João José Pinto Ferreira

Building an e-marketplace on a peer-to-peer infrastructure

Existing e-marketplaces, built on traditional client–server architectures, severely restrict the scope and dynamics of Business-to-Business (B2B) interactions. Peer-to-peer (P2P) architectures will provide far more decentralized infrastructures, while allowing a much wider range of business patterns to take place. On one hand, the interaction over a P2P network resembles the way real-world enterprises perform business with each other. On the other hand, a small set of simple services is enough to support complex business processes over a P2P infrastructure. Incidentally, most of the required technology is readily available, although it may be necessary to bring in an appropriate integration of different concepts. The paper discusses the implementation of essential services for P2P e-marketplaces, based on one of the leading P2P platforms, and illustrates its benefits by applying the P2P approach to a vendor of industrial equipment.

Integrating information and material flow executable models, an SDL-based information flow modelling tool

Continuous pressure for competitiveness increase led to the concept of enterprise integration. Within this context a modular approach to enterprise modelling, structuring it into manageable units which cooperate with each other according to identified needs and sharing information on request, is mandatory. The approach presented here encompasses a Modelling Workbench supporting the development of applications for the management and control of manufacturing operations: An integrated modelling and simulation environment providing both material and information flow modelling facilities, as well as the integration of material and information flow executable models. Building on Simple ++ , a simulation tool supporting material flow modelling, a class library allowing the use of SDL (Specification and Description Language) for information flow modelling and simulation was developed. The paper also illustrates the SDL environment concept and its significance in the integrated model, as well as its use for shop f...

Quality management and certification in the virtual enterprise

In the global market, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) face increasing competition from large corporations for the control of the more profitable business areas. These corporations compensate for their lower agility and flexibility with easier access to information, resources and economies of scale. The virtual enterprise model of a business organization is thus often seen as one of the best strategic moves for SMEs to achieve a global reach without compromising their independence. This emerging business paradigm certainly brings new challenges to many areas of the enterprise, one of which is the quality assurance of external processes and contracted products and services. This paper introduces and discusses the issue of quality assurance within the scope of virtual and networked enterprises, and presents a novel methodology for the integration of quality management into enterprise modelling and for quality certification of the virtual enterprise. This is especially important because quality certification is becoming mandatory in nearly all markets and the well-established certification methods do not cover all the aspects of the virtual enterprise. ISO 9001:2000, the most widely used quality management system standard in the world, is presented as an interesting starting point for virtual enterprise quality management system implementation and certification. Further requirements include broadening the scope of the quality management system to include the whole enterprise life cycle, i.e. from its creation to decommission. Current auditing procedures will have to be adapted to this new business environment and, to meet such a requirement, a continuous real-time third-party auditing mechanism—fully integrated into the virtual enterprise—model is proposed. A pilot/simulator, implemented in a small virtual enterprise, in the occupational safety and health-care business, is used to illustrate the new environment as well as the novel requirements that quality systems will have to meet in the future.

Integrating infrastructures for manufacturing a comparative analysis

This paper presents an overview of the evolution of manufacturing systems integrating infrastructures and standards, ranging from industrial network standards1 such as MAP2 and CNMA3, that essentially support hardware integration, distributed platforms like OSF/DCE4 and OMG/CORBA5 promoting industrial applications integration, up to integration frameworks like CIMOSA6 which try to encompass all the aspects linked to business integration. This overview has a particular emphasis on the integrating infrastructure concepts towards enterprise integration.

Introducing Time Horizons to Enterprise Networking Architecture

Having in mind the inner value of the Zachman Framework for Enterprise Architecture itself, this paper explores the introduction of the time perspective into the framework by using GRAI-grid decision centres concept. The introduction to both these concepts paves the way to their combination in following paragraphs illustrating the Zachman / GRAI-grid conceptual integration for the analysis of a network of enterprises, finally illustrated with a case study.

Mashup Enabled Dynamic Capabilities in the Fuzzy Front-End of Innovation

Innovation is today a widely used buzzword in the enterprises environments, because it is seen today as the support for long-term surviving and a lever for the creation of new and differentiated products or services. The Fuzzy Front-End of Innovation (FFE) is often experimental, involving strong interaction with the end-users. This enables the knowledge transfer from users, communities or Collaborative Innovation Networks to organizations. Enterprises may master a set of Dynamic Capabilities in order to manage, learn and integrate that shared knowledge. Today, using Web 2.0 applications, users are able to easily join together, share ideas, catalog information, spread and share their knowledge in a variety of ways. This paper presents a model to enable those Dynamic Capabilities using a Web 2.0 Mashup in the FFE of innovation.

The Workflow-Enabled Supply Chain, the Civil Construction Enterprise Case Study

This paper presents on-going research in the supply-chain management area. With this effort, we aim at bridging the gap between business process modelling in the supply chain and business process co-ordination by means of innovative workflow management tools. In this context we present the Supply Chain Operation Reference Model (SCOR) and illustrate its usage in a Civil Construction Enterprise case study. The civil construction enterprise presents, usually, a distributed organisational structure (strategic enterprise, construction sites, warehouses, head-offices, etc.), and operates in a transient and variable environment, according to the collection of works in progress. A common scenario is the construction process that involves the interaction with several suppliers and the co-ordination of many smaller firms (subcontractors), normally coordinated by one contractor. The relationship with the enterprise suppliers as well as between contractor and sub-contractor features a clear Source-Make-Deliver and Return pattern, demanding coordination and interoperability along those processes that cross the enterprise boundaries. The SCOR model process-orientation greatly facilitates supply chain business process decomposition, fostering therefore greater effectiveness process integration along the supply chain. The paper concludes with a proposal of new business process management concepts to be supported by novel distributed workflow management tools.

Towards the Workflow-enabled Civil Construction Enterprise Integration

This paper presents the result of a research project. In the course of this project we demonstrated the application of business process management concepts in the extended construction enterprise, by using a Workflow Management System. The civil construction enterprise presents, usually, a distributed organisational structure (strategic enterprise, construction sites, warehouses, head-offices, etc.), and operates in a transient and variable environment, according to the collection of works in progress. A common scenario is the construction process that involves the co-ordination of many smaller firms (subcontractors), normally coordinated by one contractor. In this context, the paper starts with the presentation of the civil construction enterprise, by briefly describing the organisational, functional and process models, and concentrates its discussion in the supply chain business process. The rationale for this process is further presented based on so-called construction enterprise basic building block,capable of being replicated for each construction entity. Follows the presentation of a prototype illustrating the above concepts and demonstrating the value added of such approach. Workflow technology will definitely become the cornerstone technology to support B2B E-Business scenarios in areas such as Construction. In this paper we will further discuss this topic by bringing new construction enterprise requirements in the event of such as the usage of new mobile terminals such as UMTS, PDAs, and so on.

Building the Extended Enterprise on Telework, a Case Study

The COBIP UR4003 Project is running under the EC Telematics Application Programme and aims at demonstrating the usage of workflow tools in the management of telework decentralized activities. This paper presents an overview of the COBIP system, and its pilot implementation at TECNOTRON head offices in Lisbon.

Quality certification in the virtual enterprise: An objective tool for supply chain management and customer satisfaction

In the scope of virtual and networked enterprises, we propose a way to integrate quality management into enterprise modeling and allow for quality certification of the whole enterprise. ISO 9001:2000 is presented as a suitable standard for these enterprises quality management systems implementation. On the other hand, quality management system certification in the scope of ISO 10011 is quite difficult, being presented some alternative scenarios for certification.