A Graphical Environment to Support the Development of Affordable Digital Manufacturing Solutions

Ling, Zhengyang; de Silva, Lavindra; Hawkridge, Greg; McFarlane, Duncan; Martínez-Arellano, Giovanna; Schönfuß, Benjamin; Thorne, Alan

Abstract

Digital solutions have the potential to drastically transform manufacturing operations, but smaller manufacturing businesses (SMEs) have been reluctant to adopt digital solutions due to perceived investment and upskilling costs. The Digital Manufacturing on a Shoestring project was thus established to facilitate the process of digital solution adoption in manufacturing SMEs. To this end, a solution development approach was proposed including a graphical environment to support the design of affordable digital solutions. This paper discusses the concepts and methods underlying this graphical design environment, including its early implementation. A preliminary evaluation is also presented involving industrial user studies with SMEs.

Citation

Ling, Z., de Silva, L., Hawkridge, G., McFarlane, D., Martínez-Arellano, G., Schönfuß, B., & Thorne, A. (2021). A Graphical Environment to Support the Development of Affordable Digital Manufacturing Solutions. In Service Oriented, Holonic and Multi-Agent Manufacturing Systems for Industry of the Future : Proceedings of SOHOMA’21

• Conference Name: 11th International Workshop on Service Oriented, Holonic and Multi-Agent Manufacturing Systems for Industry of the Future (SOHOMA’21)
• Conference Location: Cluny, France
• Start Date: Nov 18, 2021
• End Date: Nov 19, 2021
• Acceptance Date: Oct 12, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Nov 19, 2021
• Publication Date: Nov 19, 2021
• Deposit Date: May 18, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: May 18, 2022
• Series Title: International Workshop on Service Oriented, Holonic and Multi-Agent Manufacturing Systems for Industry of the Future
• Book Title: Service Oriented, Holonic and Multi-Agent Manufacturing Systems for Industry of the Future : Proceedings of SOHOMA’21
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/8133435