Ecosystem evolution mechanism of manufacturing service system driven by service providers

Abstract

To date, research has mainly discussed the definition and classification of producer services. Yet many companies require an integrated solution of products and producer services. The aim of this paper is to propose a model of the ecological evolution of manufacturing service systems (MSS) driven by service providers. This model adopts modular thinking to integrate dispersive producer services into an entire MSS, the process of which forms the ecological evolution of MSS. This paper applies ecological theory to build the ecological evolution mechanism of MSS. In this mechanism, the predator–prey relationship is used as a metaphor for the relationships between manufacturers and service providers in a MSS. A predator–prey model is built to simulate the ecological evolution of MSS. A predation cellular genetic algorithm is adopted to optimise this evolution. The proposed model and algorithm are demonstrated and validated by a case study of MSS in bicycle industry. This study contributes to theory by proposing and clarifying the mechanism for provision of services between businesses. The future research will focus on the application and empirical analysis of this mechanism derived from big data.

Keywords:

• manufacturing service system
• service providers
• producer services
• ecological evolution
• predator–prey model

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the insightful comments from anonymous reviewers which have helped to improve significantly on the earlier version of this paper. Thanks for support from the National High-Tech. R&D Programme, China [grant number 2015AA042101].