Network alliance for the total life cycle of reconfigurable machine tool

The RMT is a kind of application-oriented machine tool, whose manufacturers, suppliers and end users are demanding much more resource to form the supply chains with low cost, high quality and fast delivery, but researches on RMT are still at the design stage. This paper begins with a brief introduction to its characters, and proposes a reconfigurability index calculation method. Then the total life cycle process of RMT and the necessary recourses are analyzed. In order to support the successful development, manufacturing and application of RMT, an approach to build a network alliance (NA) comprised of RMT-related enterprises is proposed. In this alliance, all kinds of manufacturing resources can be shared and all members in alliance can be employed to work collaboratively.