Quality management framework for a virtual enterprise network: a multi‐agent approach

2003 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 300-309 ◽  
Author(s):  
H.C.W. Lau ◽  
Christina W.Y. Wong ◽  
Eric W.T. Ngai ◽  
I.K. Hui
Keyword(s):  
Core Competencies ◽  
Virtual Enterprise ◽  
Enterprise Networks ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Enterprise Network ◽  
Management Framework ◽  
Agent Model ◽  
Geographically Dispersed ◽  
Multi Agent ◽  
To Come

Globalization and the borderless marketplace have created an opportunity for companies to come together to work on projects that could otherwise not be completed through the efforts of one or two companies acting independently. The formation of virtual enterprise networks combines the advantages of the various core competencies of members of the network to deliver customer satisfaction. Virtual enterprise networks consist of several firms that can be geographically dispersed, and that might be technically disparate in terms of system platforms. Coordination among members of the network and the the transfer of quality products and services among members of the network are the key factors in achieving success. The proposed framework presented in this paper utilizes a multi‐agent model to monitor quality within a virtual enterprise network to ensure that the processes among members run smoothly and efficiently.

A Planning and Scheduling Methodology for the Virtual Enterprise

2011 ◽  
pp. 256-269
Author(s):  
Florent Frederix
Keyword(s):  
Global Economy ◽  
Virtual Enterprise ◽  
Iteration Process ◽  
Virtual Enterprises ◽  
Enterprise Networks ◽  
Activity Schedules ◽  
Feasible Schedule ◽  
Planning And Scheduling ◽  
Geographically Dispersed

Virtual enterprises consisting of geographically dispersed, independent units are a reality in the global economy. These units concentrate on core technologies and create partner networks for the design, manufacturing and sale of their products. This chapter documents a methodology, more flexible and efficient than the more traditional techniques, to schedule activities in virtual enterprises and enterprise networks. The presented technique that stepwise searches for improved activity schedules has the advantage that in any stage of the iteration process a resource-feasible schedule is available. Investing in network and computation capacity will result in more efficient schedules. The virtual enterprise unit will view the platform as a time-phased capacity trading marketplace.

A Conceptual Framework for Risk and Vulnerability in Virtual Enterprise Networks

2010 ◽  
pp. 1-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Husdal
Keyword(s):  
Risk Management ◽  
Supply Chain ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Virtual Enterprise ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Supply Chain Risk Management ◽  
Enterprise Networks ◽  
Supply Chain Risk ◽  
To Come ◽  
Managing Risk

Is managing risk in Virtual Enterprise Networks different from managing risk in supply chains? It is not unusual for firms in a supply chain to come together and act as a Virtual Enterprise Network (VEN) and the supply chains of today’s globalized and outsourced business environment exhibit many VEN-like features. Looking at VEN risk management from the perspective of supply chain risk management, current ideas on VENs will serve as a base onto which ideas on supply chain risk will be transposed. Many concepts related to supply chain risk will be explored and related to their possible VEN counterparts: risk, vulnerability, robustness, flexibility, resilience and business continuity. Conceptual in its approach and drawing from other areas of research, this chapter introduces four distinct groups of VENS, namely Constrained, Directed, Limited and Free VEN, and concludes that VEN risk management can and should learn from supply chain risk management.

Virtual Enterprise Network Solutions and Monitoring as Support for Geographically Dispersed Business

2012 ◽  
pp. 34-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Marius Rosu ◽  
George Dragoi
Keyword(s):  
Network Architecture ◽  
Virtual Enterprise ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Virtual Enterprises ◽  
Enterprise Network ◽  
Geographically Dispersed ◽  
Service Invocation ◽  
Service Oriented ◽  
Role Based ◽  
The University

Transnational enterprises are assigning design and production around the world, but research is aimed to generate and support the enterprises’ networks formation and operation as virtual enterprises through the setting-up of service-oriented workspace environments. We consider here a role-based authorization approach to service invocation as necessary in order to enhance and guarantee the integrity of the transactions that take place in the business environment of a virtual enterprise. The virtual enterprise network and the virtual team are the main concepts used in analyzing the network architecture for geographically dispersed enterprises as support for business development. Using this e-business oriented paradigm this chapter presents an enterprise network monitoring solution based on open source software (OSS) implemented in the PREMINV Research Center, at the University “Politehnica” of Bucharest.

Risk Assessment in Virtual Enterprise Networks

2010 ◽  
pp. 290-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikolaos A. Panayiotou ◽  
Stylianos Oikonomitsios ◽  
Christina Athanasiadou ◽  
Sotiris P. Gayialis
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Supply Chain ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Virtual Enterprise ◽  
Internal Audit ◽  
Enterprise Networks ◽  
Efficient Manner ◽  
Enterprise Network ◽  
Chain Processes

In today’s business environment, supply chains involve a number of autonomous organizations. Agility, effectiveness and efficiency of these supply chains can be achieved by forming virtual enterprise networks. The nature of supply chain processes with inter-organizational activities, involving different enterprises in a virtual enterprise network, increases the need for control in a well-designed and structured manner. Internal Audit activities and controls can help virtual organizations to improve and operate in a more efficient manner. This chapter proposes a methodological approach for the design of the Internal Audit function for risk assessment and control identification of inter-organizational supply chain processes, using business process modelling techniques and an internal audit–oriented enterprise modelling tool. A case study in the auditing of the supply chain processes in a virtual enterprise network demonstrates the application of the suggested methodology and tool.

An Investigation into the Barriers to Introducing Virtual Enterprise Networks

2008 ◽  
pp. 162-176
Author(s):  
Angela Lin ◽  
David Patterson
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Value Chain ◽  
Virtual Organization ◽  
Virtual Enterprise ◽  
Preliminary Investigation ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Specific Information ◽  
Enterprise Networks ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Business Partners

This chapter reports on a preliminary investigation into the barriers related to the development of a virtual enterprise network in the creative digital industries sector in South Yorkshire, United Kingdom. Based on the concept of a virtual organization, it is argued that the key factors in delivering an integrated virtual value chain are trust and the control of risk. The connection between trust and the control of risk is demonstrated. Trust can be examined along three dimensions: competence, integrity, and benevolence. These dimensions of trust were used by the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in this study as the criteria for choosing business partners. Risks such as poaching, stealing, transaction-specific, information asymmetries, and loss of resource control were confirmed by the SMEs as the main sources of their resistance to participation in a virtual value chain. It is proposed that managers should pay attention to trust building and the control of risks at all stages of the development of a virtual value chain in order to drive collaboration forward

An Investigation into the Barriers to Introducing Virtual Enterprise Networks

2007 ◽  
pp. 23-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela Lin ◽  
David Patterson
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Value Chain ◽  
Virtual Organization ◽  
Virtual Enterprise ◽  
Preliminary Investigation ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Specific Information ◽  
Enterprise Networks ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Business Partners

This chapter reports on a preliminary investigation into the barriers related to the development of a virtual enterprise network in the creative digital industries sector in South Yorkshire, United Kingdom. Based on the concept of a virtual organization, it is argued that the key factors in delivering an integrated virtual value chain are trust and the control of risk. The connection between trust and the control of risk is demonstrated. Trust can be examined along three dimensions: competence, integrity, and benevolence. These dimensions of trust were used by the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in this study as the criteria for choosing business partners. Risks such as poaching, stealing, transaction-specific, information asymmetries, and loss of resource control were confirmed by the SMEs as the main sources of their resistance to participation in a virtual value chain. It is proposed that managers should pay attention to trust building and the control of risks at all stages of the development of a virtual value chain in order to drive collaboration forward

Risk Assessment in Virtual Enterprise Networks

2011 ◽  
pp. 888-910 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikolaos A. Panayiotou ◽  
Stylianos Oikonomitsios ◽  
Christina Athanasiadou ◽  
Sotiris P. Gayialis
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Supply Chain ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Virtual Enterprise ◽  
Internal Audit ◽  
Enterprise Networks ◽  
Efficient Manner ◽  
Enterprise Network ◽  
Chain Processes

In today’s business environment, supply chains involve a number of autonomous organizations. Agility, effectiveness and efficiency of these supply chains can be achieved by forming virtual enterprise networks. The nature of supply chain processes with inter-organizational activities, involving different enterprises in a virtual enterprise network, increases the need for control in a well-designed and structured manner. Internal Audit activities and controls can help virtual organizations to improve and operate in a more efficient manner. This chapter proposes a methodological approach for the design of the Internal Audit function for risk assessment and control identification of inter-organizational supply chain processes, using business process modelling techniques and an internal audit–oriented enterprise modelling tool. A case study in the auditing of the supply chain processes in a virtual enterprise network demonstrates the application of the suggested methodology and tool.

Research on multi-agent model based on track methodology of ontology building

2009 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 412-415
Author(s):  
Qiang LU ◽  
Ming CHEN ◽  
Zhi-guang WANG
Keyword(s):  
Agent Model ◽  
Model Based ◽  
Multi Agent ◽  
Ontology Building

Virtual enterprise networks: the fifth element of corporate governance

2001 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 171-188
Author(s):  
Nicholas C. Georgantzas
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Governance ◽  
System Dynamics ◽  
Transaction Cost ◽  
Transaction Cost Economics ◽  
Virtual Enterprise ◽  
Dynamics Simulation ◽  
Enterprise Networks ◽  
Market Uncertainty ◽  
Competitive Edge ◽  
Exchange Governance

Although still flying low under the popular business media's collective radar, virtual enterprise networks (or nets) do receive increased attention in the strategic management literature. A virtual enterprise network (VEN) is a system of autonomous firms that collaborate to achieve common business objectives. VENs give participants a competitive edge in markets demanding agility and rapid response. Seen as an emerging transactional exchange governance (TEG) form within transaction cost economics (TCE), VENs and the relations among firms that form them posit challenges for researchers and managers. VENs differ substantially from markets and hierarchies, and from recurrent and relational contracts, utterly changing what it means to be a firm in today's business. This essay explores alternative TEG forms, their characteristics and the criteria that bear on the choice of corporate governance: flexible specialization, market uncertainty, product (good or service) complexity, reliance on trust, risk, self-organization, shared knowledge, and socio-territorial cohesiveness. The essay offers propositions on the relations among economic criteria and the choice of transactional exchange governance forms by exploring the dynamics of a generic TEG structure. This is a system dynamics simulation model that partially offsets the shortcomings of transaction cost economics (TCE) and points to the potentially rich contribution of system dynamics to exploring VENs beyond the ideal-type TEG forms of markets and hierarchies that dominate the TCE literature.

Designing a Virtual Enterprise Architecture using Structured System Dynamics

2006 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-29
Author(s):  
Nikitas A. Assimakopoulos ◽  
Anastasios N. Riggas
Keyword(s):  
System Dynamics ◽  
Enterprise Architecture ◽  
Business Processes ◽  
Core Competencies ◽  
Virtual Enterprise ◽  
Business Goals ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Efficient Integration ◽  
Structured System ◽  
The Impact

The starting point for establishing a Virtual Enterprise is a set of existing enterprises which might contribute with some of their functionalities (core competencies) to the formation of the virtual entity. The most important issue, in this formation, is the rapid integration of the business processes of the participating companies. The architecture of the VE must assist companies desiring to enter into a virtual relationship by defining the functions and interfaces of critical business processes, thus allowing for a more rapid and efficient integration of the expertise which will be contributed by each partner in the virtual enterprise. While the integration of computer and communication technologies are no doubt critical issues, the successful attainment of the business goals of the virtual enterprise often depends on its ability to align the business processes and practices of partner enterprises. Focus of this paper, is the presentation of Structured System Dynamics (SSPS) multi-methodology for the design and the evaluation of a Virtual Enterprise Architecture. SSPS uses Systems Thinking and System Dynamics principles as launch pad for its approach. The Systemic Methodologies of Problem Structuring Methodology (PSM) and SAST are also integrated in this new Multi-Methodology. SSPS is a new practical and scientific tool in designing and evaluating a VE architecture providing the ability to determine the impact, reliability, success of the Architectures' models created, refine them and identify potential process improvements. A framework for the rapid and efficient integration of the business processes of the participating companies in the virtual enterprise is provided. For this multi-methodology, a real-life application is also presented for a Virtual Enterprise that constructs Wireless Payment Mechanisms.

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