A Cloud-based Pluggable Manufacturing Service Scheme for Smart Factory

Implementing intelligent manufacturing services on factory-wide edge devices connected with production equipment efficiently so that those manufacturing services are pluggable, plug-and-play, and manageable through the network is a challenging task and is highly beneficial for facilitating realizing a smart factory. This paper proposes a cloud-based pluggable manufacturing service scheme (called CPMSS) by leveraging cloud computing, edge computing, and RESTful Web Service to address this issue. By using a two-layer-RESTful-service mechanism, the manufacturing services can be built in the form of pluggable application module (PAM). The proposed CPMSS allows the engineers to deploy selected PAMs from the cloud to target edge devices efficiently and to run and manage the plugged PAMs remotely through the cloud platform using Web-based GUIs for supporting intelligent manufacturing activities on target production equipment. Thereby, CPMSS can facilitate fast and factory-wide deployment of intelligent manufacturing services on edge devices for supporting smart manufacturing. Finally, an industrial case study performing predictive maintenance (PdM) on PECVD equipment of a solar cell manufacturing factory is used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the CPMSS.