sharing and collaboration in the form of manufacturing services, namely, manufacturing services collaboration (MS-collaboration). However, the relevant research on MS-collaboration under the environment of industrial Internet platforms is still insufficient. Therefore, in this paper, the evolution from manufacturing collaboration to MS-collaboration toward industrial Internet platforms is analyzed at first, and the derived environment characteristics and challenges of MS-collaboration are discussed accordingly. After exploring the connotation of MS-collaboration, its implementation framework and corresponding enabling technologies are proposed. A 3D Printing case is presented to illustrate the application of the proposed methods. Finally, in order to promote the application of an industrial Internet platform, stimulate more enterprises to participate in, and conduct MS-collaboration in it, several future research issues are pointed out.