Pedro F. Cunha

Framework for performance measurement and management in a collaborative business environment

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to provide practical justification for performance measurement and management within a collaborative business network. The basic performance measurement indicators are elaborated within the scope of this research. Design/methodology/approach - Performance measurement techniques are highlighted through the application of an ICT-based solution approach, with special focus on business collaboration among small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Findings - From the basic need to measure the performance of individual partners within a business network, this research proposes a generic framework and process flow with the objective of evaluating the individual partners in terms of various performance indicators such as key success factors (KSF), key performance factors (KPF) and key performance indicators (KPI). The outcomes from this framework or process flow will help partners in the network to build valuable trust, cooperation and coordination. Originality/value - The focus of this paper is to demonstrate the methodological approach of measuring the performance through identifying and prioritizing the performance indicators (KSF, KPF, KPI) among collaborative partners and to highlight their importance for successful business operations.

Digital enterprise technology: perspectives and future challenges

The future of Manufacturing Industries and the development of the related service sectors of the economy depend on innovation for the rapid development of new products and services. The actual competitiveness between economies and the mobility of capital and resources, advance these dynamic needs at a global scale. The rapid growth of large Asian economies, such as the Chinese and Indian economies, the incorporation of Eastern European countries into the European Union and the development of new production capabilities and consumer markets in many other parts of the world are only examples of a considerable and sustained change that has occurred during the past ten years and had a direct impact on manufacturing industry and the associated services. Therefore, sustaining innovation and the rapid development of new products and services are key elements for ensuring the competitiveness of manufacturing companies in a global context. Digital engineering methods are of paramount importance as they accelerate key technical and business functions and structure the collaborative procedures, from a local to a global base. New product design and engineering systems are being continuously developed to include a variety of tools for DfX as well as to incorporate aspects of digital manufacturing. Product Data Management and Product Lifecycle Management systems are nowadays seamlessly integrated with product design systems, integrating connectivity and management of the global design, production and service processes throughout the product’s lifecycle. There is growing awareness that the competitiveness of industrial companies in today’s global environment is closely related to the efficiency and performance of their production networks and the logistics of their supply chain operations. These are the key areas of relevance for the development of novel digital modelling and optimisation methods for large and complex systems and networks. State of the art applications, such as systems integration software for product verification and validation and RFIDs, have a major impact on the way product quality can be assessed during manufacturing and assembly and on how logistic functions are executed in industry, respectively. The potential impact of such infusion of digital technologies has not yet been fully evaluated as the integration of associated systems and services is still incomplete. These are areas in which research and development efforts from the academic community should be directed to deal with the new and challenging areas of digital enterprise technology (DET). Digital Enterprise Technology has been defined by Maropoulos and Reiter as ‘‘the collection of systems and methods for the digital modelling of the global product development and realization process, in the context of lifecycle management’’. This special edition of the International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing includes enhanced versions of unprinted papers selected from the papers accepted and presented at the 3rd International, CIRP sponsored Conference in Digital Enterprise Technology (DET’06) that was held in Setúbal, Portugal, in September 2006. DET 2006 follows on from the success of the two previous meetings held in Durham, UK, and Seattle, USA, in 2002 and 2004 respectively. The principal aim of DET’06 was to provide an international forum for the exchange of scientific knowledge and industrial and educational experience regarding the integration of the various aspects of DET. In DET’06, 76 technical papers were presented and there were more than 120 delegates from 20 different countries. The importance given to the theme of Digital Enterprise Technology can be highlighted through the sponsorship given by CIRP-The International Academy for Production Engineering (www.cirp.net) to this series of conferences and through the significant number of CIRP colleagues that participated and contributed to the success of this meeting. The papers presented in DET’06 were relevant examples of current, state-of-the-art in the development and use of systems and methods for the digital modelling of the global product development and realization processes, in the context of life cycle management. They provide valuable International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing, Vol. 21, No. 2, March 2008, 125 – 126

Performance evaluation within cooperate networked production enterprises

The concept of value has great relevance in the definition and implementation of performance management system in the context of cooperate networked production organizations. These new forms of organizations are, in many cases, still lacking suitable performance measures. Based on this idea, this paper will discuss the problem of performance evaluation, mainly: how appropriate measures can be found to accurately evaluate the production network performance and what are the appropriate ways to implement those measures.

An Approach to Performance Management in Collaborative Networks Based on Stakeholders’ Key Success Factors

Performance management in collaborative networks requires approaches suitable to deal with a larger domain than in traditional organisations, including new processes, new stakeholders and a less clear border between internal and external. The proposed approach addresses objectives and strategies setting, performance measurement and evaluation, monitoring, learning and improvement. It relies on the identification of key stakeholders and on their key success factors which provide the external perspective driving the performance evaluation and improvement. The work starts from the consideration of different natures and life times of Business Communities and Virtual Organisations, analyses the stakeholders’ relations and emphasises the clear identification of value creation for stakeholders as an essential component to align organisations.

Self Organization Shop Floor Control

Shop floor control in batch type manufacturing environment is regarded by the current research community as a very complex task. This paper claims that the complexity is a result of the system approach were inflexible decisions are being made at a too early stage in the manufacturing process. It proposes a method that introduces flexibility and dynamics and thus simplifies the decision making in production planning. The SFC method, which is a module of production management system, proposes that in order to introduce flexibility routings should be regarded as a variable. Each expert will generate routine that meets his needs at the time of need and thereby increase dramatically manufacturing efficiency.

Perspectives Of Mould Making Industry For Digital Global Manufacturing

In production engineering radical changes are taking place supported in new manufacturing paradigms and in technological developments. The increasing demand for meeting customer requirements and technological innovations have influenced the degree of flexibility built in the manufacturing system and its ability to respond in terms of cost, volume and time delivery. Taking the example of Portuguese mould making industry, this paper will analysed the main changes that have occurred in this industry and its ability to adapt to the availability of higher level of digital technologies and how they support new business models, extending their value adding chain.

Economic development and wealth through globally competitive manufacturing systems

The need for sustainable economic development is currently observed in many regions in the world and highlights the important role that manufacturing activities can play for societies, contributing to their development, generating wealth, jobs and a better quality of life. Although there is potential for manufacturing to contribute to a country’s GDP, to be effective manufacturing companies have to be able to act in today’s competitive, complex and globalised world, incrementing their efficiency, exploring effectively the new technologies and implementing new methods and tools. In general, manufacturing companies have to be able to evolve their production systems, with the aim to be able to design their products and the supply chains, and to adapt their activities to deliver their products and satisfy the customer needs, in markets where they are strategically focusing their operations. These movements and dynamics that have been observed are contributing to increment the level of industrialisation, modernising the production methods and enhancing the technological capabilities in many countries/regions in the world where manufacturing activities were not so expressive. The manufacturing activities should be incremented with the evolvement of technological and organisational manufacturing dimensions which is each time more supported in well-defined strategies where the technoscientific knowledge is a key issue. Therefore, the developed economies or the existence of well-established knowledge-based societies pose the greatest advantage for a sustainable development of manufacturing activities. This development can be achieved through manufacturing companies that are able to compete in terms of more highvalue-added products and services, as an alternative to those with a purely cost-based competition, which is not compatible with the goal of maintaining the region’s social and sustainability standards. The need for changes in manufacturing activities, evolving its processes and enriching its value-added creation, will have a clear social impact, valuing knowledge and new competencies, and has been calling for a cooperative effort in terms of R&D and education activities. Thus, R&D and education institutions are being fostered to contribute with their knowledge and capacity for innovation to promote increased high-value manufacturing. It is from these cooperative efforts that will emerge new technological developments and innovations, with increments in competitiveness of some traditional industrial sectors. Thus launching and attracting certain regions to high-value manufacturing and strengthening the collaboration between fundamental actors, such as universities, research centres and industry. All this cooperation that is already happening is not only in regions where those actors are placed but involving actors from other regions or different countries, with each nation looking forward to improve human realisation and wealth, through higher skilled and more well-paid jobs creation. It is with these worldwide perspective of sustainable economic development that CIRP, ‘The International Academy for Production Engineering’ (http://www.cirp. net), as the world leading organisation in production engineering research, has being promoting the cooperation within a community of actors from industry, academic and research. With its series of Conferences on Manufacturing Systems that are running for 50 years, CIRP has an international forum of researchers and industrialists, from all over the world, that offers the opportunity to all the participants to be actively involved in technical and scientific discussions on the manufacturing systems’ trends and their contribution for worldwide sustainability and development of manufacturing companies and of societies. It was with the goal to review and discuss the advances, research results and other improvements in the area of manufacturing, taking different perspectives and innovative approaches and envisioning future trends, that was held in May 2013, in Setúbal, Portugal, the 46th CIRP Conference on Manufacturing Systems (CIRP CMS2013). The CIRP CMS2013 conference had the theme of Economic Development and Wealth through Globally Competitive Manufacturing Systems and it was an opportunity for us to provide an international platform for the exchange of the latest ideas and developments on manufacturing systems, to stimulate technical and scientific discussions on manufacturing systems and their implications to productivity growth and industrial competitiveness, to stimulate the development of new research themes and international networking, to bring the discussion of forefront subjects closer to the local industrial engineers and managers, and to promote the development of collaborative networks to support manufacturing systems improvement and their global competitiveness. The overall aim of the conference was to contribute to higher value creation through an effective use of research results in the International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing, 2016 Vol. 29, No. 12, 1253–1254, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0951192X.2016.1250860