ABSTRACT
The notion of the cloud applied to manufacturing is set to evolve with the emergence of ‘cloud manufacturing’. Wu et al. (2013) define cloud manufacturing as “a customer-centric manufacturing model that exploits on-demand access to a shared collection of diversified and distributed manufacturing resources to form temporary, reconfigurable production lines” (Wu et al., 2013). Cloud Manufacturing moves beyond the idea of simply using cloud computing resources within a manufacturing context, proposing the use of remote manufacturing resources, the sharing of a single resource between multiple users, and the notion of delivering manufacturing as a service (MAAS) (Rauschecker et al., 2011). In this manner, manufacturing services, including design, simulation and other knowledge-based process (Tao et al., 2011), can be used on as ‘pay-as-you-go’ basis. This new paradigm hopes to provide heightened levels of quality and value for consumers of manufacturing services, and allows manufacturing service providers to engage in new, flexible arrangements leading to better utilisation of capabilities. It also allows consumers to use third-party manufacturing services without the capital expenditure costs that might otherwise prove prohibitive.
