Smart manufacturing

Abstract

Manufacturing has evolved and become more automated, computerised and complex. In this paper, the origin, current status and the future developments in manufacturing are disused. Smart manufacturing is an emerging form of production integrating manufacturing assets of today and tomorrow with sensors, computing platforms, communication technology, control, simulation, data intensive modelling and predictive engineering. It utilises the concepts of cyber-physical systems spearheaded by the internet of things, cloud computing, service-oriented computing, artificial intelligence and data science. Once implemented, these concepts and technologies would make smart manufacturing the hallmark of the next industrial revolution. The essence of smart manufacturing is captured in six pillars, manufacturing technology and processes, materials, data, predictive engineering, sustainability and resource sharing and networking. Material handling and supply chains have been an integral part of manufacturing. The anticipated developments in material handling and transportation and their integration with manufacturing driven by sustainability, shared services and service quality and are outlined. The future trends in smart manufacturing are captured in ten conjectures ranging from manufacturing digitisation and material-product-process phenomenon to enterprise dichotomy and standardisation.