Virtual Factory: Miths and reality in the Brazilian context

The concept of virtual organization ( involving virtual enterprise and virtual factory) can be understood as a kind of cooperative network enterprise and dynamic cooperative network, which, throught the utilization of the new information technologies and the new infoways ( the Internet, for example) provides the acces to new markets of products and services without the traditional limits in terms of space and time and increases the competitiveness power of the partners belong to this virtual network. The aim of this paper is to investigate (based on the context of the global industry restructuring) the emergence of the virtual enterprise and virtual factory conceptions in the brazilian economy . João Amato Neto, University of São Paulo, Av. Prof. Almeida Prado, No. 128. Trav.2, CEP 05508-900. São Paulo, Brazil, ([email protected])