Analytical target cascading-enabled optimal configuration platform for production service systems

Abstract

Production service system (PnSS) is a new business mode where a manufacturer obtains manufacturing resources in the form of continuous production services instead of resource entities. This new mode helps reduce the setup costs and technical/financial risks of production resources while ensuring their life cycle service levels. Industrial product service system advocates the servitisation of production facilities and has evolved into a successful and mature type of PnSS. This article proposes a PnSS framework that expands the scope of production services to include component services, i.e. suppliers provide not only the component entities but also a series of services related to the components' stocking, assembling and even consuming, to their customers along the supply chain. A systematic PnSS configuration (PnSSC) methodology and the enabling platform are developed based on a newly extended analytical target cascading (ATC) method. As ATC accommodates heterogeneous sub-system integration and multi-level problem solving, the methodologies are able to address the typical challenges that a practical component service PnSSC process normally faces, such as distributed decision rights, uncertain decision structure and short decision period. Due to the similar and normally simplified configuration requirements, this methodology and platform are also both generic enough to be applied or adapted for PnSS of other production resources.

Keywords:

• analytical target cascading
• product service system
• manufacturing alliance
• collaborative production
• service oriented architecture (SOA)

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to HKU Small Project Funding (200907176106), HKSAR ITF (GHP/042/07LP) and HKSAR RGC GRF (HKU 712508E) and National Science Foundation of China (50875051, 50805116 and 60973132) for providing partial financial supports.