A progressive approach for concurrent process planning and partner selection in virtual enterprise environment

In virtual enterprise (VE) environment, integration of process planning with partner selection is a critical issue. The concurrency between both of them can also eliminate redundant process and optimize entire production cycle. Based on a comprehensive cost function, this paper presents a progressive approach for concurrent process planning and optimal partner selection in virtual enterprise environment. Both direct-processing cost and indirect-processing cost are integrated into the comprehensive cost function. This approach combines product´s manufacturing requirements with partners´ manufacturing capabilities to obtain an optimal plant-specific process plan. Compared with other approaches in normal engineering and production practice, it can be expected to contribute to more efficiently reducing manufacturing cost, improving product quality, and shortening lead-time.