Managing Cooperation In Supply Network Structures And Small Or Medium Sized Enterprises

Managing Cooperation in Supply Network Structures and Small- or Medium-sized Enterprises outlines different approaches to the analysis of the organisation of small- or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Owing to the increased competition in the worldwide market, several SMEs operating in the same industrial sectors have agreed collaborative market strategies, both for raw material procurement and for final product delivery. The resulting networks, however, have a tendency to suffer from a lack of organization, which minimizes their impact on the product and labour markets, and causes a weak negotiation capacity within their supply chain. Managing Cooperation in Supply Network Structures and Small- or Medium-sized Enterprises aims to give managers of SMEs a simple methodology that helps them to understand when and why becoming a partner in an SME network can be profitable for their enterprise. It discusses the most critical organizational problems and identifies which procedures must be known to become a collaborative member of the network. Policy-makers, as well as managers and executives, will be able to appreciate the key issues in creating and managing healthy networks that serve global market requirements in the major industrial sectors. Managing Cooperation in Supply Network Structures and Small- or Medium-sized Enterprises enables them to evaluate the efficiency of their organization, and to estimate both the network performance and the opportunity for further development.

Managing Cooperation in Supply Network Structures and Small- or Medium-sized Enterprises outlines different approaches to the analysis of the organisation of small- or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Owing to the increased competition in the worldwide market, several SMEs operating in the same industrial sectors have agreed collaborative market strategies, both for raw material procurement and for final product delivery. The resulting networks, however, have a tendency to suffer from a lack of organization, which minimizes their impact on the product and labour markets, and causes a weak negotiation capacity within their supply chain. Managing Cooperation in Supply Network Structures and Small- or Medium-sized Enterprises aims to give managers of SMEs a simple methodology that helps them to understand when and why becoming a partner in an SME network can be profitable for their enterprise. It discusses the most critical organizational problems and identifies which procedures must be known to become a collaborative member of the network. Policy-makers, as well as managers and executives, will be able to appreciate the key issues in creating and managing healthy networks that serve global market requirements in the major industrial sectors. Managing Cooperation in Supply Network Structures and Small- or Medium-sized Enterprises enables them to evaluate the efficiency of their organization, and to estimate both the network performance and the opportunity for further development.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 14th IFIP WG 5.5 Working Conference on Virtual Enterprises, PRO-VE 2013, held in Dresden, Germany, in September/October 2013. The 75 revised papers were carefully selected for inclusion in this volume. They provide a comprehensive overview of identified challenges and recent advances in various collaborative network (CN) domains and their applications with a particular focus on the support for reindustrialization. The papers have been organized in the following topical sections: product-service ecosystems; innovation in networks; strategies to build collaborative networks; collaboration related processes and performance; models and meta-models of collaboration; cloud-based support to collaborative networks; collaborative platforms; services and service design; sustainable collaborative networks; event-driven collaborative networks; social-semantic enterprise; and risks and trust.

Supply Chain Management (SCM) has become an important area of focus for any business that wishes to remain competitive. It is especially integral to managing successful Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). In recent years, there has been a growing interest in how SCM can be used to create value for SMEs. The development of SCM systems in SMEs has been a key factor in their success. SCM can provide SMEs with an understanding of their supply chain, enabling them to better manage their resources and ensure that their products and services meet customer demand. It also provides an opportunity to reduce costs and improve customer service. The book enables SMEs to better understand the complexities of the supply chain process and provides insights into the best practices for Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Customer Satisfaction and Service (CSSCM). There are the challenges of managing a supply chain in SMEs and suggestions on how to increase efficiency and reduce costs by including methods of inventory management, vendor selection and the use of technology. The book provides an invaluable resource for anyone involved in the supply chain practice and study, whether as a business owners, employees, researchers or students. It offers an in-depth exploration of the various facets of SCM and provides readers with valuable insights into the complexities of managing the supply chain in the SME sector.

This volume constitutes the refereed proceedings of ten international workshops, OTM Academy, Industry Case Studies Program, EI2N, INBAST, Meta4eS, OnToContent, ORM, SeDeS, SINCOM and SOMOCO 2012, held as part of OTM 2012 in Rome, Italy, in September 2012. The 66 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 127 submissions. The volume also includes 7 papers from the On the Move Academy (OTMA) 2012 as well as 4 CoopIS 2012 poster papers and 5 ODBASE 2012 poster papers. The paper cover various aspects of computer supported cooperative work (CSCW), middleware, Internet/Web data management, electronic commerce, enterprise modelling, workflow management, knowledge flow, agent technologies, information retrieval, software architectures, service-oriented computing, and cloud computing.

The theory of concurrent engineering is based on the concept that the different phases of a product lifecycle should be conducted concurrently and initiated as early as possible within the product creation process. Concurrent engineering is important in many industries, including automotive, aerospace, shipbuilding, consumer goods and environmental engineering, as well as in the development of new services and service support. This book presents the proceedings of the 21st ISPE Inc. International Conference on Concurrent Engineering, held at Beijing Jiaotong University, China, in September 2014. It is the first volume of a new book series: 'Advances in Transdisciplinary Engineering'. The title of the CE2014 conference is: 'Moving Integrated Product Development to Service Clouds in the Global Economy', which reflects the variety of processes and methods which influence modern product creation. After an initial first section presenting the keynote papers, the remainder of the book is divided into 11 further sections with peer-reviewed papers: product lifecycle management (PLM); knowledge-based engineering (KBE); cloud approaches; 3-D printing applications; design methods; educational methods and achievements; simulation of complex systems; systems engineering; services as innovation and science; sustainability; and recent research on open innovation in concurrent engineering. The book will be of interest to CE researchers, practitioners from industry and public bodies, and educators alike.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 18th IFIP WG 5.5 Working Conference on Virtual Enterprises, PRO-VE 2017, held in Vicenza, Italy, in September 2017. The 68 revised full papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 159 submissions. They provide a comprehensive overview of identified challenges and recent advances in various collaborative network (CN) domains and their applications, with a strong focus on the following areas: collaborative models, platforms and systems for data-rich worlds; manufacturing ecosystem and collaboration in Industry 4.0; big data analytics and intelligence; risk, performance, and uncertainty in collaborative data-rich systems; semantic data/service discovery, retrieval, and composition in a collaborative data-rich world; trust and sustainability analysis in collaborative networks; value creation and social impact of collaboration in data-rich worlds; technology development platforms supporting collaborative systems; collective intelligence and collaboration in advanced/emerging applications: collaborative manufacturing and factories of the future, e-health and care, food and agribusiness, and crisis/disaster management.

This is a comprehensive review of research related to construction informatics, with a particular focus on the related 5th framework EU projects on product and process technology and the implementation of the new economy technologies and business models in the construction industry.