Global Manufacturing Virtual Network and its Position in Manufacturing Systems

Manufacturing system becomes increasingly complex in order to gain more competitive advantages in manufacturing globalisation. This paper seeks to gain a better understanding the practical and theoretical issues in collaborative manufacturing between companies in a value creation network. It proposes a conceptualisation for the Global Manufacturing Virtual Network (GMVN). It suggests that the GMVN – a new manufacturing architecture – has many distinguishing characteristics and is a promising example of the potential manufacturing configurations which could be based on a collaborative infrastructure and supporting ICT in order to address dramatic forthcoming changes in an increasingly fragmented market environment.