High-Level Coordination of Business Processes in a Virtual Enterprise

Abstract

In a Virtual Enterprise scenario the management of the supply-chain is a complex task, especially when some degrees of flexibility are envisaged to be supported. This paper intends to show an approach to improve the quality of this management in order to avoid business chaos. More preciselly, it is introduced a set of specialized software modules named Advanced Coordination Functionalities (ACFs), which take end-user feedback into account to solve important problems during coordination actions within the VE scenario. The study of ACFs is motivated and required by the Prodnet-ll ESPRIT project.

Supporting Agility in Virtual Enterprises

“…Actually, the basic notion of supply chain management is grounded on the belief that efficiency can be improved by sharing information and by joint planning. Therefore, a global and more profitable supply chain can be achieved in the sense of more balanced I negotiated planning based on an entire optimum perspective [Klen et al, 1998]. …”

“…The discussion of these requirements and proposed solutions follows the typical major phases of the VE life cycle, namely the creation, operation, reconfiguration, and dissolution [Camarinha-Matos, Lima 1998] [Spinosa et al, 1998]. This work is based on the research activities and experiences acquired in various European projects, with particular relevance to the Esprit PRODNET II [Camarinha-Matos and and INCO-DC MASSYVE ].…”

Supporting Information Access Rights and Visibility Levels in Virtual Enterprises

“…Contract terms can then be defined in terms of "supervision clauses" that can for instance enforce the rights of the VE coordinator on monitoring, at individual partner site, the progress of a local production order. The supervision clauses can be defmed by the VE coordinator, based on the VE contract, and distributed to every VE partner as described in (Klen, 1999) (Spinosa, 1998). Each individual partner can in turn load this information, validate it, and then define the proper information access rights and visibility levels for the VE coordinator and other VE partners.…”

Proposta de um algoritmo a operação e reconfiguração de empresas virtuais

“…Assim a empresa virtual possui um ciclo de vida que é composto por 4 fases, sendo elas, criação, operação, reconfiguração e dissolução (SPINOSA et al, 1998). A passagem, com sucesso, por cada fase do ciclo é de extrema importância para todas as etapas a serem atravessadas, pois refletirá o quanto a empresa pode ser ágil se as transpuser com eficiência.…”