An introduction to the state-of-the-art review of social network-based manufacturing system: Social network analysis definitions, terminology and application areas

Social network-based manufacturing system (SNMS) is a new emergent manufacturing paradigm based on social networks aiming to promote the creation of increasing returns and the achievement of a triple bottom line sustainability. This paper presents an introduction to the concept and to the SNMS state-of-the-art review, considering a meta-theoretical framework – the SNMS abstraction hierarchy meta-theoretical framework. This meta-theoretical framework has 5 hierarchical levels but, for this paper, only part of the first hierarchal level is presented, i.e. the social network analysis definitions, terminology and application areas. The remaining hierarchical levels are referred as future work directions.