An Operations Model for the Extended Manufacturing Enterprise

Today, both development and operations of Extended Manufacturing Enterprises suffer from insufficient co-operation within the manufacturing company as well as from inefficient collaboration with customers and suppliers due to the fact that: processes, information, standards and tools from earlier projects are not sufficiently available for local decision makers; inefficient information and communication management causes poor collaboration and additional loops of adjustments and; operational control in the value chain is based on forecasts and assumptions rather than real time information and facts. In this paper a description of the functional and technical aspects of the an Operations Model for Extended Enterprises is presented. The operations model represents the overall framework that encapsulates strategic decision support, performance measurement, (re-)design and operations management of extended enterprises.