Abstract:
In modern manufacturing business, the supply chain consists of multiple tiers of partners and suppliers. Collaboration exists both among departments within an enterprise, and among the stakeholders within the supply chains. Communication and interaction between these participants are difficult due to the heterogeneous Information and Communication Technology environment, which consists of different protocols, data formats, programming languages and platforms. To address the above issues, this research aims to develop a Cloud Manufacturing solution, namely, an Interoperable Cloud-based Manufacturing System (ICMS), to provide a manufacturing platform that integrates production services from design to manufacturing. Inspired by Cloud Computing technologies, the Cloud Manufacturing model provides an integration methodology to organise operational manufacturing tasks at a higher level. The STEP (STandard for Exchange of Product data) and STEP-NC (STandard for Exchange of Product data for Numerical Control) data models were enhanced to provide more complete data models for a fully developed Cloud Manufacturing service. The ICMS system has three layers; the Manufacturing Capability Layer, Virtual Service Layer and Application Layer. The Manufacturing Capability Layer integrates and virtualises existing manufacturing abilities in the Manufacturing Cloud. The Storage Cloud is also developed at this layer to maintain the mirrored image and dynamic status of manufacturing capabilities. The Virtual Service Layer is organised based on the Smart Cloud Manager mechanism. This mechanism is responsible for analysing original user requests and mapping them to the virtualised Cloud Manufacturing Service in the Manufacturing Capability Layer. The original needs of the user are met by an appropriate service provider in the Cloud, without knowledge of the provider’s identity or its whereabouts. The Application Layer refers to the Cloud user domain. Different types of Cloud consumers are identified and assisted via different interaction environments. The outcome of the research is the development of an interoperable and distributed manufacturing environment, which provides a platform that can integrate existing and future manufacturing resources and abilities through Cloud Manufacturing Services. The system has been validated with capabilities, such as: (i) Smart Cloud Manager, able to take an original user request remotely and organise a series of Cloud services to fulfil the user request. It provides the neutral service establishment and organization mechanism for Cloud Manufacturing Paradigm; (ii) manufacturing resources, integrated in the Manufacturing Cloud and provided as a Cloud Service. Neutral data models compliant with international standards (e.g. STEP) were developed for the utilisation of Cloud Services. The current manufacturing recourses are integrated into the Cloud Manufacturing environment, and the current STEP standard is extended to the Cloud area. (iii) the software agent and Function Block technology, utilised during the development of service integration. The amalgamation of these technologies forms a universal integration methodology called Virtual Function Block; (iv) a novel data exchange mechanism, the Data Packet mechanism, developed to provide an appropriate amount and scope of data to the right person. Most of the research work in this thesis has been reported in eight research publications, i.e. four journal papers, one book chapter and three conference papers. Keywords: Cloud, Cloud Manufacturing, Interoperability, STEP, STEP-NC, Data Exchange, Virtual Function Block