The role of Engineering-to-Order machinery manufacturers in future Cloud Manufacturing supply chains: a business case and a strategic perspective

Abstract

The visionary paradigm of Cloud Manufacturing (CM) struggles to take off in the real manufacturing world. This paper develops a single-case study on one fully-operative platform we found in Europe (metal processing business) which can be regarded as representative - and maybe ‘revelatory’ - for the future CM paradigm. The case, with an explanatory purpose, studies the platform success from a resources perspective. The findings show how an Engineer-to-Order (ETO) company, namely the manufacturer of the machineries virtualised, provided a key contribute to build such a system, thanks to its own peculiar resources and competences. Resorting to theoretical available knowledge, the paper suggests that ETO machine manufacturers should consider CM as a strategic option for their competitiveness but – at the same time - they should recognise that their internal resources and competences are not enough to build completely a CM platform on their own.

Keywords:

• ETO Machinery manufacturer
• Cloud Manufacturing
• Manufacturing-as-a-Service
• value chain strategy

Disclosure statement

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

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 NIST: National Institute for Standards and Technology

2 The complete semi-structured questionnaire we used is available on request.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gianluca Tedaldi

Gianluca Tedaldi is a doctoral student, primarily researching on digital technologies applied to operations and supply chain management. Currently his research activities are devoted to the study of the applicability of Manufacturing-as-a-Service (MaaS) and Cloud Manufacturing. He has received a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Politecnico di Milano, Italy.

Giovanni Miragliotta

Giovanni Miragliotta is Associate Professor, teaching Industrial Plants Design and Advanced Supply Chain Planning. Co-founder of the Internet of Things Lab of Politecnico di Milano, his research interest are focussed on Industry 4.0 and Internet of Things, and their application in Operations Management.