By analyzing the characteristics of the mold parts production industry, it is pointed out that due to the lack of sharing and coordination of manufacturing resources and the shortcomings of manufacturing models, it is difficult for the mold industry to achieve further balanced development. In response to this problem, based on the current collaborative manufacturing model and the development of cloud manufacturing, a cloud manufacturing collaborative service mode platform for the mold industry is proposed. The platform's architecture, basic principles, and key technologies are analyzed, Through case analysis, this platform can promote more reasonable resource allocation and higher utilization rate, enabling mold enterprises to receive professional technical and productive services, thereby improving the competitiveness of mold enterprises.
Modern industrial molds take the lead, and the impact of molds on the manufacturing industry is crucial. Firstly, the quality and level of molds directly affect the quality of products ultimately put on the market. Secondly, the application of molds is very extensive, with applications in industries such as industry, national defense manufacturing, and medical devices. The development of molds reflects the development of the manufacturing industry to a certain extent, and has become a symbol of measuring technological development, innovation ability, and development ability. As a pillar industry of the manufacturing industry, the mold industry is listed as a key development industry [1-3].
Many industrial parks in many cities are located with many small mold parts processing plants, and some large enterprises have their own mold matching workshops or mold matching plants, which are generally small in scale, high in industry concentration ratio, and obvious in regional characteristics. This is the current situation of mold manufacturing enterprises in China. The weak technological innovation ability and low level of informatization have led to the inability of mold manufacturing enterprises to respond quickly to market demands, resulting in long product development cycles and insufficient market competitiveness.
1. Analysis of the Characteristics of the Mold Industry
The following analysis has been conducted to address the problems in manufacturing capacity and operational mode of current mold enterprises.
1.1 Manufacturing Capability Analysis
Different industries and enterprises have different products and requirements for molds, resulting in a wide variety of mold products and a large number of mold parts. The processing equipment and manufacturing processes of mold enterprises are also different, making it difficult to form a mold industry cluster.
Due to the large investment in equipment, poor sharing, and low utilization rate, the development of mold enterprises is slow. In addition, there is excessive competition pressure among mold manufacturing enterprises, resulting in reduced profit margins. Some enterprises are willing to reduce mold quality and lifespan in exchange for the market, which not only interferes with the market, damages customers, but also harms the mold industry. Over time, mold manufacturing enterprises are busy surviving, neglecting the improvement of their technological level and the application of information technology, making it unnecessary to innovate and even more difficult to build the foundation for enterprise transformation and upgrading, Difficulty in meeting the market demand for mid to high end products.
1.2 Analysis of the operating mode of mold manufacturing enterprises
1.2.1 Order Source
Mold parts processing enterprises are typical production oriented enterprises facing orders. Enterprises need to complete the entire process of designing and manufacturing a series of new products, including design, process preparation, material procurement, and manufacturing processing, from receiving orders, signing contracts to delivering; In addition, the probability of repeating each order is particularly low, and production is almost one-time, and each production has a trial production nature. The contingency of the order and the urgency of the delivery date have brought great pressure to the design and manufacturing of the mold processing enterprises. There is also a portion of orders that serve the development of new products for parent or upstream enterprises. These are task orders or mandatory orders, which require mold companies to spend more time and cost on developing new molds, resulting in insufficient and ineffective market response.
1.2.2 Narrow information channels
Most small and medium-sized mold enterprises have limited sources of information, relying solely on salespeople to communicate and receive orders for mold parts in a specific industry. The narrow channels for understanding the market lead to inaccurate grasp of the market by the enterprise. The insufficient level of informatization and the lack of technical information, process information, and market information in the industry can also hinder the development of mold enterprises. Making cars behind closed doors and passively accepting orders will make enterprises increasingly lack the vitality to cope with the market.
1.2.3 Insufficient development and manufacturing capabilities
According to research, due to the lack of personnel quality, software, and equipment in small and medium-sized mold parts processing enterprises, mold development is also a time-consuming task. It takes one or two months to develop a mold with a common structure. If it is a complex mold, it will take six months or even longer, So it is difficult for mold companies to quickly and accurately grasp market opportunities if they do not rely on the help of others and only rely on themselves in terms of development capabilities. Most mold enterprises lack independent research and development capabilities, high-precision processing equipment and measuring equipment, and enterprise management capabilities. Under the Internet plus thinking, with the technical support of cloud manufacturing, how to use advanced manufacturing technologies in the manufacturing process, integrate surplus resources, reduce resource duplication, improve resource utilization, reduce energy consumption, and reduce emissions, so as to achieve resource sharing and collaborative management [6], It has become a key issue that China's manufacturing industry urgently needs to solve, which is to explore a high-quality, efficient, and low-cost development model for small and medium-sized mold parts processing enterprises.
2. Research and Application Status of Cloud Manufacturing Mode
In January 2010, Li Bohu et al. [7] first proposed the concept of cloud manufacturing and analyzed the operational mode of cloud manufacturing. The cloud manufacturing platform architecture was divided into physical resource layer, virtual resource layer, core service layer, application interface layer, and application layer, and related research was conducted on its key technologies. Zhang Lin et al. [8,9] proposed the hierarchical structure of cloud manufacturing systems and compared cloud manufacturing with several manufacturing models such as agile manufacturing, networked manufacturing, and service-oriented manufacturing, summarizing the characteristics of cloud manufacturing; Yin Sheng et al. [10] conducted research on the integration mode of outsourced processing resources in cloud manufacturing environments; Taideyi et al. [11] proposed a cloud manufacturing implementation model based on stage cooperation; WANG X V et al. [12] analyzed the service process, demand model and cloud manager logic flow of cloud manufacturing, and proposed a cloud manufacturing system architecture that supports interoperability. Yang Chen et al. [13] proposed an application process model for cloud simulation resource management; Li Qiang, Xu Yan et al. [14,15] proposed the model and technology of using cloud manufacturing in the mold industry; But Zhao Xue et al. [16] conducted in-depth research on the organizational structure, role description, and key technologies of the mold cloud manufacturing platform; Li Bo et al. [17] analyzed the resource capabilities of cloud manufacturing platforms in the mold industry and related technologies such as platform credit evaluation; Xiao Gang et al. [18] proposed a cloud manufacturing (CMIA) application model for industrial alliances.
This article analyzes the current situation of the mold industry and the application research of cloud manufacturing platforms. Based on the idea of application service provider service mode [19], a global service solution for cloud manufacturing collaborative manufacturing mode of mold parts processing enterprises based on CMIA is proposed, as shown in Figure 1. Based on CMIA system development, it reduces the analysis of manufacturing service granularity and reduces the difficulty of developing and maintaining cloud manufacturing application systems; Enable the system to better meet the complex and ever-changing market environment, thereby also improving the flexibility of the system; The ability to accurately and quickly integrate the relevant service resource information of member enterprises joining dynamic alliances into an information network enables effective integration of service resources among member enterprises in the network environment, which is more conducive to the rational allocation of various resources. The cloud manufacturing collaborative service mode application system adopts a strategy driven agent, which allocates different service resources based on different cloud service requests using corresponding resource matching algorithms to improve resource utilization and operational efficiency of mold enterprises, thereby promoting flexible development of mold enterprises and enhancing their responsiveness to the market.
3. A Mold Cloud Manufacturing Model Supporting Collaborative Services
Establishing a collaborative manufacturing service platform for small and medium-sized mold parts processing enterprises based on industry alliance cloud manufacturing not only integrates various service resources, but also encapsulates resource information according to the needs of the entire mold life cycle, breaking through regional limitations in the use of mold resources and establishing a dedicated service resource database for molds. This can enable mold enterprises in different regions, regardless of their scale, to use cloud manufacturing collaborative service platforms to share service resources in the database. When there are new market opportunities, timely service releases can be made on the platform, which can form the most advantageous service resource collection at the fastest speed. Each service resource provider can complement each other's advantages and collaborate with each other to actively respond to market demand, achieve efficiency, and The purpose of providing high-quality and low-cost service to the market can also bring benefits to mold enterprises that provide service resources and promote the further development of enterprises [20]. The mold cloud manufacturing model that supports collaborative services can not only integrate mold manufacturing capabilities and resources, improve mold manufacturing efficiency, shorten mold development cycles, but also provide enterprise portals, networked manufacturing, and e-commerce services for mold enterprises. Integrate with networked manufacturing and service technology, cloud computing, and other technologies to achieve encapsulation, intelligence, and centralized management of various manufacturing service resources. Provide safe, reliable, stable, and effective services according to the needs of design activities, production activities, and other processes in the mold manufacturing process and subsequent remanufacturing process. Each alliance enterprise in the system can complete service publishing, service acquisition, and even service supervision, which can satisfy both common services and personalized manufacturing services on the platform. For mold enterprises, this model based on domain thinking planning and manufacturing services can improve their own mold development and manufacturing level and technical level, achieve information exchange, and timely grasp market direction. It has a positive promoting effect on correctly grasping the market, occupying the market, and obtaining profits, and can further improve the overall technical level of mold alliance enterprises [21].
3.1 Architecture of Collaborative Service Mode for Mold Cloud Manufacturing
Led by mold franchise enterprises, using cloud manufacturing collaborative service platforms as the medium, supported by database and network systems, and based on service resource cloud, a mold cloud manufacturing collaborative service model has been constructed. The service resource cloud can provide the platform with high-quality manufacturing service resources, modern design service resources, complete analysis service resources, advanced technical service resources, modern management service resources, and strong sales service resources; Service requests can also be published through the platform. Based on the service requests submitted by customers, the platform can search for matching service resources for clients in alliance mold enterprises through internal bidding or intelligent selection, and provide timely response on-demand services for service requests. The architecture of the collaborative service model for mold cloud manufacturing is shown in Figure 2.
This collaborative service model, led by mold alliance enterprises, integrates all service resources required in the mold development, research and production process into cloud manufacturing. Firstly, it is different from the relatively mature networked manufacturing currently. All mold enterprises that have already been allied on the platform can issue service demands, which can be mature market opportunities through market research, All activities within the entire lifecycle of the mold can also be phased activities, such as mold design, mold testing, mold manufacturing, technical guidance, or advanced management concepts of mold enterprises. Regardless of the service resource requirements, the platform will use its own knowledge base and database for intelligent retrieval, matching, and recommendation services, efficiently, high-quality, and transparent provision of matching service resources to service requesters, which can meet the overall or phased services.
This collaborative service model is similar to the centralized use of decentralized resources, but not exactly the same. Because it not only centralizes the information of decentralized service resources, but also clarifies the idea of how to decentralize the centralized service resources during the implementation process, the collaborative service model is more flexible, and can provide service resources wherever there is demand for services, One to many, many to one, and many to many are all forms of collaborative service mode, which is the idea of global services. Firstly, dispersed service resources are effectively integrated, and then service resources are provided for multiple service requirements.
3.2 Basic Principles of Global Service Concept for Cloud Manufacturing Collaborative Service Mode in Mold Enterprises
The cloud manufacturing collaborative service model emphasizes embedding resources, capabilities, and knowledge into the network environment, committed to building a public manufacturing environment where manufacturing enterprises, customers, intermediaries, and others can fully communicate. The user participation in cloud manufacturing collaboration mode is not limited to traditional user requirements and evaluations, but permeates every aspect of the entire product manufacturing lifecycle. Moreover, the identity of a user is not unique. A user can be both a service resource demander for cloud manufacturing and a service resource provider or developer for cloud manufacturing, reflecting a type of service manufacturing in which users participate.
Users describe their own service needs, which can also be transformed into quantitative descriptions or expected output descriptions for rigorous information input; The collaborative service platform will analyze and reason the input demand information, and sort out various sets of service resources that meet the demand, as well as the most matching service resource information group identified by the recommendation platform. Service demand users can use the matching resource group recommended by the platform, or filter the service resource set and resource information of each dimension provided by the platform based on their specific needs, Independently selecting appropriate service resources and providing feedback to the platform, the platform further constructs a combination of resource services based on user selection, and provides intelligent suggestions appropriately. In this way, recommendation, selection, feedback, combination, and suggestion are recommended, followed by a cycle of iteration to produce an optimized set of service resources that meet the needs of multiple parties.
Due to the promotion of diversified and personalized market demands, users have different weights for different dimensions of service resources, and there are many types of service resources in the cloud manufacturing collaborative service platform. The settings of various parameters for different service resources are also different, so the priority, matching weight, and filtering threshold for each service are also different. This also poses certain challenges to resource combination. Therefore, The platform has formulated different parameter optimization settings based on different service requirements. For example, if there are service requirements for product design, the platform will recommend parameter configurations with high design capability weights; If the service requirements are technical requirements, the parameter configuration with high weight of technical progressiveness will be recommended; If there is a service demand for processing and manufacturing, parameter configurations with high manufacturing resource weights will be recommended. Of course, as users input more demand information, the optimization configuration will also change. The platform will conduct detailed data analysis based on service requirements and the weight of various dimensions of resources to complete the optimal resource allocation for service requirements and provide it to users. The resource retrieval and matching framework diagram for cloud services is shown in Figure 3.
The output of the best match between service demand (N) and service resource (Sj) needs to be defined by filtering threshold, and calculated according to formula (1). The output of service resources with a matching degree greater than the filtering threshold is arranged in order of size, and fed back to service demand users by the platform.
In the formula, N represents the service demand, Sj represents the service resource, and P_ M (N, Sj) is the ranking of the matching degree between service requirements and service resources, wi is the weight considered for different dimensions, and,? I is the threshold for different dimensions, and n is the number of dimensions set according to the demand service.
4. Application analysis
The collaborative model of mold cloud manufacturing makes production and enterprise organization more flexible and adaptable to complex and ever-changing market environments, especially for small and medium-sized mold enterprises. Those who lack in design or manufacturing can complete their own design and production tasks by calling or renting resources, capabilities, and cloud services from the cloud manufacturing system, thereby reducing the difficulty of design and manufacturing for enterprises and bringing greater profits. Below is a case study to explore the ideas and implementation technologies for mold development, design, and manufacturing under the cloud manufacturing collaborative service model, as shown in the figure