Coalition protocols in manufacturing e-marketplaces: creating and measuring the competitive advantage

Evaluating multi-lateral negotiation policies in manufacturing e-marketplace

Some observations on metal cutting with reference to the mechanical characteristics of working materials

The hypothesis of the minimum work of Merchant is applied to materials with different yield points in traction and in simple compression on the assumption that these materials yield in accordance with the paraboloid yield-criterion. The experimental data obtained from cutting tests like those described in this paper may apparently be in good agreement with theoretical results. But closer examination reveals that the values of the shear angle φ depend largely on the cutting speed and on the feed p. r. All relationship between φ and (λ — γ) (difference between the friction angle on the rake face and the rake angle) must therefore take in account the influence of the above variables.

An Agent based architecture for added value services in manufacturing neutral e-marketplaces

An Innovative Health Care Management System based on the Virtual Enterprise Paradigm

Strategic Planning in Advanced Manufacturing Systems: a Decision Support System

This chapter presents an innovative approach for assisting entrepreneurs in making long term capacity decisions in Advanced Manufacturing Systems (AMSs). AMSs require high investment costs in manufacturing equipments, human resources and technology knowledge. Such high investments together with the wideness and the variability of the competition scenario contribute to increase the perception of the risk for industrial entrepreneurs especially in SMEs. This problem could be approached by providing the entrepreneur with a Decision Support System (DSS) able to assist her/him in making long term capacity decision in AMS. The DSS proposed in this chapter allows the entrepreneur to plan its produ…

Shaping inter-firm collaboration in new product development in the automobile industry: A trade-off between a transaction and relational-based approach

Abstract Shaping collaboration in the new product development (NPD) has always been a very difficult task, especially in complex industries like the automobile one. This complexity is particularly true during the engineering phase of the NPD process, where different complex systems are to be designed in a collaborative way. Basically, two-kind of approaches have been observed in the literature and industry: one is more related to market transactions, specifically the west car-company style, the other is more relational based, as in the Japanese car-company style. Now, the increasing globalisation of the industry asks for a merge of the two approaches; indeed, the increasing use of standard …

Business process oriented design of ERP systems for small and medium enterprises

An IT-enabled supply chain model: dynamic databases for network decision policy

Long term capacity decisions in uncertain markets for advanced manufacturing systems incorporating scope economies

Abstract By examining the literature in the field of manufacturing flexibility many researchers have located several form of flexibility by distinguishing them into strategic and operational flexibility forms. Furthermore, many measures and design methods have been proposed for flexible manufacturing systems. Surely scope economies are one of the most important strategic form of flexibility in manufacturing systems and their strategic impact has been acknowledged by the very beginning of the flexible manufacturing era. However, despite several researches are available to address scope economies measurement and design methodologies, very few researches investigate their economic convenience …

Production Planning in Production Networks: Models for Medium and Short-term Planning

Distributed production networks are structures which are considered able to provide the organisational agility and efficiency necessary to compete in the global market. The performance of such organisations heavily depends on the ability of those involved in the network to coordinate their activities. Two approaches are available for managing complex distributed production networks: a centralised approach, where a unique entity (the planner, for instance) has all the necessary information to make planning decisions for the entire network; or a decentralised approach where each entity in the network has the necessary information and knowledge to make autonomous planning decisions, while the …