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

Methodology to Identify SMEs Needs of Internationalised and Collaborative Networks

This paper provides a methodology to support researchers in the identification of SMEs needs encountered when establishing collaborative processes within non-hierarchical manufacturing networks. Furthermore, the methodology also determines the needs when non-hierarchical networks internationalise their processes and operations to overcome globalisation and competitive environments. The major goal of this study is to provide a methodology to enable researchers to underline factors of SMEs integration with particular emphasis on the internationalisation of operations and the establishment of collaborative processes with networked partners. The provided methodology is the first step to develop a future empirical study to explore the findings of the literature review applied to SMEs and to identify the enterprises needs appeared when internationalised and collaborative processes are established in nonhierarchical networks.Andrés, B.; Poler, R. (2013). Methodology to Identify SMEs Needs of Internationalised and Collaborative Networks. IFIP Advances in information and communication technology. 398:463-470. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-40361-3_59S463470398Camarinha-Matos, L., Afsarmanesh, H., Galeano, N., Molina, A.: Collaborative networked organisations – Concepts and practice in manufacturing enterprises. Computers & Industrial Engineering 57(1), 46–60 (2008)Corti, D., Egaña, M.M., Errasti, A.: Challenges for off-shored operations: findings from a comparative multi-case study analysis of Italian and Spanish companies. In: Proceedings 16th Annual EurOMA Conference (2009)Mediavilla, M., Errasti, A., Domingo, R.: Framework for assessing the current strategic factory role and deploying an upgrading roadmap. An empirical study within a global operations network. Dirección y Organización 46, 5–15 (2012)Martínez, S., Errasti, A., Santos, J., Mediavilla, M.: Framework for improving the design and configuration process of a global production and logistic network. In: Emmanouilidis, C., Taishch, M., Kiritsis, D. (eds.) APMS 2012, Part II. IFIP AICT, vol. 398, pp. 471–478. Springer, Heidelberg (2013)Andrés, B., Poler, R.: Análisis de los Procesos Colaborativos en Redes de Empresas No-Jerárquicas. In: Ros, L., Fuente, V., Hontoria, E., Soler, D., Morales, C., Bogataj, M. (eds.) Ingeniería Industrial: Redes Innovadoras. XV Congreso de Ingeniería de Organización, CIO 2011 Libro de Actas, Cartagena, Spain, September 7-9, pp. 369–373 (2011)Andrés, B., Poler, R.: Relevant Problems in Collaborative Processes of Non-Hierarchical Manufacturing Networks. In: Prado, J.C., García, J., Comesaña, J.A., Fernández, A.J. (eds.) 6th International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Industrial Management, Vigo, Spain, July 18-20, pp. 90–97 (2012)Alfaro, J.J., Rodríguez, R., Ortiz, A., Verdecho, M.J.: An information architecture for a performance management framework by collaborating SMEs. Computers in Industry 61(7), 676–685 (2010)Ferdows, K.: Making the most of foreign factories. Harvard Business Review, 73–88 (March-April 1997)Flaherty, T.: Coordinating International Manufacturing and Technology. In: Porter, M. (ed.). Harvard Business School Press (1986)McGee, J., Thomas, H., Wilson, D.: Strategy: Analysis and Practice. McGraw-Hill, New York (2005

Small and Medium sized Enterprises’ Collaborative Buyer-Supplier Relationships: Boundary Spanning Individual Perspectives

Boundary-spanning individuals (BSIs) play a critical role in supply chain management, especially in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) where interactions with buyers and suppliers can depend heavily on just a few individuals. This study, utilizing data from Korean manufacturing-sector SMEs, explores whether cooperative social value orientations of SMEs’ BSIs influence the effects of collaborative buyer-supplier initiatives. The results suggested that the performance implication of decision-sharing initiative increases when BSIs have a high level of cooperative social value orientation. However, it also negatively moderates the relationship between risk/benefit sharing (involving financial losses or gains) and performance suggesting possible negative side-effects. However, we found that such orientation also negatively moderates the relationship between risk/benefit sharing (involving direct financial losses or gains) and relationship performance suggesting possible negative side-effects

Can knowledge management save regional development?

Australia needs to create innovative regions to sustain economic prosperity and regional development. In order to do this, regions will need to systematically address their knowledge needs and identify tools that are appropriate in maximising their effectiveness. Many initiatives have focused on information and communication technology (ICT) to enable knowledge exchange and stimulate knowledge generation, but active knowledge management (KM) strategies are required if ICTs are to be used effectively. These strategies must respond to the regional economic and social environments which incorporate small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This paper outlines the importance of KM for supporting regional cluster development and the key ways in which communities of practice (CoPs), a KM technique, have been used to add value in similar contexts. How CoPs and their online counterpart, virtual communities of practice (VCoPs), can be used and developed in regional areas of Australia is considered along with a program for further research.<br /

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

Collaborative electronic purchasing within an SME consortium

The main function of purchasing is to assure the supply with required goods and services. Large organisations have both finances and knowledge to implement optimised purchasing resources, typically using information and communications technology (ICT) to improve efficiency. On the contrary, within individual small and medium sized enterprises electronic purchasing is conducted predominately through supplier's sales web sites.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

The ‘de-territorialisation of closeness’ - a typology of international successful R&D projects involving cultural and geographic proximity

Although there is a considerable amount of empirical evidence on inter-firm collaborations within technology-based industries, there are only a few works concerned with R&D cooperation by low-tech firms, especially SMEs. Providing further and new evidence based on a recently built database of CRAFT projects, this study analyzes the relationship between technology and proximity in international R&D networks using Homogeneity Analysis by Means of Alternating Least Squares (HOMALS) and statistical cluster techniques. The resulting typology of international cooperative R&D projects highlights that successful international cooperative R&D projects are both culturally/geographically closer and distant. Moreover, and quite interestingly, geographically distant projects are technologically more advanced whereas those located near each other are essentially low tech. Such evidence is likely to reflect the tacit-codified knowledge debate boosted recently by the ICT “revolution” emphasized by the prophets of the “Death of Distance” and the “End of Geography”.Research and Development (R&D); proximity; SMEs

Framework for a business interoperability quotient measurement model

Dissertação apresentada na Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova da Lisboa para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia e Gestão Industrial (MEGI)Over the last decade the context of Interoperability has been changing rapidly. It has been expanding from the largely technically focused area of Information Systems towards Business Processes and Business Semantics. However, there exists a need for more comprehensive ways to define business interoperability and enable its performance measurement as a first step towards improvement of interoperability conditions between collaborating entities. Through extensive literature reviews and analysis of European Research initiatives in this area, this dissertation presents the State of the Art in Business Interoperability. The objective of this dissertation is to develop a model that closely captures the factors that are responsible for Business Interoperability in the context of Collaborative Business Processes. This Business Interoperability Quotient Measurement Model (BIQMM), developed in this dissertation uses an interdisciplinary approach to capture the key elements responsible for collaboration performance. Through the quantification of the relevance of each element to the particular collaboration scenario in question, this model enables a quantitative analysis of Business Interoperability, so that an overall interoperability score can be arrived at for enhanced performance measurements.Finally, the BIQMM is applied to a business case involving Innovayt and LM Glassfiber to demonstrate its applicability to different collaboration scenarios