Multilevel manufacturing system of virtual enterprise based on manufacturing grid and strategies for member enterprise selection and task assignment

In order to improve efficiency of virtual enterprise, a manufacturing grid and multilevel manufacturing system of virtual enterprise is built up. When selecting member enterprises and task assignment based on the manufacturing grid, key activities are assigned to the suitable critical member enterprises by task decomposition, enterprise node searching and characteristic matching of manufacturing resources according to the characteristic matching strategy. By task merger, some ordinary activities are merged with corresponding key activities and assigned to corresponding critical member enterprises. However, the other ordinary activities are assigned to the related ordinary member enterprises with enterprise node searching and characteristic matching of manufacturing resources. Finally, an example of developing the artificial hip joint in the virtual enterprise is used to demonstrate that efficiency of the virtual enterprise is improved by using the manufacturing grid and the proposed strategies for member enterprise selection and task assignment.

Project Management and Coordination of Distributed Cooperative Product Design in a Virtual Enterprise

The architecture of project management of distributed concurrent product design in a virtual enterprise is put forward. T he process of project management and its functions are presented. Product design process coordination is also discussed. First, based on the analysis of traditi onal project management, project management and coordination of distributed coop erative product design in the virtual enterprise is put forward. Then, aiming at the characteristics of a distributed concurrent product design process, the inh erent rules and complex interrelations in product development are studied. Accor dingly, the architecture of project management of distributed cooperative produc t design in a virtual enterprise is presented to adapt to distributed concurrent development of complex products. The main advantages of the architecture are al so discussed. Finally, the emphasis is placed on the project management process. Its main functions are set forth, such as project definition, task decompositio n and distribution, resource constraints and dynamic resource scheduling, proces s fusion, task scheduling and monitoring, project plan, cost and quality evaluat ion, etc.

PRODUCT MODELLING TO SUPPORT PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT IN A VIRTUAL ENTERPRISE

The concept of Virtual Enterprise (VE) is closely related to the Global Manufacturing (GM) paradigm. How to develop a computer system which supports the product development in VE is an issue to be discussed in this paper. The emphasis is placed on the product modelling in the VE context. In the paper, a new concept of information modelling called ’heterogeneous data’ situation is clarified, which is further related to the ’Instance As Type’ (TAT) phenomenon. Modelling for IAT is discussed. Modelling for the partner company behaviour is presented as well.

Partner Selection Analysis and System Development Based on Gray Relation Analysis for an Agile Virtual Enterprise

This paper analyzes the state of the art of partner selection and enumerates the advantage of partner selection based on gray relation analysis comparing to the other algorithms of the partner selection. Furthermore, partner selection system based on gray relation for an Agile Virtual Enterprise（AVE） is analyzed and designed based on the definition and characteristics of the AVE. According to J2EE mode, the architecture of the partner selection system is put forward and the system is developed t^ing JSP, EJB and SQL Server. The paper lays emphasis on a gray relational mathematic model, AVE evaluation infrastructure, a core algorithm of partner selection and a multi-layer gray relation selection process.

PRODUCT MODELLING TO SUPPORT PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT IN A VIRTUAL ENTERPRISE

The concept of Virtual Enterprise (VE) is closely related to the Global Manufacturing (GM) paradigm. A VE is established each time a new product development is required. How to develop a computer system which supports the product development in VE is an issue ti be discussed in this paper. The emphasis is placed on the product modelling in the VE context, and a new concept of information modelling called “heterogeneous data”situation is clarified, which is further related to the “Instance As Type”(IAT) phenomenon. Modelling for IAT is discussed.Modelling for the partner company behaviour is presented as well.

Profit Allocation Scheme among Partners in Virtual Enterprises Based on Fuzzy Shapley Values

Fuzzy Shapley values are developed based on classical Shapley values and used to allocate profit among partners in virtual enterprises （VE）. Axioms of the classical Shapley value are extended to Shapley values with fuzzy payoffs by using fuzzy sets theory. Fuzzy Shapley function is defined based on these extended axioms. From the viewpoint the allocation for each partner should be a crisp value rather a fuzzy membership function at the end of cooperation, a crisp allocation scheme based on fuzzy Shapley values is proposed.

Effective Virtual Reality Based Building Navigation Using Dynamic Loading and Path Optimization

Although computer capabilities have been improved significantly, a large-scale virtual reality （VR） system demands much more in terms of memory and computation than the current computer systems can offer. This paper discusses two important issues related to VR performance and applications in building navigation. These are dynamic loading of models based on cell segmentation for the optimal VR operation, and the route optimization based on path planning for easy navigation. The VR model of engineering and information technology complex （EITC） building at the University of Manitoba is built as an example to show the feasibility of the proposed methods. The reality, enhanced by three-dimensional （3D） real-time interactivity and visualization, leads navigators into a state of the virtual building immersion.

The Application of Cloud Computing in Virtual Enterprise’s Information Resources Sharing

With the rapid development of social,science and technology ,we are always looking for the advanced and rapid manufacturing method and the management pattern.thus a new enterprise cooperation pattern-Virtual Enterprise arises at the historic moment. The cooperation is a process which advantages the temporary enterprise resources each other. Therefore, the virtual enterprise must encounter the problem that how to realize the virtual enterprises’ information resources sharing and improve the efficiency of enterprise cooperation. This paper uses the cloud computing’s advantage to solve the problem of virtual enterprise information resources sharing. Then enterprise is able to share the information of different regions,different computing environment and improve the efficiency of virtual enterprise cooperation.

Study on the Agile Virtual Enterprise′s Organizing Form and Running Environment

In this paper, we begin with the swift changes in the knowledge economy time,analyze the implication of the agility, and consider the agile virtual enterprise as the mainorganizational form for the manufacturing enterprises to realize agility. We classify the agilevirtual enterprises into products alliance style and knowledge alliance style, and compares theirmain features and profit distribution models. As a result, we give four basic structures for thebuilding and running of the agile virtual enterprises.

Integration of Manufacturing Services into Virtual Environments over the Internet

Virtual reality (VR) is a rapidly developing technology that has a wide spectrum of industrial and commercial applications. Networked (distributed or shared) virtual environments (VE) are of growing interest to modern manufacturing industry; a dominating use of networked virtual manufacturing environments (VMEs) is on-line visualisation and collaborative control of 3D information. This has to be supported by real-time data transfer. To meet a broad range of common requirements for Internet-based VE communications, particularly for virtual manufacturing and collaborative design and control, this paper presents a networked virtual environment system that is designed to support networked virtual design and manufacturing. The system is implemented with manufacturing message specification (MMS) standards so as to integrate a range of manufacturing services into networked VEs over the Internet.

Economics Analysis for Information Flow of the Leader Dynamic Management in Virtual Enterprise

The virtual enterprise will play a more and more im po rtant role in economy development. The virtual enterprise leader raises market a daptability and group cooperation ability through its dynamic management. Thus t he validity and efficiency of leader’s dynamic management determines the efficie ncy of the virtual enterprise operation, and the validity of the information flo w is one of the main factors. In this paper, the validity of the information flo w in the course of the leader’s dynamic management in the virtual enterprise is analyzed by using the economic searching theory and the information theory, and the possible ways to improve the validity and efficiency of leader’s dynamic man agement are indicated. Firstly, the basic concepts such as leader’s dynamic management, virtual enterpr ise, and its leader are defined. The dynamic management procedure for the virtua l enterprise leader is analyzed with the dynamic theory raised by Mowshowitz. Secondly, the model for the dynamic management of the virtual enterprise leader is constructed using multi-goal selection. The information flow validity for th e leader during the stages of the identification and the establishment is analyz ed with the economic searching theory and the information theory. Meanwhile, the value of the dynamic management policy is discussed with the information va lue theory. Finally, two ways to improve the validity of the information flow are obtained. The first way is to process the various kinds of information of the existing mem bers in the virtual enterprise for the future cooperative usage and to extend th e selective objects for the leader, and to make the detailed and clear mechanism of the object evaluation and selection (the market chance and the cooperative partner). The other way is to build the system of the effective transfer and process of the feedback information flow during the operation of the virtual ent erprise based on the information technology.

Research on an Embryonic form of Green Virtual Enterprise

Green Virtual Enterprise (GVE) is a new contemporar y manufacturing mode, which is to adapt and meet the need of sustainable developme nt of humanity. In, this paper, the concept of Total Green Management is first a dvanced. In this based on the analysis of the Virtual Enterprise (VE) and Total Green Management (TGM), the concept of Green Virtual Enterprise and its architec ture is brought forward.

Technology Innovation Mode of Agricultural Leading Enterprise——Based on the Virtual Organization Mode

Based on the definition of technology innovation of agricultural leading enterprises by domestic and foreign experts and scholars,technology innovation of agricultural enterprises is a process of new market increment,which uses new knowledge,technology,process and production mode,produces new products,offers new services and realizes commercialization. Characteristics of agricultural technology innovation are introduced,such as obvious regionality,relatively high risk,long-term periodicity and public attribute. Predicament for technology innovation of leading enterprises is analyzed,such as technical constraints,financial constraints and personnel constraints. Technological Innovation Mode can be classified into three modes of independent innovation,imitative innovation and cooperative innovation by the method of technology innovation. Among them,since there are some defects in the technology innovation process,independent innovation and imitative innovation are generally not used for the innovation of agricultural enterprises. Cooperative Innovation Mode can rely on foreign aid,can realize complementary advantages and achievement sharing,and can be widely applied in the agricultural innovation enterprise. Virtual organization in cooperation innovation mode is described,which makes up for technology,capital and human resources barriers in the process of agricultural enterprise innovation. Therefore,this mode is popular among the agricultural innovation enterprise.

Organizing of Virtual Enterprise for Customized Artificial Joint and Scheduling of Manufacturing Resources Based on Manufacturing Grid

In order to improve efficiency of developing customized artificial joint, a virtual enterprise is organized based on the manufacturing grid. The application-oriented framework of the virtual enterprise is created for organization of the virtual enterprise. The manufacturing system of the virtual enterprise is built up based on the exterior grid and manufacturing subsystems of member enterprises are set up based on the interior grid. Furthermore, according to characteristic matching of manufacturing resources, the scheduling flow is studied in detail and the related scheduling strategies are established. The scheduling procedure is divided into distributed scheduling stage and local scheduling stage.Based on the manufacturing grid, the organization of the virtual enterprise for customized artificial joint and the corresponding scheduling strategies can be utilized to shorten developing cycle and reduce produce cost.

A New Approach to Provide Global Certificate Service in Virtual Enterprise

Certificate Authority (CA) is the core of public key infrastructure. However, the traditional structure of CA is either hierarchical or reticular, and none of them is suitable for security require-nients come from the new trend in enterprise cooperation, namely virtual enterprise (VE). In this paper a new idea - virtual certificate authority (VCA), is proposed, as well as its implemen-tation. The goal of VCA is to provide global certificate service over vital enterprise while keeping CA of each participant intact as much as possible. Unlike PEM, PGP, and BCA, by using secret sharing scheme, virtual CA avoids the need for TTP and supports virtual enterprise's feature of dynamical construction and destruction.

Research on Tracing Evaluation System in Virtual Enterprise Based on Neural Network

The tracing evaluation index system was designed to be used in virtual enterprise and established neural network trace evaluation model. As a result, it was more simple and nicer than the traditional method, so it had wider application foreground.

Interval programming model for risk-based partner selection of virtual enterprise

The problem of risk-based partner selection of virtual enterprise is investigated. By choosing optimal partner for each project task, the project risk is minimized. The risk parameters are expressed in the form of interval numbers when the precise values are difficult to obtain, and the model is formulated into a 0-1 nonlinear programming with interval coefficients in its objective function. In order to solve the problem, the definition of order relation between interval numbers is given, and the original model is converted into an equivalent crisp bi-objective programming model. Because of the highly constrained nature and multiple objective of the model, a genetic algorithm is proposed to find the set of Pareto or near Pareto optimal solutions. The approach is demonstrated by some numerical examples, and the result shows that the suggested approach has high efficiency and the model has potential to practical applications.

The Study of Virtual Enterprise＇s Leader

With the fast changing of environment, virtual enterprises become a kind of new manufacture mode day by day. In the course of establishment and operation of virtual enterprises, the leader＇s status is very important. The study of the leader＇s characteristic, function and how to discern will contribute to realize the leader＇s function and guarantee the healthy and fast development of virtual enterprises.

Study on Virtual Training Management in Small-sized Enterprises

This paper firstly analyses the necessity of virtual management in small-sized enterprises, then presents two main modes to implement virtual training management in small-sized enterprises. The paper also points out the best mode for the small-sized enterprises＇ training to implement virtual management.