Virtual Enterprise (VE) Tools for Solving Cooperation and Integration Issues in Manufacturing Industry

Abstract

Virtual Enterprise (VE) frameworks (computer networks, as well as application systems for production engineering and management) enlarge the application possibilities of information and communication technology. An important novelty of VE is the fact that is offers various common tools for managing business and planning processes, as well as production, supply and customer relation processes including their operations, goals, monitoring and control. Integration and cooperation are the key issues for the continuous improvement and business process reengineering activities of agile manufacturing enterprises.
The authors propose a seven level cooperation model suitable for supporting discrete production engineering activities and processes in manufacturing enterprises. From the year 2000 up to the present two remarkable research and development projects supported by the Hungarian government have been organized by two consortiums with members from universities, an academic research institute, and large and small companies for solving integration and cooperation tasks with computer applications. In the course of the research new models, methods, optimization techniques and software prototypes have been developed. The paper also outlines some promising experiences with application.