[WiP] A Workflow and Cloud Based Service-Oriented Architecture for Distributed Manufacturing in Industry 4.0 Context

In Industry 4.0, manufacturing organizations have to become more flexible and agile to stay competitive in the marketplace. Industry and academia focus on sharing globally distributed manufacturing resources and capabilities. This shift to collaborative environment calls for a service dominant logic in which reusable services model entire production processes. Accordingly, service-oriented architectures have been under spotlight by researchers to integrate distributed capabilities and resources of manufacturing. In this article, we identify rapidly developing relevant IT fields, state-of-the-art service-oriented manufacturing approaches, and discuss related challenges with those approaches. Then we introduce a higher-level workflow and cloud based service-oriented architecture for (1) individuals to design and prototype products, (2) manufacturing organizations to focus on their core competencies and find complementary services for part of their production processes, and (3) manufacturing organizations to publish their idle capabilities and resources as services. We investigate these potential impacts and more in the next manufacturing era.

I. Introduction

Enabled by a series of advancements in emerging technology domains, the fourth industrial revolution promises more flexibility and agility in manufacturing. Flexibility decreases setup times in production lines, enabling prototyping and iterative production. The ability to produce customer-driven designs changes business models and obligates manufacturing organizations to innovate [1]. To be competitive in the next manufacturing era, businesses must become more agile, responding to dynamic market situation. As a result, increasing number of organizations focus on their core competencies, and outsource complementary resources, capabilities, and expertise to other firms. The shift to collaborative environment calls for a service dominant logic where service is the application of knowledge and skills [2].