BM_Virtual Enterprise Architecture Reference Model. BM_VEARM is a VE reference model conceived for enabling the highest organizational/structural/reconfiguration and operational inter-enterprise dynamics of VE, or A/VE (see Agile/Virtual Enterprise), employing three main mechanisms for VE dynamic creation, reconfiguration, and operation: (1) market of resources, (2) broker, and (3) virtuality. Additionally, BM_VEARM implies the highest level of integration and (geographic) distribution of VE elements (partners in the VE network).
Published in Chapter:
Market of Resources for Virtual Enterprise Integration
Maria Manuela Cunha (Polytechnic Institute of Cávado and Ave Higher School of Technology, Portugal), Goran D. Putnik (University of Minho, Portugal), and Paulo Silva Ávila (University of Minho, Portugal)
Copyright: © 2008
|Pages: 8
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-59904-885-7.ch121
Abstract
Most definitions of virtual enterprise (VE) incorporate the idea of extended and collaborative outsourcing to suppliers and subcontractors in order to achieve a competitive response to market demands (Webster, Sugden, & Tayles, 2004). As suggested by several authors (Browne & Zhang, 1999; Byrne, 1993; Camarinha-Matos & Afsarmanesh, 1999; Cunha, Putnik, & Ávila, 2000; Davidow & Malone, 1992; Preiss, Goldman, & Nagel, 1996), a VE consists of a network of independent enterprises (resources providers) with reconfiguration capability in useful time, permanently aligned with the market requirements, created to take profit from a specific market opportunity, and where each participant contributes with its best practices and core competencies to the success and competitiveness of the structure as a whole. Even during the operation phase of the VE, the configuration can change, to assure business alignment with the market demands, traduced by the identification of reconfiguration opportunities and continuous readjustment or reconfiguration of the VE network, to meet unexpected situations or to keep permanent competitiveness and maximum performance (Cunha & Putnik, 2002, 2005a, 2005b).