Study on pricing behaviour and capacity allocation of cloud manufacturing service platform

Abstract

Cloud manufacturing service platform plays a very important role in cloud manufacturing service. In this work, using the business management mode of cloud manufacturing service platform as the research object, the pricing problem in a new market structure under cloud manufacturing mode, which consists of a cloud manufacturing service user, two cloud manufacturing service providers and a monopoly cloud manufacturing service platform manufacturer, was studied. Based on the research of bilateral market theory, the pricing model of cloud manufacturing service platform is designed, and the cloud manufacturing service provider carries on Hotelling game to the service request of cloud manufacturing service consumer. Finally, the distribution result of service capability of cloud manufacturing service platform is obtained. Through solving the model, the optimal pricing strategy of cloud manufacturing service platform when profit is maximized and the optimal allocation result of production capacity of the platform are obtained. Finally, the feasibility of the model is verified by a calculation example. It is also found that the profit of cloud manufacturing service platform is inversely related to the indirect network parameters.