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This paper presents our development of a novel Internet‐based E‐manufacturing system to advance applications in micromanipulation and microassembly using an in situ polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) piezoelectric sensor. In this system, to allow close monitoring of magnitude and direction of microforces (adhesion, surface tension, friction, and assembly forces) acting on microdevices during assembly, the PVDF polymer films are used to fabricate the highly sensitive 1D and 2D sensors, which can detect the real‐time microforce and force rate information during assembly processes. This technology has been successfully used to perform a tele‐assembly of the surface MEMS structures with force/visual feedback via Internet between USA and Hong Kong. Ultimately, this E‐manufacture system will provide a critical and major step towards the development of automated micromanufacturing processes for batch assembly of microdevices.

Internet technology is changing the way of product development, ranging from information gathering, product managing and commerce to product development, and maintenance. In order to obtain the evidence of the extent of Web‐based applications in industry, we did a survey to examine the impact and need of the Internet in product development under industrial environments. This paper provides a view of Internet‐based applications in Canadian industry based on the data received from 42 Canadian small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), which results in a solution to improve current Web‐based industrial applications. A framework of an industrial‐oriented Web‐centred system is proposed based on the demand found from the survey. Some examples are provided to demonstrate applications of the proposed framework.

This roadmap is primarily concerned with the adaptive assembly technology situation in Europe, a topic of particular interest as assembly is often the final process within manufacturing operations. Being the final set of operations on the product, and being traditionally labour‐intensive, assembly has been considerably affected by globalisation. Therefore, unlike most technology roadmaps, this report will not focus solely on particular technologies, but will strive to form a broader perspective on the conditions that may come to influence the opportunities, including political aspects and scientific paradigms. The purpose of this paper is to convey a complete view of the global mechanisms that may come to affect technological breakthroughs, and also present strategies that may better prepare for such a forecast.

The paper describes a technological roadmap.

This paper provides a complete overview of all aspects that may come to affect assembly in Europe within the next 20 years.

The paper gives an original Evolvable Ultra Precision Assembly Systems FP6 project result which will be of general interest for strategic R&D.

Looks at strategic logistics management and technology strategies for manufacturing and groups the contents under four main headings: logistical future; information challenge; 21st century manufacturing; 21st century service industries. Aims to look at the many challenges facing logistics practitioners and researchers.

Merges the latest results obtained by the holonic manufacturing systems (HMS) consortium with the latest developed standards for platform interoperability released by the Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents (FIPA) to propose a novel e‐business model: the holonic e‐enterprise (HE). The HE extends both the HMS and FIPA models. On one side it extends the holonic manufacturing paradigm with one top level, the inter‐enterprise one. On the other side it extends the multi‐agent system (MAS) paradigm to the hardware (physical machine) level.

Examines the tenth published year of the ITCRR. Runs the whole gamut of textile innovation, research and testing, some of which investigates hitherto untouched aspects. Subjects discussed include cotton fabric processing, asbestos substitutes, textile adjuncts to cardiovascular surgery, wet textile processes, hand evaluation, nanotechnology, thermoplastic composites, robotic ironing, protective clothing (agricultural and industrial), ecological aspects of fibre properties – to name but a few! There would appear to be no limit to the future potential for textile applications.

To respond to customer needs and achieve customized manufacturing, the manufacturing industry, as represented by electronics assembly companies, has embarked on a path of business model transformation (customer to manufacturer [C2M]). The purpose of this paper is to examine the practical application of assembly line-Seru conversion in a Chinese electronics assembly company during the C2M transition.

To begin with, this paper proposed a production line improvement scheme suitable for the conversion of C2M manufacturing enterprise assembly line-Seru based on an analysis of the difficulties encountered in the existing production line of A company in China. Then, a mathematical model was presented for the minimum value of the makespan and the maximum workers’ expenditure between Serus. Finally, the SA-NSGA-II algorithm and the entropy-weight TOPSIS approach were used to determine the optimal scheme for Seru unit, batch, product type and worker distribution.

Seru production and multiskilled workers are more suited to the C2M business model. The most effective strategy for worker allocation can reduce the number of employees and makespan in Serus. Additionally, the performance of the SA-NSGA-II algorithm and the method of selecting the optimal solution from the Pareto solution by the entropy-weighted TOPSIS method is also demonstrated.

Through a detailed study of how to transform the production line, other companies can apply the methods outlined in this article to shorten the delivery time, make full use of the abilities of workers and assign workers to specific positions, thereby reducing the number of workers, workers’ expenditure and improving the balance rate of production lines.

Given the scarcity of studies on the production method of C2M-type firms in the prior literature, this paper examined the assembly line-Seru conversion problem with the goal of minimizing the makespan and worker expenditure. To address the NSGA-II algorithm’s insufficient convergence, the simulated annealing process is incorporated into the method, which improves the optimization performance.