Research and Applications of Cloud Manufacturing in China

This chapter leads to the achievements of research and applications in Cloud Manufacturing (CMfg) carried out by the authors’ team. First of all, the meaning of Big Manufacturing is given, and the challenges and strategies for manufacturing industries as well as the content and development of manufacturing informatization are analyzed. Then the definition, concept model, system architecture, technologies, typical technical characteristics, and service object and content of CMfg are put forward. Moreover, discussions are shown to prove that CMfg is a new paradigm and approach to realize manufacturing informatization, which materializes and extends Cloud Computing in the manufacturing domain. The current status of the technologies, applications, and industries for CMfg in China are presented. Concerns are mostly focused on the 12 key technologies for the CMfg System (also called Manufacturing Cloud), including system overall technology, sensing technology for manufacturing resource and capability, virtualization and service technology for manufacturing resource and capability, construction and management technology for virtual manufacturing environment, operation technology for virtual manufacture environment, evaluation technology for virtual manufacturing environment, trusted service technology for virtual manufacturing, management of knowledge, model and data, pervasive human–computer interaction technology, application technology of service platform, informatized manufacturing technology system, and product service technology. The academic research results of the authors’ team are presented. Furthermore, four typical CMfg cases which have been successfully implemented in group enterprises and mid-small enterprise clusters are described as well as cases introducing smart manufacturing into smart city. Finally, future works and development prospect for CMfg are raised.