Jungtae Mun

Manufacturing enterprise collaboration based on a goal-oriented fuzzy trust evaluation model in a virtual enterprise

To cope with the rapidly changing manufacturing environment, enterprise collaboration is getting increasingly more attention than ever before. The virtual enterprise (VE) is a concept that supports temporary alliances of manufacturing enterprises that have various collaboration models, such as extended enterprise, networked enterprise, concurrent enterprise, etc. Selection of trustworthy partners and trust building are important in virtual domains because they have largely been affecting the success of a VE. However, because of its complexity of trust, trust models in the literature are limited in their ability to cope with dynamic and virtual environment. In this paper, we propose a trust evaluation method of supporting enterprise collaboration and maximizing the satisfaction of cooperation. In this context, trust means the goal achievement probability. Trust value of an enterprise can be obtained by a fuzzy inference system whose rule-base is based on the top-level goal of a VE. According to the selectors preference, various rules can be applied to trust evaluation. For further study, the planning and scheduling problems should be considered along with the trust-based partner selection for collaboration among manufacturing enterprises.

Self-evolution framework of manufacturing systems based on fractal organization

The turbulent environment of modern times breeds a need to ensure flexibility and responsiveness for manufacturing systems. The conventional manufacturing systems, however, are not suitable for the dynamic environment because of their rigid structure. Thus, it is necessary to establish a novel manufacturing system which is capable of proactively perceiving the environment and of autonomously adapting to the changing environments. The purpose of this paper is to propose a self-evolution framework of manufacturing systems that facilitates continuous and quick adaptation. In a self-evolutionary manufacturing system, each production resource regulates its own goal, responding to the changes in its environment. Moreover, the organizational structure of the production resources is also dynamically transformed into a form suitable to the changed goal and the emerging environment. Especially, the proposed framework adopts fractal organization for its principal control architecture.

Modeling and analysis of project team formation factors in a project-oriented virtual organization (ProVO)

In this era of rapid changes in the project-oriented R&D organizations environment, some are actively pursuing joint research to gain a leading edge over other R&D organizations. The condition for joint research is the knowledge that an organization needs from other organizations and the capability of collaboration. This study presents a ProVO model using the concept of virtual organization and project team formation based on knowledge and collaboration. In this model, VO is represented by the capability of carrying out a project and the cost of employment. Capability consists of knowledge competence (KC) and collaboration competence (CC). KC, in turn, consists of individual knowledge and collective knowledge from social network, while CC consists of density, degree centrality, and closeness centrality. To verify the presented model, we conducted a case study on a research institute. The analysis results show that all five project team formation factors of KC and CC are statistically significant. A prototype was also developed for selecting project team members using the binary logistics regression model. The proposed ProVO model can assist quantitative decision making on the selection of project team members by a project-oriented R&D organization from the aspects of knowledge and collaboration.

A goal-oriented trust model for virtual organization creation

Virtual organization (VO) is a main organizational paradigm for enterprises to collaborate in the rapidly changing environment. Advances in information and communication technologies are accelerating collaboration among enterprises in different domains as well as unknown enterprises. In this environment, an enterprise faces more chances to cooperate with other enterprises through the internet. Trust is a key concept in many kinds of interactions, allowing an enterprise to act under uncertainty and with the risk of negative consequences. To minimize the operating risk and guarantee the success of a VO, trust evaluation of potential partners should be considered during the partner selection process. However, trust evaluation methods in the literature have limitations in applying them to small and medium enterprises because they are based on evaluation of human experts. In this paper, a goal-oriented trust model is proposed to evaluate the trust values of enterprises. In the context, trust is the probability that a trustee satisfies the goals when it completes assigned tasks. This paper introduces the concept of a goal-oriented trust model with the core constructs of a goal, a project, a task, and a capability. It further addresses an example of applying the proposed model to the partner selection process of a project-based VO creation.

Self-reconfigurable software architecture: Design and implementation

To respond quickly to the rapidly changing manufacturing environment, it is imperative for the system to have such capabilities as flexibility, adaptability, and reusability. The fractal manufacturing system (FrMS) is a new manufacturing paradigm designed to meet these requirements. To facilitate a dynamic reconfiguration of system elements (i.e., fractals), agents as well as software modules should be self-reconfigurable. Embodiment of a self-reconfigurable manufacturing system can be achieved by using self-reconfigurable software architecture. In this paper, therefore, self-reconfigurable software architecture is designed by conducting the following studies: (1) analysis of functional requirements of a fractal and environmental constraints, (2) design of reconfigurable software architecture especially for a reconfigurable agent, (3) selection of proper techniques to implement software modules, and realization of software architecture equipped with self-reconfigurability. To validate this approach, the designed architecture is applied to the FrMS.

r-FrMS: a relation-driven fractal organisation for distributed manufacturing systems

Up-to-date market dynamics and decentralisation have brought about the need of flexible and robust organisational structures for manufacturing resources. To meet the need of such an environment, the manufacturing system should be equipped with an open, reconfigurable and scalable organisational structure. This paper proposes a novel organisational model, referred to as a relation-driven fractal organisation, to meet the requirements. The proposed model applies the concept of a fractal to its organisational structure and adopts a relational pattern between composing entities as a basic building block for organising. In this paper, the existing fractal-like systems involved in manufacturing systems are investigated, and the fractal organisation is derived as their super-ordinate concept. Then, r-FrMS, a relation-driven fractal organisation applied into distributed manufacturing systems, is proposed along with its organising mechanism which adopts employment relations between manufacturing resources as its organising principle.

Trust evaluation model for fractal-based virtual enterprises using goal achievement probability

In current business environment, competitiveness is no longer between enterprises, but between enterprise networks because individual enterprises often do not have all the necessary skills and competencies to satisfy the new market requirements. In this environment, finding the right and trustworthy partners largely affects the success of a virtual organization (VO) or a virtual enterprise (VE). This paper proposes a fuzzy trust evaluation model of three types of fractal-based virtual enterprises; a single enterprise, a VO, and a VE. The goals and the decision-makers preferences are the inputs of the proposed model. An evaluated trust value of an enterprise represents a weighted goal achievement probability of how it could contribute to the success of a VO or a VE.

Market-based negotiation model for employment-driven distributed production scheduling

The up-to-date market dynamics and decentralization have brought about the needs for agile production control and distributed decision making. Thus, an efficient and effective approach to coordination of distributed and dynamic decision entities is required. In this paper, a dynamic production control framework for distributed production systems is addressed by adopting a market-based negotiation approach, which is a promising approach compatible with the requirement. In the framework, production control is regarded as a continuous procedure of making employment contracts between production resources. In particular, a negotiation model for dynamic distributed scheduling is presented, including the internal decision models of principal entities, employer and employee.

Fractal Organization for Product Development Robotics Industry

In the current business environment, enterprises should be able to develop new products in a reasonably short period of time to satisfy customers’ demand as well as short product lifecycle. Furthermore, new product development is realized not only on an intra-enterprise level but also on an inter-enterprise level. Individual enterprises, especially small and medium enterprises, often do not have all the necessary skills and resources to develop new products. Therefore, finding the right and trustworthy partners and forming an organization for product development are important issues in developing new products. To find right partners and form an effective organization, it is necessary to measure trust values of other enterprises involved in product developments. The objective of this paper is to formulate a reference organizational architecture for product developments referred to as FrPDO (Fractal-based Product Development Organization model). A goal-oriented trust model and trust evaluation mechanisms for organizational formation are also developed. The fractal organization formation process is demonstrated for a new service robot development.

A VO formation process of a project-based organization with trust evaluation using goal achievement probability

In current business environment, competitiveness is no longer between enterprises, but between enterprise networks because individual enterprises often do not have all the necessary skills and competencies to satisfy the new market requirements. Therefore, finding trustworthy partners and the optimal combination are important to achieve competitive advantages and to survive in the rapidly changing market. However, due to the complexity and ambiguity of real enterprisespsila decision making processes, it is not easy to find appropriate models in literature to evaluate and select right and trustworthy partners. Also, many alternatives to form a virtual organization (VO) make the process difficult. In this paper, a VO formation process for a project-based organization is proposed with 1) a goal model of a project-based VO, 2) a competency model of VO constituents, 3) an evaluation model of each constituent based on the goals of the VO, and 4) the formation process of the VO with selected constituents. Finally, contributions and limitations of the proposed model are presented with the further research issues.