Conceptual Framework for Non-hierarchical Business Networks for Complex Products Design and Manufacturing

The effective creation and management of business networks is more and more an important contribution for the competitiveness and sustainability of European SMEs. In Non-hierarchical networks SMEs join their competencies and resources to grab profitablebusiness opportunities. In these networks SMEs take the leading role and control the business instead of being subcontracted bylarge companies and traditional supply chains. This paper presents a conceptual framework, including methodological approach, best practices and reference processes aiming at supporting SMEs in creating and managing non-hierarchical networks for complexproducts design and manufacturing. The framework high level structure and the most specific processes are presented, including:capacity management, collaborative operations planning, risk and event management and performance management. The framework was validated in three pilot networks, from the textile, footwear and machine tools industries.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

ICT-based solution approach for collaborative delivery of customised products

© 2016 Taylor & Francis. Growing interest on business collaboration motivates todays industries, especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to establish and manage dynamic and non-hierarchical business networks to respond to market opportunities with added business benefits. This business environment requires concurrent work and real-time information sharing between key business partners in order to design and develop customised products. The use of traditional communication media such as e-mail, phone and fax is not satisfactory to get real-time information and is time-consuming and most often ineffective. In such environments, an Information and Communication Technology (ICT)/Web-based technology supports real-time information sharing among networked SMEs for the collaborative design and manufacturing of customised products. This study proposes an innovative ICT platform supporting SMEs collaboration, through Web and the Internet of Things technologies, which follows the Net-Challenge conceptual approach and methodological guidelines for SMEs to form and operate virtual organisations for the collaborative development and delivery of customised products. The ICT Platform was assessed in three different industry domains, namely the textile and apparel, the footwear and the machine tools, respectively. This ICT solution promotes collaboration, with substantial advantages for SMEs including the reduction of costs and delivery time and improvement of the innovation potential

Collaborative planning in non-hierarchical networks - an intelligent negotiation-based framework

In today’s competing business market, companies are constantly challenged to dynamically adapt to customer expectations by diminishing the time response that goes from the beginning of the business opportunity to the satisfaction of the customer need. Simultaneously, there is increased recognition of the advantages that companies obtain in focusing on their core business and seeking other competencies through partnerships with other partners by forming collaborative networks. These new collaborative organizational structures require a new set of methods and tools to support the management of manufacturing processes across the entire supply chain. The present paper addresses the collaborative production planning problem in networks of non-hierarchical, decentralized, and independent companies. By proposing a collaborative planning intelligent framework composed of a web-based set of methods, tools, and technologies, the present study intends to provide network stakeholders with the necessary means to responsively and efficiently address each one of the market business opportunities. Through this new holistic framework, the managers of the networked companies can address the challenges posed during collaborative network formation and supply chain production planning.The research leading to these results received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement No. 260169. This work was also financed by national funds through the Portuguese funding agency, FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, within project LA/P/0063/2020

Proceedings of the ECCS 2005 satellite workshop: embracing complexity in design - Paris 17 November 2005

Embracing complexity in design is one of the critical issues and challenges of the 21st century. As the realization grows that design activities and artefacts display properties associated with complex adaptive systems, so grows the need to use complexity concepts and methods to understand these properties and inform the design of better artifacts. It is a great challenge because complexity science represents an epistemological and methodological swift that promises a holistic approach in the understanding and operational support of design. But design is also a major contributor in complexity research. Design science is concerned with problems that are fundamental in the sciences in general and complexity sciences in particular. For instance, design has been perceived and studied as a ubiquitous activity inherent in every human activity, as the art of generating hypotheses, as a type of experiment, or as a creative co-evolutionary process. Design science and its established approaches and practices can be a great source for advancement and innovation in complexity science. These proceedings are the result of a workshop organized as part of the activities of a UK government AHRB/EPSRC funded research cluster called Embracing Complexity in Design (www.complexityanddesign.net) and the European Conference in Complex Systems (complexsystems.lri.fr). Embracing complexity in design is one of the critical issues and challenges of the 21st century. As the realization grows that design activities and artefacts display properties associated with complex adaptive systems, so grows the need to use complexity concepts and methods to understand these properties and inform the design of better artifacts. It is a great challenge because complexity science represents an epistemological and methodological swift that promises a holistic approach in the understanding and operational support of design. But design is also a major contributor in complexity research. Design science is concerned with problems that are fundamental in the sciences in general and complexity sciences in particular. For instance, design has been perceived and studied as a ubiquitous activity inherent in every human activity, as the art of generating hypotheses, as a type of experiment, or as a creative co-evolutionary process. Design science and its established approaches and practices can be a great source for advancement and innovation in complexity science. These proceedings are the result of a workshop organized as part of the activities of a UK government AHRB/EPSRC funded research cluster called Embracing Complexity in Design (www.complexityanddesign.net) and the European Conference in Complex Systems (complexsystems.lri.fr)

Industrial districts as organizational environments: resources, networks and structures

The paper combines economic and sociological perspectives on organizations in order to gain a better understanding of the forces shaping the structures of industrial districts (IDs) and the organizations of which they are constituted. To effect the combination , the resource based view (RBV) and resource dependency theory are combined to explain the evolution of different industry structures. The paper thus extends work by Toms and Filatotchev by spatializing consideration of resource distribution and resource dependence. The paper has important implications for conventional interpretations in the fields of business and organizational history and for the main areas of theory hitherto considered separately, particularly the Chandlerian model of corporate hierarchy as contrasted with the alternative of clusters of small firms coordinated by networks

Infrastructure transitions toward sustainability: a complex adaptive systems perspective

To ensure infrastructure assets are procured and maintained by government on behalf of citizens, appropriate policy and institutional architecture is needed, particularly if a fundamental shift to more sustainable infrastructure is the goal. The shift in recent years from competitive and resource-intensive procurement to more collaborative and sustainable approaches to infrastructure governance is considered a major transition in infrastructure procurement systems. In order to better understand this transition in infrastructure procurement arrangements, the concept of emergence from Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) theory is offered as a key construct. Emergence holds that micro interactions can result in emergent macro order. Applying the concept of emergence to infrastructure procurement, this research examines how interaction of agents in individual projects can result in different industry structural characteristics. The paper concludes that CAS theory, and particularly the concept of ‘emergence’, provides a useful construct to understand infrastructure procurement dynamics and progress towards sustainability

Developing supply chain maturity

This study introduces an empirical model of supply chain maturity and assesses its impact upon performance. Findings suggest that supply chain maturity is multi-dimensional including the areas of planning, sourcing, making, delivering, new product development, and returning. Valid and reliable measures, scales and supply chain maturity constructs were formulated and significant positive links found with multiple objective performance measures. The supply chain maturity framework is thus concluded to be robust for answering questions relating to where a supply chain is in developmental terms and what may be done to continue improving upon the design. Possible areas for further research and implications for managers are also raised.Supply Chain Design; Supply Chain Coordination;

Supply Chain Resource Planning Systems: A Proposal

We present a novel model of IT-based supply chain integration that responds to the increasing need for better supply chain-wide coordination of resource allocation and offers an alternative to the traditional approach of supply chain integration based on ERP systems. We explore possible governance structures for our model and propose a stylized implementation process. The paper concludes by outlining three areas for future research

Collaboration and Virtualization in Large Information Systems Projects

A project is evolving through different phases from idea and conception until the experiments, implementation and maintenance. The globalization, the Internet, the Web and the mobile computing changed many human activities, and in this respect, the realization of the Information System (IS) projects. The projects are growing, the teams are geographically distributed, and the users are heterogeneous. In this respect, the realization of the large Information Technology (IT) projects needs to use collaborative technologies. The distribution of the team, the users' heterogeneity and the project complexity determines the virtualization. This paper is an overview of these aspects for large IT projects. It shortly present a general framework developed by the authors for collaborative systems in general and adapted to collaborative project management. The general considerations are illustrated on the case of a large IT project in which the authors were involved.large IT projects, collaborative systems, virtualization, framework for collaborative virtual systems