外文资料--INTELLIGENTMACHINETOOLSINADISTRIBUTEDNETWORKMANUFACTURING.pdfVIP

Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2001) 17:221–232  2001 Springer-Verlag London Limited Intelligent Machine Tools in a Distributed Network Manufacturing Mode Environment Tao Cheng, Jie Zhang, Chunhua Hu, Bo Wu and Shuzi Yang Institute of Engineering Information and Intelligence Technology, School of Mechanical Science and Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Hubei, PR China Manufacturing enterprises are facing serious challenges and ation among enterprises distributed worldwide is growing fre- pressures from the growing globalisation of the economy and quent. The global market, which is being built up, is changing the market as well as from the rapid developments of science from a seller’s market to buyer’s market, by customers demand. and technology. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), Moreover, competition for markets is more and more unrelent- especially, have to reform their traditional manufacturing ing for meeting consumers’ diverse demands for manufacturing methods by using advanced technologies, particularly by apply- products that must be supplied at lower prices, with shorter ing information technology (IT) to succeed in the increasingly delivery dates, higher quality, better performances, and more intense competition for markets. Thus, it is of great importance satisfactory service [1–3]. Therefore, for a single enterprise, for them to accept the concept of agile manufacturing. For particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises, it is this purpose, the concept of distributed network manufacturing increasingly difficult to occupy a powerful position in the mode (DNMM) is outlined in this pap