Section 6: Virtual and Extended
Enterprises
A Web Enabled Solution for Managing Distributed
Product Innovation
K. Cormican, D. O'Sullivan
MOTION - a Distributed, Innovative eWork
Platform to Support Teamwork
in Large Extended Enterprises
M. Boero, P. Chiabra, C. Ghezzi, M. Jazayeri, M. Tarkiainen
Active Knowledge Models of Extended Enterprises
F. Lillehagen
New methods and tools for collaborative
rich media production in broadcasting organisations
A. Gaiser, F. Schmidt
Web-based Virtual Enterprise Network
for the Maritime Industry
C. Odendahl, R. Angeli, J. Haenisch, D. Jaramillo, S. Makris,
E. Weitzenböck
Smart organisations: Benefits of Mobile
Internet to business processes
E. Lopez, J.M. Rueda, E. Guardo
Virtual Service Enterprise Services:
An Architectural Framework
D. MacRandal, K.-D. Kreplin, S. Mathews, B. Slof
Binding Distributed Business Process
Co-ordination (DBPC) and Digital
Co-operation Networks
Á. Nunes, J.J. Pinto Ferreira, J.M. Mendonça
Sharing of Computing Facilities and Engineering
Tools via Web Based Internet application
G. Palli, G. Agosti, A. Rodolico
From Business Integration to E-Business
J.J. Pinto Ferreira
An Agent-based Workflow System for Inter-enterprise
Business Processes
A. Dogac, Y. Tambag, A. Tumer, M. Ezbiderli, N. Hamali
A Distributed Information System for
Improved Business Co-Ordination within Networked and Extended
Enterprises
J.P. Sousa, A.L. Azevedo, A.L. Soares
COMPETE - A COMmon Platform for the ExTended
Enterprise
M. Sanseverino, N. Matino, G. Secco Suardo, S. Gusmeroli, M.
Argilli
Extended Products in Dynamic Enterprises:
The IST Project Cluster EXPIDE
B.E. Hirsch, J. Eschenbächer
A tool to support co-operative product
development in the area of e-Business
H.K. Tönshoff, V. Uhlig, U. Dietrich
A
Web Enabled Solution for Managing Distributed Product Innovation
Kathryn CORMICAN and
David O'SULLIVAN
Computer Integrated Manufacturing Research Unit (CIMRU), NUI,
Galway, Ireland.
New organisational forms such
as strategic partnerships and networks are replacing simple market
based transactions and traditional bureaucratic, hierarchical
organisations. Consequently, a new conception of product design
and development will focus on managing strategic partnerships
and facilitating communication, collaboration and co-ordination
in a distributed work environment. This paper examines some of
these issues. First, the changing business environment is considered.
Then, the shifting workforce paradigm is examined. Within these
new forms the changing role of information communication technology
is discussed. Finally, we present a web-enabled solution called
Product Innovation Manager (PIM) which is specifically designed
to enable effective product innovation in today's dynamic environment.
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MOTION
- a Distributed, Innovative eWork Platform to Support Teamwork
in Large Extended Enterprises
Marco BOERO(1), Piero
CHIABRA(2), Carlo GHEZZI(3), Medi JAZAYERI (4), Mikko TARKIAINEN(5)
(1) Softeco Sismat SpA, World Trade Centre, Via De Marini 1,
Genova, 16149 Italy
(2) Electrolux Zanussi, Via Giardini Cattaneo 3, Pordenone, 33170
Italy
(3) Politecnico di Milano, Via Ponzio 34/5, Milano, 20133 Italy
(4) Technical University of Vienna, Argentinierstrasse 8/184-1,
Vienna, 1040 Austria
(5) Nokia Corporation, Research Centre, PO Box 407, 00045 Nokia
Group, Finland
The multi-site, multi-process
and complex organisational structure of worldwide enterprises,
as well as the introduction of the new concepts of extended and
virtual enterprises, are determining increased needs of advanced
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) facilities for
improving team work and distributed working methods in engineering,
manufacturing and production processes. This paper reports on
the approach and solutions proposed in the European project MOTION,
started in the framework of the IST Programme, under Key Action
II on New Methods of Work and eCommerce. MOTION addresses the
development and validation of a novel distributed eWork architecture
to support teamwork in large and extended enterprises, with validation
in two relevant manufacturing environments of today consumers
market: household appliances and mobile phones production. The
paper outlines the technical approach followed in the project
and describes the planned validation for the developed architecture.
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Active
Knowledge Models of Extended Enterprises
Frank LILLEHAGEN
Computas AS, Vollsveien 9, P.O.Box 482, 1327 Lysaker, Norway
This paper presents the Active Knowledge Model approach to EE
engineering and E-work solutions. EE services and systems are
currently being developed in the External Project, EU IST- 1999-10091.
The EE methodology, infrastructure with tools and templates,
and the customer delivery process are all integrated through
visually managed type-hierarchies, domain templates and models.
The goal is to enable fast template re-composition, solution
re-engineering, work re-activation and management of EE knowledge
entities. The ambition is a new way of systems development.
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New
methods and tools for collaborative rich media production in
broadcasting organisations
Anke GAISER(1) and Dr. Friederike SCHMIDT(2)
(1) Sender Freies Berlin (SFB), Masurenallee 8-14, 14057 Berlin,
Germany
(2) Pixelpark IMD AG, Rotherstr. 8, 10245 Berlin, Germany
Traditional broadcasting organisations
are facing new challenges due to the rapid development of the
IT-sector. Video on Demand, Interactive TV and Internet broadcasting
force public broadcasters to redefine their production strategies.
Already, they have lost their broadcasting monopoly to webcasting
companies. To stay competitive they need to transform to MultiMedia
broadcasters. This requires systems for broadcasting production
teams that enable flexible cross-media publishing from remote,
mobile and heterogeneous workplaces as developed within the IST-Project
MultiPro.
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Web-based
Virtual Enterprise Network for the Maritime Industry
Clemens ODENDAHL(1), Ralf ANGELI(1), Jochen HAENISCH(2), David
JARAMILLO(3), Sotiris MAKRIS(4) and Emily WEITZENBÖCK(5)
(1)University of Saarland, Institute of Information Systems,
Altenkesseler Strasse 17, Geb. D2, D-66115 Saarbrücken,
Germany
(2)Det Norske Veritas, Veritasveien 1, N-1322 Høvik, Norway
(3)Germanischer Lloyd, Vorsetzen 32, D-20459 Hamburg, Germany
(4)Laboratory of Manufacturing Systems, University of Patras,
26110 Patras, Greece (5)University of Oslo, Institutt for Rettsinformatikk,
St. Olavs Plass 5, N-0130 Oslo, Norway
The EU-funded research project
MARVIN (EP29049) develops software tools to operate Virtual Enterprises
in the maritime industry, more exactly in the ship main-tenance
business field. One of the main objectives of the project is
to reduce the out-of-service time of ships in operation. The
main tool, the Maritime Enterprise Integration Tool (MEIT) supports
a web-based Virtual Enterprise in its initial set-up as well
as during its operation. The architecture of the MEIT is based
on state-of-the-art multi-agent technology and is designed to
be domain independent. Within the MARVIN project two business
scenarios: Emergency Repair and Planned Mainte-nance are in scope
of developments and demonstrations. Legal aspects, arising from
the operation of Virtual Enterprises and concerning exchange
and use of data during the processes involved, are also taken
into consideration.
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Smart
organisations: Benefits of Mobile Internet to business processes
E. LOPEZ; J.M. RUEDA; E. GUARDO;
ALTRAN SDB, Ramirez de Arellano 15 3ª, 28043 Madrid -SPAIN
In today's business world,
enterprises may conduct their day-to-day operations with remote
employees and partners around the clock. The whole infrastructure
needs to be adapted to support and distribute business intelligence.
At this point, Mobile Internet technologies offer a great solution,
and furthermore they come with many other advantages: compatibility,
platform independence, international coverage (as large as the
cellular coverage), support to business paradigms as CRM, collaborative
work, Knowledge Management, e-business, the buzz-words of IT
today. But still there are a few burdens to be lifted. We are
researching the state-of-the-art technology to provide a comparison
of solutions and technologies, analysing how they contribute
to a better scheme in the enterprises of tomorrow.
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Virtual
Service Enterprise Services: An Architectural Framework
Damian MAC RANDAL(1), Klaus-Dieter KREPLIN(2), Steve MATHEWS(3)
and Bert SLOF(4)
(1)Rutherford Appleton Lab., Inf. Technol. Dept., Chilton, Didcot
OX11 0QX, UK
(2)Netlexis Ltd, Siena Court, The Broadway, Maidenhead SL6 1NJ,
UK
(3)Athena BV, Witteweg 1, 6586 Ad Plasmolen, Netherlands
(4)empirica GmbH, Oxfordstrasse 2, D-53111, Bonn, Germany
In TeleSurve (Telematics based
Virtual Service Enterprise, Esprit 25537), an Electronic Commerce
framework for the Virtual Service Enterprise (VSE) was developed
and demonstrated. A VSE in this context encompasses a traditional
organization, but extends the view of its effective domain of
influence in its management of business processes in three principal
directions: towards customers (B2C), towards teleworkers and
small suppliers (B2x), towards partner organizations in the value
chain (B2B). In this document we describe the common internal
structures at each organization, their relationship to the interfaces
towards the three mentioned user classes, and how the different
services are enabled by the relevant standard protocols. The
security architecture is also described. This covers workflow
as well as non-workflow related security issues, and is based
on a Public Key Infrastructure. Finally, the demonstrator implementation
in which the approach was shown to work, and its relationship
to legacy systems, is briefly described.
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Binding
Distributed Business Process Co-ordination (DBPC) and Digital
Co-operation Networks
Álvaro NUNES
1, Agência de Inovação, Portugal
J. J. PINTO FERREIRA, FEUP-DEEC / INESC Porto, Portugal
J. M. MENDONÇA, FEUP-DEEC / Agência de Inovação,
Portugal
1 Agência de Inovação, Rua de Sagres, 11,
4150 Porto, Portugal
This paper focuses on the co-ordination
mechanisms used in distributed production chains. To a great
extent, the success of these variable geometry co-operation networks
depends on the capability to co-ordinate, integrate and manage
existing and emerging business links. To this end, the use of
Enterprise Engineering techniques can help in preventing the
cognitive rupture that many companies face when their internal
business processes are managed and conducted by external entities.
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Sharing
of Computing Facilities and Engineering Tools via Web Based Internet
application
Giovanni Palli, ABB Ricerca S.p.A., Viale Edison 50, 20099 Sesto
S. Giovanni (MI), Italy;
Giorgio Agosti, ABB Ricerca S.p.A., Viale Edison 50, 20099 Sesto
S. Giovanni (MI), Italy;
Andrea Rodolico, NICE S.r.l., Via Serra 33, 14020 Camerano Casasco
(AT), Italy;
The goal of the project is
to deploy an Intranet application based on Web technologies able
to offer a gateway to a Virtual Computer Center. The Virtual
Computer Center will be based on several clusters of Unix, Linux
and NT hosts that could be distributed along the entire ABB Corporate
Network. In this way the power of existing Hardware resources
and facilities could be fully exploited and different tools and
business applications could be shared over the network.
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From
Business Integration to E-Business
João José PINTO FERREIRA
Engineering Faculty of Porto University / Electrical Engineering
& Computers Dpt.
INESC Porto - Manufacturing Systems Engineering Unit
Rua José Falcão , 110, 4050 - 315, Portugal
Convergence of information
and communication systems is definitely changing the way businesses
are conducted. Best synergies however, will only take place whenever
this convergence is combined with state-of-the-art approaches
to enterprise business integration. Overall, this should be looked
at from a 3-axis perspective, People, Business and Technology,
joining the implied need for innovation, for competence in technological
support to business solutions and for trust in technology. With
this objective in mind, scenarios involving the enactment of
distributed business processes are explored in this paper bringing
along the integration of topics such as: Co-ordination of decentralised
telework activities; Supply chain Co-ordination for Distribution
networks; and Integration with communication technologies such
as video-conference and virtual collaboration environments. As
a vision, the author supports that on top of business activity
co-ordination, new demands emerge such as the need for improved
communication channels between far apart workers, as well as
effective means to locate information in the enterprise network.
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An
Agent-based Workflow System for Inter-enterprise Business Processes
Asuman DOGAC, Yusuf TAMBAG, Arif TUMER, Murat EZBIDERLI
and Necip HAMALI
Software Research and Development Center, Faculty of Engineering
Middle East Technical University (METU), 06531 Ankara Turkiye
An agent-based inter-enterprise
workflow system is developed within the scope of INCO-DC 97 2496
MARIFlow Project for automating and monitoring the flow of control
and data over the Internet among different organisations. The
main characteristics of the system are as follows: it has a completely
distributed co-operating agent based infrastructure, provides
a graphical workflow design tool as well as comprehensive monitoring
facilities, handles exceptions and contains mechanisms for failure
recovery. The system is also capable of automatically activating
external applications (which may be inside company firewall)
when necessary, keeping track of process information, and providing
for the security and authentication of documents. The MARIFlow
system in comparison to the monolithic workflow engines and traditional
client/server architectures, implements an architecture where
the business processes are executed through distributed, cooperating
agents interacting with one another over the Internet through
messages. MARIFlow system is general enough to be applied to
any application domain where data flow and invocation of activities
follow a pattern that can be described through a process definition,
however the example application is on maritime industry. The
system is fully operational for industrial use.
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A
Distributed Information System for Improved Business Co-Ordination
within Networked and Extended Enterprises
Jorge P. SOUSA, Américo L. AZEVEDO, António L.
SOARES
INESC Porto, R. José Falcão 110, 4050-315 Porto,
Portugal.
This paper first identifies
some gaps that exist within current information systems that
claim to support eBusiness and eWork in networked enterprises,
and describes some of the general requirements of distributed
and decentralised information systems for companies operating
in networks. It goes on to cover some principles for the design
of a distributed IS providing an advanced infrastructure to support
general co-operation, particular methodologies for co-operative
and collaborative planning, and guidelines for network set-up
and support. This work is currently being delivered under the
scope of the IST project Co-OPERATE, where a distributed and
decentralised information system, based on an architecture of
agents, and extensively using the internet is being designed
and implemented as a means to provide new and more powerful decision
support tools for networked enterprises.
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COMPETE
- A COMmon Platform for the ExTended Enterprise
Marialuisa SANSEVERINO(1),
Nicola MATINO(1), Gianmaria SECCO SUARDO(2),
Sergio GUSMEROLI(3), Marco ARGILLI(3)
(1)Centro Ricerche Fiat, Strada Tirno 50, 10043 Orbassano, Italy
(2)Via San Quintino 38, 10121 Torino;
(3)TXT e-Solutions, Via Socrate 41, 20128 Milano, Italy
The main goal of the ESPRIT
Project COMPETE (EP 29933) is to provide IT based methodologies
and tools to help companies structured as Extended Enterprises
to cope with the challenges of globalization, deregulation and
contracting life cycles, combining fast decision making and flexibility
to change. Such methodologies embrace both product function,
market, life cycle analysis, together with organisational and
individual competencies identification and evaluation. The IT
tools to be integrated in a distributed Extended Enterprise architecture
(called BMA) are: a Business Process Definition toolset (with
modeling and simulation capabilities), a Competencies Identification
and Evaluation environment, a Human Resources Planner and Scheduler,
a Project Management and a Workflow Management tool.
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Extended
Products in Dynamic Enterprises: The IST Project Cluster EXPIDE
Bernd E. HIRSCH AND
Jens ESCHENBÄCHER
University of Bremen
Hochschulring 20, 28359 Bremen, Germany
Internet and innovations in
E-Commerce and E-Business have had a considerable impact on the
development of extended products. Consequently, the core issue
of the EXPIDE project cluster is to combine knowledge gained
by many different European funded research projects to create
a coherent view about extended products in dynamic enterprises.
The development of digital business concepts and systems realised
in both business to business and business to consumer research
projects must be synthesised. Otherwise neither the joining of
results nor the contribution to the development of standards
will be possible. Furthermore, extended products make it necessary
to think clearly about the product life-cycle to assure that
elements such as service, maintenance or reverse logistics concepts
are considered. EXPIDE will identify collaboration opportunities,
mainly in promoting and disseminating respective project results
to industry for exploitation and advise to the EC.
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A
tool to support co-operative product development in the area
of e-Business
Hans Kurt TÖNSHOFF(1),
Vanessa UHLIG(1) and Ute DIETRICH(2)
(1)Institute of Production Engineering and Machine Tools (IFW),
University of Hannover, Schloßwender Str. 5, 30159 Hannover,
Germany
(2)dCADE GmbH, Gustav-Meyer-Allee 25, 13355 Berlin, Germany
In this paper, an integrated
business-to-business (B2B) application service is described,
which enables customers and suppliers to co-operate in the early
stage of product development. The described approach deals with
the electronic description, history management and exchange of
product requirements and their solutions. A software prototype
is developed that allows the customer to define demands of a
product component on the basis of marginal requirements, which
are stored as separate objects in a description structure. The
supplier uses the pre-determined description to work out the
solution and to design the component. The approach also includes
the possibility to link the objects of the described structures
with existing geometry in CAD-systems. In this way, the designer
will be informed automatically, if changes in the description
structure occur. The middleware CORBA is used to enable interoperability
across the disparate applications and computing platforms on
a high object-oriented level.
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