Collaborative factory planning, steps towards grid manufacturing

Networked manufacturing systems are expected to have much more flexibility to respond to dramatic changes in the world market. Grid manufacturing is regarded as the next generation advanced solution for the bottleneck of networked manufacturing. Based on grid and associated techniques it realizes the share and integration of manufacturing system resources and supports the collaborative opration and management. Grid manufacturing responds to the new challenges which have to face the networked manufacturing systems: innovation, speed and flexibility. One of the main requirements of achieving these aims is collaboration. The paper presents our understanding on grid manufacturing through its definition, challenges and requirements, potential benefits, and steps towards its implementation. Our concept of a collaborative, standardised and service-oriented environment for factory planning, presented through our vision and related research results, reveals the first steps in giving reality to grid manufacturing.