Structure and relationships within global manufacturing virtual networks/Estructura y relaciones en las redes virtuales de fabricación global

Global Manufacturing Virtual Networks (GMVNs) are dynamically changing organizations formed by Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), Contract Manufacturers (CMs), turn-key and component suppliers, R+D centres and distributors.These networks establish a new type of vertical and horizontal relations between independent companies or even competitors where it is not needed to maintain internal manufacturing resources but to manage and share the network resources.The fluid relations that exist within the GMVNs allow them a very permeable organization easy to connect and disconnect from one to each other as well as to choose a set of partners with specific attributes. The result is a highly flexible system characterized by low barriers to entry and exit, geographic flexibility, low costs, rapid technological diffusion, high diversification through contract manufacturers and exceptional economies of scale. Anyhow, there are three major drawbacks in the GMVNs that should be considered at the beginning of this type of collaborations: 1) the risk of contract manufacturers to develop their own end-products in competition with their customers; 2) the technology transfer between competitors OEMs through other members of the GMVN and 3) the lose of process expertise by the OEMs the more they outsource manufacturing processes to the network

L’Environmental Kuznets Curve nel Settore dei Rifiuti Solidi Urbani

This paper provides a specific application of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) theory in order to explain the correlation between income and household waste generation. The model highlights an U-shaped path of income-refuse relationship that verifies the existence of EKC depending on the effort of household recycling and consumption. The existence of delinking can derive by income and other socio economic variables that affect the shape of the curve. This model would be a particular application of the theory of delinking with the intent to be empirically implemented.Environmental Kuznets Curve, Waste Collection, Delinking, Waste policies

Determinant factors in dynamics of global manufacturing virtual networks

Objeto: Demostrar la existencia de una serie de mecanismos estructurales que los actores utilizan como herramientas para poder ejercer un poder tácito en las RVFGs. Diseño/metodología: Análisis de la industria de fabricación de motores aeronáuticos mediante un enfoque cuantitativo basado en un modelo logístico binomial utilizando una función logit. Resultados: Los Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) ejercen un poder tácito en la red mediante su posición centralizada en la red y la existencia de muchos agujeros estructurales. Los proveedores, sin embargo, establecen muchos lazos fuertes y directos con otros actores para fomentar la confianza; mientras que los nuevos actores establecen muchos lazos indirectos para acceder a conocimiento explícito. Limitaciones: Otros estudios similares a RVFGs de otros sectores industriales como el electrónico, químico o automoción reforzarían los resultados obtenidos en este estudio. Implicaciones prácticas: Se facilita ex ante el diseño de nuevas RVFGs aumentando sensiblemente su eficiencia Valor añadido: Clarifica el funcionamiento interno de estas organizaciones que hasta ahora no se había abordado bajo este punto de vista. Sus conclusiones pueden utilizarse como un modelo prescriptivo para otras redes de fabricación.Peer Reviewe

The AFIT ENgineer, Volume 3, Issue 1

In this issue: Ceremonies Celebrate New Leadership Graduate School to host ABET Re-accreditation Visit Women’s Panel Focuses on Work/Life Balance AFIT Establishes Homeland Security Community of Best Practice

Regional technology framework: evidence pack

The evidence pack is a body of evidence collected to support the strategic prioritisation contained in the Regional Technology Framework (RTF)

Air Force Institute of Technology Research Report 1999

This report summarizes the research activities of the Air Force Institute of Technology’s Graduate School of Engineering and Management. It describes research interests and faculty expertise; lists student theses/dissertations; identifies research sponsors and contributions; and outlines the procedures for contacting the school. Included in the report are: faculty publications, conference presentations, consultations, and funded research projects. Research was conducted in the areas of Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Electro-Optics, Computer Engineering and Computer Science, Systems and Engineering Management, Operational Sciences, and Engineering Physics

Dinámica de las Redes Virtuales de Fabricación Global en la Industria Aeronáutica.

Global manufacturing virtual networks (GMVNs) constitute a new type of organization based on vertical and horizontal relations between independent companies or even competitors where it is not needed to maintain internal manufacturing resources but to manage and share the network resources. The result is a highly flexible system characterized by low barriers to entry and exit, geographic flexibility, low costs, rapid technological diffusion, high diversification through contract manufacturers and exceptional economies of scale and specialization. Within GMVNs, relations are established among Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), component suppliers performing at the same level as the OEMs under formulas such as Risk and Revenue Sharing Partnership (RRSP), or even manufacturers from another industrial sectors. However, the inherent risk of working with competitors is also very relevant. In order to avoid these problems, the OEMs use a variety of structural mechanisms like the utilization of central network positioning, structural holes or indirect links with peripheral actors, in order to be able to maintain a tacit power over other GMVN actors. This work will demonstrate how power is managed in these organizations and the importance of these mechanisms through a quantitative study in one of the sectors where GMVNs have more intensively grown, the manufacturing industry of aircraft engines. This study will permit to know, in a clear manner, how these networks work, to give perspective to one of the organization types that have grown to a great extend over the past years.Global Manufacturing Virtual Networks; structural holes; aeronautical industry