A Framework to Assess Readiness of Firms for Cloud Manufacturing

The manufacturing sector is undergoing a massive disruption at present, making it difficult for companies to survive in the competitive global market without support from the latest information technologies (IT) and computer-aided capabilities. Sophisticated technologies such as Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), Industrial Internet of things (IIoT) and Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) have accelerated digital manufacturing transformation in the recent years and made manufacturing smarter and autonomous. Cloud Manufacturing (CMfg) is a new manufacturing paradigm which will give life to `Design Anywhere and Make Anywhere' concept and open doors of efficient, high-quality manufacturing to a larger audience. Successful widespread implementation of CMfg depends on the readiness of organisations for CMfg transformation. This paper identifies factors affecting CMfg readiness, key characteristics, core business processes and manufacturing requirements required to transform traditional manufacturing firms into CMfg enabled enterprises. Capturing all aspects of a CMfg business environment, a Cloud Manufacturing Readiness Assessment Framework (CMfg-RAF) is proposed which comprises 06 core dimensions: Services, Manufacturing, Operations, Business, Strategy, and Legal. Core dimensions are further divided into 36 sub-dimensions which are assessed under 04 readiness levels: Novice, Learner, Experienced, and Master. Finally, it presents the readiness criteria that must be fulfilled by sub-dimensions to reach expected readiness levels.