Feeding-as-a-Service in a cloud manufacturing environment

Abstract

The shift towards a mass customization paradigm in production requires the development of new concepts for manufacturing systems. Manufacturing system producers need to address the investment gap between large companies and SMEs to open new market shares and generate new revenue streams. Cloud technologies offer new service models and business opportunities: combined with Product Service Systems ideas, they can have a significant impact on both customers and suppliers. The paper proposes a new concept called Feeding-as-a-Service, which aims to connect servitization and cloud technology to explore how a feeding system can be deployed within an efficient and sustainable Configure-to-Order paradigm in a cloud manufacturing environment. The article outlines the potential system architecture, necessary technologies, and business model for the proposed Feeding-as-a-Service concept and highlights the advantages that the system offers through the enhancement of autonomous robotics capabilities for a cloud-deployed feeding service.