Synchronization-Cooperation Workflow Model Supporting DFMC

Aiming at the synchronization-cooperation business processes in design for mass customization (DFMC), a synchronization-cooperation workflow model, SynCo-WF, is proposed. By introducing collaborator—the elementary logic unit of collaborative activities among partners, SynCo-WF can express the members' cooperation behavior based on state transition and dependence relationship of collaborators, thus assign it the corresponding synchronization-cooperation semantics; SynCo-WF can appoint a cooperative organization as participant through its inherent outer interface as well as its inner structure; Cooperative organizations can be created dynamically by the rules based on behavior goals. Finally, a method for mapping the synchronization-cooperation activities to SynCo-WF in DFMC is demonstrated.