The book presents a coherent description of distributed manufacturing providing a solid base
for further research on the subject as well as smart implementations in companies. It provides
a guide for those researching and working in a range of fields such as smart manufacturing
cloud computing RFID tracking distributed automation cyber physical production and global
design anywhere manufacture anywhere solutions. Foundations & Principles of Distributed
Manufacturing anticipates future advances in the fields of embedded systems the Internet of
Things and cyber physical systems outlining how adopting these innovations could rapidly bring
about improvements in key performance indicators which could in turn generate competition
pressure by rendering successful business models obsolete. In laying the groundwork for
powerful theoretical models high standards for the homogeneity and soundness of the suggested
setups are applied. The book especially elaborates on the upcoming competition in online
manufacturing operations and respective control procedures. By outlining encapsulation and
evolving decision-making principles Foundations & Principles of Distributed Manufacturing
fully conceptualizes the view of manufacturing networks as sets of loosely coupled interacting
smart factory objects. Moreover the book provides concrete approaches to a number of future
fields where distributed manufacturing might be applied. Both researchers and professionals
will profit from the authors' broad experience in Distributed Manufacturing and Fractal
Enterprise implementations where they initiated and completed a number of successful research
projects: within the global Intelligent Manufacturing Systems (IMS) scheme within the European
Research Area frameworks as well as national contexts and both in industry and at leading
research institutions. This background ensures well-founded theory on one hand and valuable
practical results on the other in a fascinating area that is still under intensive research.
Readers will acquire essential insights as well as useful guidance for categorizing and
specifying extended distributed manufacturing solutions and their professional implementations.
