Cloud Manufacturing and Sustainability

Abstract: Collaboration is a pervasive element in an organization's departments, various suppliers, and business associates in an advanced manufacturing industry. Cloud Manufacturing (CMfg) is a new service-oriented business paradigm capable of generating this sought-after collaboration. Companies are expected to accomplish cost reductions, maintain quality, satisfy the market, and reduce environmental impacts while growing in sophistication and integration. Implementing the idea of sharing resources and capabilities will ultimately result in cost reduction, boost productivity,and more efficient consumption of natural resources globally. Sustainability, consumption of energy, and waste minimization would thus find an adequate representation within CMfg due to its collaborative aspect. Even though it has been more than a decade since the inception of cloud manufacturing, a broad consensus about the concept, essential characteristics, architecture is still lacking. This thesis addresses the presented definitions, features, and architectures associated with CMfg found in the literature; by conducting a systematic literature review. Thus, 105 papers have been selected to enable the identification of the core components of the CMfg idea, as well as illustrate how CMfg contributes to a more sustainable manufacturing future while its relationship with other relevant manufacturing paradigms, including Industry 4.0, smart manufacturing, social manufacturing, E-manufacturing, and Industrial Internet, isinvestigated. Summaries of various definitions of the CMfg concept as well as different layers of its architecture have been presented. This paper investigates the potential contributions of CMfg to sustainability by analyzing solutions that lead to the improvement of collaboration, better automation, and utilizing the 6Rs concept, as well as considering the role of waste valorization and circular economy in today's manufacturing strategies.