In this chapter, the concept of the virtual enterprise is developed. A motivating case at the beginning points to dilemma that acting manufacturing managers are facing. For the conditions of unpredictable change and dynamic markets the concept of the virtual enterprise is characterized, first, as a business model to create business value, second, as an operational model to co-operate temporaril...

The integration and coordination of strategic suppliers becomes increasingly important as the manufacturer relies on external transactions to build up collaborative advantages. By conceptualizing virtual integration as an efficient and effective vertical coordination mechanism, the study discussed in this chapter developed a model to examine the role virtual integration plays in improving manuf...

In manufacturing systems, different types of disturbances influence system’s performance, cellular manufacturing has been proposed as an approach to cope with the uncertainty characteristic of customer driven markets. However, even cellular manufacturing systems are prone to the effects of varying demand patterns. In this study, the effects of some aspects related to demand variation such as th...

The design and development of holonic manufacturing systems requires careful, and sometimes risky, decision making to ensure that they will successfully satisfy the demands of an ever-changing market. In this paper, the authors propose a methodology for a holonic manufacturing systems requirement analysis that is based on a virtual reality approach and aimed at assisting designers of such syste...

Modern manufacturing systems are often composed of a variety of highly customized units and specifically designed manufacturing cells. Optimization of assembly and training of staff requires a series of demo installations and excessive use of costly operational resources. In some cases, components are located at different sites, making the orchestration of the whole system even more difficult. ...

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 G...

Turbulent influencing factors based on market requirements and technological demands lead to a permanent change and improvement in the factory processes, manufacturing systems and layouts. New investigations in manufacturing show that the application of new machining processes and tools require a systematic and stepwise change of the layout and the organisation in order to activate the economic...

To satisfy new market requirements, manufacturing industry has shifted from mass production that takes advantage of the scale of production, to quality management that optimizes the internal enterprise functions, to e-manufacturing era that leverage intellectual capital via collaborative innovation. In the same time, the product itself is becoming the most important asset for sustainable busine...

Virtual commissioning (VC) of manufacturing systems has been researched for more than 10 years. Its intention is to test manufacturing systems and associated control programs through simulation conducted before the real systems are realised. The expected benefits in reducing debugging and correction efforts expended during real commissioning, however, can only be achieved if sufficiently detail...

The globalization of markets and world-wide competition forces manufacturing enterprises to enter into alliances leading to the creation of distributed manufacturing enterprises. Before forming a partnership it is essential to evaluate viability of proposed enterprise as well as how a company’s operations are affected by the proposed virtual enterprise. Distributed simulation provides an attrac...