Michele Sesana

A framework for computer-assisted creation of dynamic virtual organisations

Being able to rapidly react to a collaboration opportunity (CO) in the fast changing market conditions is a key requirement for dynamic virtual organisations (VOs). One way to make the process of VO creation agile is assuming a context of a virtual organisation breeding environment (VBE), which operates like an alliance of organisations, guaranteeing the preparedness of its members to engage in dynamic virtual organisations to rapidly respond to a collaboration opportunity. The process for VO creation discussed here consists of a computer assisted framework to aid organisations namely in finding suitable collaboration opportunities and characterise them; making a plan for the VO that fulfils the CO requirements; and finding the right partners to accomplish the necessary actions. All these tasks are accompanied by a negotiation process either in terms of selecting the best partners or in reaching agreements on the details of the VO.

The Ecolead Plug&Play Collaborative Business Infrastructure

This chapter presents a distributed and open ICT infrastructure called ICT-I that has been implemented in the ECOLEAD project to help members of Collaborative Networks in doing businesses and collaborations more efficiently. ICT-I design relies on the service oriented architecture paradigm, and it has been implemented with web-services. Its services are used on demand and pay-per-use models. It is flexible to support an easy entrance of new services and the withdrawn of others. So far the type of organizations envisaged by the proposed ICT-I are the members of virtual breeding environments, virtual organizations and professional virtual communities. This paper details the ICT-I reference framework and the derived services. A general overview about its main value and assessment is given in the end.

Model-driven service engineering towards the manufacturing liquid-sensing enterprise

Information and communication technology (ICT) has facilitated the introduction of mass customisation capabilities into the traditional Enterprise, especially in the domain of manufacturing. Currently individual end-customers are allowed to design and order a product that is uniquely tailored to their preferences. Servitization and product-based services have been gaining momentum to support the integration of products and services with customers. This has enabled companies to maintain a competitive advantage in contemporary markets. However, such capabilities demand more efficient processes, information systems to enable resources optimization, maximized collaborations along the value chains, and interoperable information flows. The FInES Research Roadmap 2025 identifies both Sensing Enterprise and Liquid Enterprise as two Qualities of Being that are strategic for any future enterprise. In fact, the enterprise needs to become self-aware not only in terms of their networked ecosystem but also in face of their inner subsystems and devices. This paper develops the concept of the liquid-sensing enterprise, exploring how modelling and model-driven development can support the transition and services implementation.

On Baseline IT-Services to support Enterprise Collaboration

Enterprise Collaboration (EC) is a widely discussed subject. Due to this fact a variety of different opinions can be formed mainly based on the scientific discipline behind it. From our understanding Enterprise Collaborations are based on inter-organisational relationships between network members. The analysis and support of those relationships was one of the main objectives of the COIN IP project. In the first year of the project the main objective for the Baseline Enterprise Collaboration (EC) Services team was to consolidate and harmonise results from previous RTD projects concerned with Enterprise Collaboration. As a scientific result EC Baselines Services are able to support most dynamic enterprise collaborations, like Business Ecosystems, by harmonisation of individuals and organisations profiles under the same model.

Osmosis Process Development for Innovative Product Design and Validation

The emerging Liquid-Sensing Enterprise (LSE) concept provides to manufacturing enterprises the required enablers to modernize traditional strategies for product design and validation. The proposed osmosis processes integrates innovative processes and paradigms comprising a MDA/MDI based approach with the focus to potentiate the generation of technological innovations. These osmosis processes address the existing real, digital and virtual related data of specific products design supported by sensing assets to facilitate ready-to-run business processes, to then perform efficient product development and validation. This paper integrates model-driven techniques and runtime environments as well as novel form of information access and visualization for systems design and process development. The developments are accompanied with a real example from a manufacturing environment of engine camshafts.Copyright

Requirements for Servitization in Manufacturing Service Ecosystems

As tangible products can be easily copied and customers ask for individual solutions, the European manufacturing industry increasingly bundles their products with associated services to so called “Extended Products” (EP). Missing competencies for this servitization have to be acquired by involving partners from the companies’ environment, the “Manufacturing Service Ecosystem” (MSE). However, traditional manufacturers lack the appropriate models, methods and tools for collaborative innovation, development and provision of EP. This paper presents the results of a requirements analysis of four manufacturing use cases that indicates the need for support in the area of servitization and collaboration in MSE.

Context-Aware Interaction Models in Cross-Organizational Processes

Rigidly pre-planned business processes are applied in the field of production planning and product development to coordinate the collaboration of single enterprises. Each step in these workflows is precisely scheduled, accounting for external constraints such as availability of material, delivery dates, and efficiency of humans and machines. However, finally all these steps are performed, or at least controlled, by humans and it is likely that in human-operated environments failures happen, and misunderstandings require adaptations and adhoc interference to avoid delays in workflow executions. In this paper, we discuss the role of human interaction support in traditional process-oriented environments, and present new approaches to dynamic involvement and interactions with collaboration partners. We highlight a typical use case where human experts are flexibly involved in certain steps of workflows that assist single tasks owners to solve emerging problems. In our approach, experts are discovered based on dynamically changing contextual constraints, such as problem areas and required expertise, and enable their fast involvement by using Web 2.0 communication facilities.

Semantics and KPIs to improve partner selection for small series production

This paper describes an on-going research and development activity to implement a semantic-based Partner Search service for supporting companies in a supply chain network configuration as one of the key elements of a comprehensive architecture with the aim of supporting collaborative design, planning and manufacturing for highly customised goods. The Partner Search service is the module in charge of managing and improving the manufacturers knowledge about its, even potential, supply chains. This service, therefore, has to support the manufacturer in managing information, based on capabilities and performance, about past and present partners, as well as in identifying new potential suppliers. The service is useful especially to develop effective partnerships when producing small batches, where it is necessary to have a reduced and easily manageable supply base.

Process Modelling Approach for the Liquid-Sensing Enterprise

A mutual interaction between the real, the digital and the virtual worlds in the Future Internet networked society provides a fertile playground for IoT-related research and innovation. This conceptual view enables enterprises to separate concerns and be able to define better strategies on how to act, react, plan and optimize their activities. Nowadays, business process and specific technologies can already support each stage of process implementation. However, none is focused on this conceptual division provided by the IoT advances. Representing and implementing the interactions between the three worlds is achieved by means of interoperable models and tools where business objectives can be aligned with software applications and services at the single enterprise or network level. This paper presents a model-driven approach and a tool to support the modelling and instantiation of the IoT-enabled liquid and sensing processes in an inter-world osmosis style.

A Service-Oriented Distributed Learning Environment for Manufacturing Workplaces

Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) are key assets to Europe’s economic future, providing millions of workers with access to technology, skills, and knowledge – often, however, missing a managed approach and appropriate tools for continuous learning and development.