Communication protocols for order management in collaborative manufacturing

Collaborative manufacturing requires efficient and cost effective communications among the partners. To provide efficient and reliable communications, this research modularizes the design of communication protocols for order management in collaborative manufacturing. Ten protocol modules have been defined and designed in this research. With the 10 protocol modules, companies can easily construct the protocols to regulate the interactions between partner companies. This research designs five protocols associated with order management in collaborative manufacturing. The protocols are also implemented in a distributed computing environment. The results indicate that the modularized protocols ensure the reliability and efficiency of communications, and reduce the complexity in protocol design.