New IT Driven Service-Oriented Smart Manufacturing: Framework and Characteristics

Recently, along with the wide application of new generation information technologies (New IT) in manufacturing, many countries issued their national advanced manufacturing development strategies, such as Industrial Internet, Industry 4.0, and Made in China 2025. One common aim of these strategies is to achieve smart manufacturing, which demands the interoperation, integration, and fusion of the physical world and the cyber world of manufacturing. As well, New IT [such as Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, big data, mobile Internet, and cyber-physical systems (CPS)] have played pivotal roles in promoting smart manufacturing. Data generated in the physical world can be sensed and transfered to the cyber world through IoT and the Internet, and be processed and analyzed by cloud computing, big data technologies to adjust the physical world. The physical world and the cyber world of manufacturing are integrated based on CPS. On the other hand, servitization has become a prominent trend in the manufacturing. Embracing the concept of “Manufacturing-as-a-Service,” manufacturing is provided as service for users. Because of the characteristics of interoperability and platform independence, services pave the way for large-scale smart applications and manufacturing collaboration. Combining New IT and services, this paper proposes a framework—New IT driven service-oriented smart manufacturing (SoSM). SoSM aims at facilitating the visions of smart manufacturing by making full use of New IT and services. Complementary to the framework of SoSM, the New IT driven typical characteristics of SoSM are also investigated and discussed, respectively.