A web-based manufacturing service system for rapid product development

This paper proposes a novel integrated system of rapid product development based on rapid prototyping, and develops a networked manufacturing service system which offers better support for the rapid product development in small and medium sized enterprises by taking full advantage of the quickly evolving computer network and information technologies. The architecture of the networked manufacturing service system is presented. Furthermore, some of the key issues, including modelling and planning a manufacturing chain, selecting feasible collaborative manufacturers, queuing a manufacturing task, using the synchronously collaborative work environment, and constructing a suitable running platform, are described in detail. Java-enabled solution, together with web techniques, is employed for building such a networked service system. Finally, an actual example is provided illustrating the application of this service system.