Universal manufacturing: enablers, properties, and models

Abstract

Globalisation of the manufacturing and service industry has increased complexity of the flow of materials and goods, magnified dependency on the underlying network, and made the industry more vulnerable to the changing market conditions. As manufacturing and service industry undergo transformation, an opportunity to rethink the design of future enterprises has emerged. Six enablers of miniversal manufacturing are discussed: digitisation, open manufacturing, service orientation, shared manufacturing, sustainability, and resilience. These enablers will form properties of universal manufacturing, with adaptability and affinity that are emerging. A universal manufacturing enterprise will be formed based on the distributed manufacturing facilities. The emerging standards for interoperability of systems needed for universal enterprises are discussed. The data and modelling standards will enable the synthesis of digital models into universal enterprises. Though there is no global standard for the representation of digital manufacturing models in a cloud, the existing process modelling methodologies and languages may offer the solutions needed. The evolution of production systems is illustrated with three snapshots, dedicated manufacturing, distributed manufacturing, and universal manufacturing. The modelling approach followed in this paper is bottom-up rather than top-down followed in the literature on modern manufacturing.

KEYWORDS:

• Digital manufacturing
• smart manufacturing
• open manufacturing
• manufacturing-as-a-service
• resilient manufacturing
• pandemics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Andrew Kusiak

Andrew Kusiak is a Professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at The University of Iowa, Iowa City. He has served as chairman of two departments, Industrial Engineering (1988–1995) and Mechanical and Industrial Engineering (2010–2015). His current research interests include applications of computational intelligence and big data in manufacturing, automation, renewable energy, sustainability, and healthcare. He is the author or coauthor of numerous books and hundreds of technical papers published in journals sponsored by professional societies, such as the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and other societies. He speaks frequently at international meetings, conducts professional seminars, and consults for industrial corporations. Dr Kusiak has served in elected professional society positions as well as editorial boards of over fifty journals, including editor positions of five different IEEE Transactions.

Professor Kusiak is a Fellow of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers and the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing.