E-DREAM: A Web-Based Platform for Virtual Agile Manufacturing

In the emerging agile manufacturing paradigm, there is a great need for a flexible and re-configurable IT platform to form virtual enterprises. In this paper, according to the functional requirements of virtual agile manufacturing, a pragmatic Web-based platform entitled ‘‘E-DREAM’’ has been developed to support the virtual enterprising. Firstly, this paper discusses the E-DREAM basic architecture, infrastructure, and the global object model of E-DREAM. Next, based on the information, information interaction, and role classification, the distributed information management and role management in E-DREAM are interpreted, illustrating that the information access visibility level is dependent on the role that an agile partner plays in a VE (Virtual Enterprise). Making use of CORBA-based method, the implementation of wrapping software resources is conducted, which aims at interoperating the remote software resources. In the end, the E-DREAM prototype implementation is presented. Through the E-DREAM architecture development and prototype system implementation, we have come up with a thorough approach for building agile virtual enterprises, configuring and re-configuring working platforms for different agile partners.