Michel Pouly

Success and failure factors of collaborative networks of SME

The enterprises active in the industrial subcontracting branch are in a very competitive market and support large pressures on their prices and delivery schedules. The arrival on the market of suppliers from low-cost countries like Eastern Europe or the Far East increases the pressure and drives towards delocalization. One possible answer to these demanding challenges is to cooperate within collaborative networks. Even if this concept is now rather well known, few SME are actually involved in such alliances and their success rate after a couple of years seems low. This paper presents a study of the success and failure factors resulting from the analysis of two collaborative networks of SME in the Swiss subcontracting industry.

Agreement negotiation support in virtual organisation creation–an illustrative case

In the actual market conditions, where it is essential to rapidly respond to business opportunities that might emerge, the concept of virtual organisation (VO) appears particularly well suited. The possibility of rapidly forming a VO to respond to a business or collaboration opportunity gives companies an expression of agility and survival mechanisms in the face of market turbulence. Nevertheless, in the process of VO creation, the negotiation among partners is essential. It is of extreme importance to have an environment where all potential partners can come together and negotiate the necessary topics towards an agreement to regulate the consortium behaviour. Through this environment it should be possible to conduct and manage the VO negotiation process, reach agreements and commitments among partners, enclose necessary documentation, specify partners’ rights and duties, etc. To accomplish such environment, a negotiation wizard is proposed. An illustrative scenario of an agreement negotiation in a multicultural context is presented showing the applicability of the wizard.

A multi-criteria model for the evaluation of business benefits in horizontal collaborative networks

Despite many advantages that could be gained through belonging to enterprise networks, only a few networks continue running businesses after the governments stop their funding. One of the reasons is the lack of a model that evaluates the benefits from the firm’s point of view. The objective of this work is to develop a model that estimates the benefits in horizontal collaborative networks, for a considered business opportunity, and determines the optimal network configuration in terms of the selected enterprises. We propose a method for evaluating the profits for a collaborative network based on a combination of product realisation graph and core competences identification. Through the case study of a Swiss horizontal collaborative network, the proposed approach proves its efficiency in selecting the optimal network of partners and evaluating their corresponding turnover and profits.

Trust categories and their impacts on information exchange processes in vertical collaborative networked organisations

Whereas small and medium enterprises can answer the different business challenges through cooperation within collaborative networked organisations (CNOs), human aspects constitute a fundamental issue in these networks since it is neither organisations nor information systems but people that cooperate. This paper addresses the major human aspect considered in vertical CNOs, namely trust that can significantly impact knowledge and know-how exchange as well as information sharing. A case study on Swiss Microtech, a vertical collaborative network from the industry of machining operations, is presented and discussed with respect to these issues. With the help of an analytic hierarchy process technique designed and developed, different trust types are identified, their corresponding weights are evaluated and their relationships with information sharing and exchange are discussed. The results show that the institutional perceptions of trust and its attributes in the enterprises studied are very close to each other. Furthermore, out of the five identified types, only competence, relational and contractual trust categories have a significant impact on strengthening the relationships between enterprises belonging to a vertical CNO.

ERP data sharing framework using the Generic Product Model (GPM)

Nowadays, all product life cycle processes are investigated deeply in order to get an advantage over competitors. To support these processes, several software applications are available. However, this wide range of heterogeneous applications leads to a large variety of hardware and operating systems, data management software, data models, schemas, and data semantics that hinder the information sharing process. To tackle this problem, Hitachi Company has developed a modeling language called Generic Product Model (GPM) in addition to several translators from native formats to GPM for storing, sharing and visualizing product data in a single data warehouse. In order to broaden the range of application data able to be stored and shared using the GPM data warehouse, this paper presents a methodology and a translator that allow management data to be included in a GPM data warehouse. Given the fact that most management data are stored in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, and that the latter allows extraction of database contents into Excel files, we propose a translator that handles Enterprise Resource Planning management data that are already extracted into Excel Format. The proposed framework enables data management contained in flat Excel Files to be translated into structured GPM data. Translation methodologies are given for the translation of mass production and customized product data through two case studies, one in the computer retail sector and the other in the extrusion machine industry.

Lessons learned from the lifecycle management of collaborative enterprises networks: The case of Swiss Microtech

Purpose – Research on the dynamics of Collaborative Enterprises Networks (CEN) lacks consistency and industrial feedback. The purpose of this paper is to present insights and lessons learned from an industrial case study dealing with the practical experience gathered during the creation, alliance development, and business operation phases of a CEN.Design/methodology/approach – The proposed research methodology relies on qualitative approach, using unstructured interviews with the main decision makers in the network. The objective of the interviews is to highlight the most important events in the lifecycle of the network. From the important elements discussed, success and failure key factors are identified.Findings – Through the case study, the authors identify the main success and failure key factors to consider in CENs. Furthermore, relying on the current state of the art, they highlight the main research directions, particularly with respect to the development of modelling approaches capturing the dynam...

AGREEMENT NEGOTIATION SUPPORT IN VO CREATION

In order to compete in the global market, companies have to restructure and make use of the infrastructures that allow them to become more agile. The, possibility of rapidly from virtual organizations to respond to a business or collaboration opportunity gives companies oil expression of agility and survival mechanisms in face of the market turbulence. In this paper it is exemplified the usage of a tool that enables time reducing during the negotiation process of a new virtual organization.

VBE pilot demonstrators

Nathalie Galeano, Arturo Molina, Jean Beeler, Francis Monnier, Michel Pouly, Carmen Aguilera, Alberto Olmo, Daniel Laessig, Berthold Tiefensee Tecnologico de Monterrey, MEXICO, Swiss Microtech Enterprise Network, SWITZERLAND ISOIN, Spain, CeBeNetwork, GERMANY ngaleano@itesm.mx, armolina@itesm.mx, jean.beeler@bluewin.ch, f.monnier@ravine.com, michel.pouly@epfl.ch, caguilera@isoin.net, aolmo@isoin.net, dlaessig@cebenetwork.com, btiefensee@cebenetwork.com

Competitor Based Strategic Networks of SME

Small subcontracting companies have difficulty getting in touch with large customers which drastically reduce the number of their suppliers to those able to provide a complete service. Setting up strategic networks is a new way of doing business where companies which are normally competitors can successfully cooperate to address new markets they will never be able to address alone. This paper presents a methodology for creating competitor based strategic networks as well as a case study showing how this methodology has been applied to set up Swiss Microtech, the first network in the screw machining domain.

Collaborative networks: Human aspects and corresponding IT support

Industrial SME face new challenges in the global market as customers are requiring more complete solutions and reducing the number of their suppliers. Small SME can face these new challenges through cooperation within collaborative networks. Human aspects are fundamental in collaborative networks as people, and not organizations or IT systems cooperate. This paper addresses the major human aspects encountered in this form of organization such as trust issues, knowledge sharing, coordination and planning activities as well as communication and mutual understanding and their influence on the business processes and the corresponding supporting IT tools.