The coordination meeting for the “Cloud Manufacturing Service Platform Key Technology” project under the National High-tech R&D Program of China (the 863 Program) was held in Shenyang Institute of Automation (SIA), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) during February 28 and March 1, 2012. Thirty experts from China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Zhejiang University, etc., participated in the meeting. According to the demands of mould and die industry and characteristics of cloud manufacturing, and taking the research foundations of the participants into consideration, experts made discussions on the scheme and task allocation of cloud manufacturing service platform for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), laying foundation for further construction and application.

Learning from the concept of cloud computing, cloud manufacturing is a new manufacturing mode which can organize online manufacturing resources and provide various manufacturing services according to user’s need. It is based on the virtualization of production resources and the servitization of production ability. Currently, the project has come to the landing stage. After discussion, experts determined on the service mode, application scenario and software solution of the cloud service platform for the mould and die industry. As one of the institutes leading the project, SIA is in charge of the mode research and platform design of cloud manufacturing, as well as the planning and development of core engine.    (Dai Tianjiao)