Effects of different resource-sharing strategies in cloud manufacturing: a Stackelberg game-based approach

Cloud manufacturing (CMfg) aims to realise the sharing of manufacturing resources amongst different stakeholders. Resource-sharing strategies of suppliers are essential in achieving this aim. However, current studies on this topic rarely focus on the sharing of management rights over manufacturing resources. To fill this research gap, this study investigates three resource-sharing strategies: independently, as an alliance and by cooperating with a cloud platform operator. This study explores the effects of these different strategies on meeting client requirements in CMfg. The interactions between the operator and suppliers are modelled as a two-stage Stackelberg game that contains a simultaneous subgame. The equilibrium results indicate that players achieve a lower system profit when suppliers share as an alliance rather than independently, which is why the cloud platform operator strongly opposes it. The extended analysis indicates that considering multiple suppliers complicates the allocation of tasks and profits. Low-cost suppliers have significant advantages in terms of tasks and profits when considering different marginal costs. These findings provide insights for suppliers to select appropriate resource-sharing strategies in CMfg.