Digital enterprises - challenges and opportunities for 21st century product design and manufacturing

摘要

Manufacturing Foresight 2020 (http://www.dti.gov.uk/manufacturing/foresight.pdf) describes the impact of the Internet and web technology on manufacturing industries as paramount as that of the Industrial Revolution. The technology gradually transforms traditional manufacturing to what can be termed as Digital Manufacturing (or e-Manufacturing) where companies use the Internet to enter new markets, increase supply chain efficiency, create new value chains, and increase the efficiency of internal planning and operations. This paper investigates such transformation retrospectively and points out challenging issues that must be resolved in the near future.