Cloud manufacturing service platform for small- and medium-sized enterprises

In order to address the key problems faced by small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), existing solutions and shortcomings were analyzed. The possibilities by using the new emerged technologies and theories (e.g., cloud computing, internet of things, service-oriented technology) to solve the bottlenecks faced by SMEs are investigated. The idea of manufacturing resource and capability sharing based on cloud computing for SME is discussed, and an SME-oriented cloud manufacturing service platform (SME-CMfgSP) is introduced. The architecture of SME-CMfgSP is proposed, and the key technologies for implementing SME-CMfgSP are introduced in details. The challenges for implementing cloud manufacturing service platform for SMEs were discussed. A case study is described to illustrate the application of the proposed SME-CMfgSP.