Iiro Salkari

Characterizing Virtual Organizations and Their Management

Virtual Organization (VO) Management aims to the achievement of the objectives of the VO. It can be seen as a set of mechanisms and activities directing and controlling VO operation. As different VOs have different objectives and environment, different approaches for VO management are needed. The paper discusses the concept of VO management and presents an outline for building VO management approaches based on VO characteristics or descriptive parameters. First analysis of practical cases against the characteristics has been performed. Further development is needed to specify the management methods and mechanisms for different approaches.

Partner Selection With Network Interdependencies: An Application

This paper describes a virtual organization (VO) partner-selection case of Virtuelle Fabrik AG, which is an operating virtual organization breeding environment (VBE). We approach the partner-selection problem through a recently developed optimization framework; therefore we also study the applicability of the framework. The results suggest that an optimization framework is potentially useful for supporting VO creation.

Challenges in the Management of Virtual Organizations

Virtual organizations (VOs) are considered to be an answer to tightening requirements of cost-effectiveness, time and quality, especially in a global environment. In addition, it is expected that collaboration within VOs contributes to flexibility, agility, customer orientation and decrease of risks. However, these objectives are not achieved automatically. The management of independent entities with individual, sometimes even contradictory, aims is a difficult task containing uncertainty. The Inter-organizational distribution of processes and activities may lead to high coordination costs, delays in deliveries, quality problems, information leaks and loss of knowledge. To prevent the problems, proactive VO management is needed. The paper discusses the challenges for the development of proactive management. The main experience behind the paper comes from the one-of-a-kind manufacturing.

Identification of Forms and Components of VO Inheritance

Virtual Organizations (VO) are created from a VO Breeding Environment (VBE) or a network, to serve a specific task. In addition to the task-based value the VO and its participants gain valuable experience and create other types of assets. Most often this achieved value is not saved. It is distributed, not managed and sometimes not even identified. The practise of presenting and reusing the common experience and other non-proprietary assets created in the VO is called here “VO inheritance”. VO inheritance aims to enrich the VBE “bag of assets”, thus improving the preparedness of the VBE for business opportunities. The added value, or the contents of the VO inheritance, is called here “VO heritage”. The paper identifies different forms and components of VO heritage. The identification uses previous development of “lessons learnt” in project management field, and a collection of views of SMEs operating in collaborative networks.

Hierarchical Multi-Attribute Decision Support Approach to Virtual Organization Creation

The process of virtual organization (VO) creation can be seen as the selection of a set of organizations from a larger set, called a VO breeding environment (VBE). Often a VBE provides several possible VO configurations whose efficiency differs. The ultimate task is to evaluate all possible configurations in order to select the optimal VO configuration. The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, we formalize the VO creation process as a multi-attribute decision-making problem. Second, we suggest a hierarchy of attributes for computer-supported VO creation. Finally, we illustrate our approach using a subset of criteria, through a case of an existing VBE, the Virtuelle Fabrik AG.

Process Plant Information Integration in Three Dimensions

The paper discusses the management of product information of complex one-of-a-kind products. Information and knowledge can be seen as important resources for design, construction, operation and modernization of process plants. The research problem is approached through three cases that form the basis for a generic conceptual model for information integration over process plants lifecycle. The model for managing and integrating information includes three dimensions: between interest groups, inside plant lifecycle and between plants or plant projects. This paper is based on a project called Novel Information Integration Techniques and Models (NIITM).

Challenges Of Lifecycle Service Business For Virtual Organisations

Many industrial Virtual Organisations (VOs) operate in manufacturing industry. Their business focus has been on investment product deliveries to industrial customers. Now the needs of their customers are changing. Besides a single delivery, their customers are increasingly interested in the lifecycle services related to their investments. It seems that in many cases, the ability to commit to the lifecycle services is becoming a prerequisite for getting the contract for the investment product delivery. This sets challenges for companies, who make these deliveries as VOs. A VO is a temporary collaboration for a specific task, but lifecycle services require long term commitment. This paper discusses and analyses the ongoing business focus shift from transaction and delivery centric towards lifecycle business centric in the context of industrial manufacturing VOs. The paper identifies challenges that this shift in focus set for VOs. It also analyses some prevailing approaches for VOs to provide lifecycle services. Still, many questions remain open, and thus this paper can be seen as setting some questions for the future research in the area of VOs and industrial lifecycle service business.

Requirements of Product Information Management in the Sales and Service Life-cycle Phases of a Plant

The information related to the delivery and operation of a plant is huge. Utilising this information and especially the experience-based knowledge can give business advantages. Operating in a network of organisations means to manage a large variety of processes and products in different locations, working environments and working conditions. This paper discusses some generic requirements on managing information in the sales and service life-cycle phases of Virtual Enterprises. Enterprises should prepare themselves for upstream information management.