Fair is Fair: A Fair Value Distribution Mechanism for Cloud Manufacturing Ecosystems

Abstract

Cloud Manufacturing is a manufacturing paradigm that focuses on collaboration and resource utilization. Until recently, little research has been done to combine the perspectives of cloud manufacturing and digital platform ecosystems. In the cloud manufacturing paradigm, the cloud coordinator takes up the dual role of a matchmaker and a platform owner, though, so it is interesting to research how any power dominance of the platform owner can be avoided. To do so, three dimensions of platform governance suggested by Tiwana 2014 – pricing policies, decision rights, and control – were considered in this contribution to recommend a fair value distribution mechanism for platform ecosystems in cloud manufacturing. Requirements for such a solution are formulated in this contribution and design patterns satisfying these requirements are derived. We propose using tokens administrated by distributed ledger technologies and smart contracts to enable a special split revenue scheme that satisfies the