Modelización de redes virtuales de fabricación global en la industria aeronáutica

Abstract

Today, the concept of factory or production facility is becoming more ambiguous. Actually, in many industries collaboration between independent production centers or manufacturing networks is growing to try to respond efficiently to more demanding market requirements in an increasingly globalized environment. In some industries, such as aeronautics, electronics and automotive, global manufacturing virtual networks (GMVNs) are appearing ever more strongly based on a new manufacturing architecture model with a high development potential. These networks are very dynamic organizations constituted by OEMs, contract manufacturers and suppliers that establish horizontal and vertical relationships between them, which are often competitors, where it is no longer necessary to maintain internally large manufacturing resources but efficiently manage and share the network resources.Within GMVNs, it is common that several companies cooperate in a project, which results in the manufacture of a specific product or service, while competing aggressively with other products or services in the market. Although there are hardly any studies or theoretical models about the operation of these networks, they are known to develop at global scale involving a number of participants, many of them direct competitors. Management decisions by network actors will be strongly influenced by the dynamic of these organizations. Their internal network structure, the coordination of their strategies and the communication technologies among their participants are questions that will be addressed in this thesis. For that purpose, a conceptual model about GMVNs will be proposed. It will be based on four building blocks that will determine the performance of these organizations: strategy, structure, dynamics, and culture.Throughout the first part of the thesis, under a theoretical perspective, each of these four building blocks that underpin the conceptual model will be developed. The most important intrinsic characteristics of these organizations will be analyzed such as their structure typology, the benefits of direct and indirect ties between actors, the influence of open or closed network configurations or the importance of structural holes. It will be also analyzed how actors face the strategic paradox, inherent within these networks, of collaborating with competitors, or the importance of a systemic organizational culture (at network level) to facilitate interactions between network members. In addition, it will be also considered the need whether or not to direct these networks, the information and communication technologies, the degree of virtualization and centralization of the network or the level of trust and cooperation among its members. Once all relevant aspects of these organizations have been addressed, a conceptual model will be proposed based on some hypotheses that will be validated afterwards through an analysis in the GMVN of aeroengine industry to demonstrate its efficacy and give perspective to these organizations that so far have n...