Better Interoperability in Smart Organizations

Abstract

In order to maintain and increase the competitiveness of European companies in the advent of the emerging digital economy and smart organizations, the use of modern information technologies and standards among all agents involved in the furniture product life cycle and business has to be considered (Jardim-Gonçalves, Panetto, Nuñez, & Steiger-Garcao, 2006a). funStep is a community setup in the late 1990s with the support of the European Commission that implements an European research strategy for better interoperability in smart organizations (funStep, 2005). Starting in the beginning of the 21st century, the SMART-fm is an IMS project entitled “A standards-compliant framework to support complete integrated product life-cycle information management and electronic commerce for the furniture manufacturing industry, in the advent of smart enterprises” (IMS, 2006). The main objective of the SMART-fm project is to research, develop, and demonstrate in industrial environments, an interoperable open standardsbased framework that supports smart environments through the complete product life cycle in the furniture manufacturing industry. This article presents the strategic objectives of the SMART-fm project as a case study to stimulate and accelerate SMEs to adopt technologies and practices in the emerging digital economy, extended enterprises, and intelligent services. It concludes by anticipating the strategic results that funStep will deliver for the next decade.