Framework

In recent years, the potential of cloud manufacturing in the B2B business fields has evolved enormously due to the increasing utilization of new digital technologies. Digital business processes confront manufacturing companies with new opportunities and challenges. For the digital transformation of these companies, the structured analysis of corresponding platform concepts is essential. In the first step, this can be supported by a framework that analyses basic insights and framework conditions for the development of dynamic cloud manufacturing platforms for the production sector. A corresponding framework is developed and presented in this article.

Cloud computing is the buzzword of the last years; meanwhile, it becomes more present in the product portfolios of IT service providers. A lot of newcomers emerge in the cloud market and established player extend their traditional IT business with cloud aspects. Based on a comprehensive literature analysis, a structured framework for cloud business models is synthetized. This framework is used to investigate and compare 29 successful business models in the cloud market. With the help of a cluster analysis, four common patterns of combination are identified for cloud business models. These clusters induce recommendations for action for IT service providers in the cloud market.

Production logistics has seen the introduction of autonomous control strategies, which had been implemented with different modelling methods. Additionally a standardising body of tools for the evaluation of autonomous control strategies has been set up. This article presents a framework, which helps to identify the appropriate autonomous control strategy together with the corresponding modelling approach for given production logistics scenarios.

To this day, automated guided vehicle system (AGVS) controllers of different suppliers are not compatible with each other. If the customer wishes to extend his AGVS, this may have unpleasant consequences as the supplier may no longer provide an according service. That is why a consortium of seven companies from the material flow business and three institutes of scientific research developed a platform for the implementation of concrete AGVS controllers. All such applications have the same architecture, therefore maintenance and future changes may be done by other suppliers. Consequently the customer is no longer dependent on a single supplier.

In the internet age, collaborative product development has led to new challenges for OEM’s, suppliers and development partners. In the course of globalisation, engineering activities come together and companies are forced to follow innovative concepts concerning product development processes. This paper presents a framework to support dynamic product development processes for cross-cultural, global value constellations by providing semantic information model standards and suitable software components. The software framework serves as an open development- and integration platform for both information models and functions which cover the relevant aspects of cross-cultural engineering collaboration.