A methodological eBook and a software tool conceived to complementarily support collaboration in Extended Enterprises. PAOLO MAURO. Institute of Industrial ...
A methodological eBook and a software tool conceived to complementarily support collaboration in Extended Enterprises PAOLO MAURO Institute of Industrial Technologies and Automation - ITIA-CNR Viale Lombardia, 20/a - 20131 Milano ITALY CRISTIANO COLOMBO Institute of Industrial Technologies and Automation - ITIA-CNR Viale Lombardia, 20/a - 20131 Milano ITALY CLAUDIA DOLD Institute for Human Factors and Technology Management IAT University of Stuttgart Nobelstrasse 12, 70569 Stuttgart, GERMANY JOACHIM LENTES Institute for Human Factors and Technology Management IAT University of Stuttgart Nobelstrasse 12, 70569 Stuttgart, GERMANY XAVIER LÓPEZ Atos Origin Av. Diagonal 210-218, 08018 Barcelona, SPAIN
Abstract: - The Extended Enterprise (EE) paradigm establishes new rules and constraints for effective business collaborations. Therefore, the evolution from the traditional forms of involvement of external partners in own business processes to the EE paradigm implies the necessity of developing adequate methodologies and tools to manage this new business context: tailored methods are requested in order to help EE partners manage common business strategies and activities in an efficient and effective manner; adequate ICT tools are needed to support day-to-day collaborative business processes. This paper presents the results achieved within the co-funded European project Prominence: a collaborative software tool (Pro-Mat) and an electronic handbook (Pro-eBook) suitably developed to be adopted in EE-based collaborations. Both solutions are expected to supplement each other in a complete tool set, with the overall aim of fostering the creation of value all along the extended supply chain, in a short- as well as long-term time horizon. Key-Words: - Extended Enterprise, business collaboration, collaborative software tool, supporting methodologies, eBook.
1 Introduction In the last decade the Extended Enterprise (EE) term has been assuming more and more relevance as a new and effective business collaboration paradigm. This is in particular due to the fact that manufacturing enterprises have been trying to evolve their internal and external configuration as a response to a phenomenon such as globalization, which has dramatically increased technological and market competition as well as opened new business opportunities. The technological competition is additionally driven by the extremely fast continuous
evolution of information and communication technologies. Market competition is reinforced by rapidly changing costumer requirements. As a consequence, only companies that are able to radically increase their competitiveness, rapidly access and create new knowledge, continuously enhance their intellectual capital, and actually penetrate new markets, are destined to survive. Companies are reacting to this new, turbulent business scenario in many different ways, but a common propensity can be highlighted: companies are inclined to expand their conventional borders
turning their organizational structures into “virtual” structures [1]. Many companies already have developed long-term relationships and collaborate closely within formations in the sense of Extended Enterprises1 [3]. This is particularly true in the European small- and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises context: in fact, in order to face and overcome these new competitive challenges, many west European SMEs have been increasingly looking for outsourcing opportunities and supply from companies in the eastern parts of Europe. Hitherto many European SMEs have developed long term relations with suppliers from countries of the eastern part of Europe and some of them closely collaborate on issues like joint product development or shared production [4]. Such forms of cooperation are often a main factor for the competitiveness of European manufacturing SMEs that is so far mainly based on the combination of excellence in technology and processes in Western Europe and cost advantages in Eastern Europe [5]. However, the setting up and growth of an EE, and the attainment of a common competitive edge, is a complex management matter of several dimensions that must be carefully and coherently planned. As a matter of fact, a primary cause for the lack of systematically managed development is the insufficient methodological support available, that is in particular due to three main factors: the complexity of the fragmented management components of strategic EE development and the resulting difficulty in seeing opportunities to identify or improve EE core-capabilities; the absence of adequate and proven methods to manage such development capabilities; the lack of knowledge for implementation, assessment and control of strategic EE development [6]. Therefore, the evolution from the traditional forms of involvement of external partners in own business processes to the EE paradigm implies the necessity of developing adequate methodologies and tools to manage this new business context [7]: tailored methods are requested in order to help EE partners manage common business strategies and activities in an efficient and effective manner; adequate information and communication technology tools are needed to support day-to-day collaborative business processes. This paper presents the results achieved within the co-funded European project Prominence2, whose aim is to give potential support to manage the challenges related to the establishment and development of east1
For an introduction to the EE concept see [2], among others Promoting Inter-European Networks of Collaborating Extended Enterprises. No.: GRD-2001-40747. Website: http://www.euprominence.net 2
west European collaborations based on the EE paradigm. The above mentioned results are: a collaborative software tool (Pro-Mat) and an electronic handbook (Pro-eBook). Both solutions, suitably developed to be adopted in EE-based collaborations, are expected to supplement each other in a complete tool set, with the overall aim of fostering the creation of value all along the extended supply chain and underpinning a long term sustainable development.
2 Research approach The work started with an extensive survey and a case study research, that have been performed over a period of five months through semi-structured expert interviews with all relevant functions or departments of the companies involved, with the aim of identifying relevant as well as critical management issues in the context of EE-based collaborations. Within the interviews many different aspects have been analyzed, such as: overall collaboration strategy, business processes, collaboration mechanisms, structures and procedures for joint management of common processes (project management, new product development, production, etc.), information and communication technology infrastructure, knowledge transfer channels, as well as problems and obstacles experienced during the collaboration. Within the research, seventeen collaborative business relations, operating in different environments and including companies from eight European countries, have been duly investigated: nine east-west European EEs, fifteen EEs including one or more SMEs, seven EEs with partners collaborating in more than one EE, eight EEs characterized at least by a 5 years-long business collaboration. Based on the empirical findings out of the case studies as well as on an extensive literature analysis, a management framework (Pro-Framework) has been conceived, which represents the conceptual basis for a coherent and consistent development of a set of best practice guidelines and methodologies (Pro-Methodologies) that are intended to lead organizations to a smooth development and improvement of the EE. The Pro-Framework (Fig.1) clusters ProMethodologies in three macro-areas, each composed of three main content areas: - Pro-Organization, that implements joint strategic planning (Pro-Strategy) and harmonises operations (Pro-Operations) and project management (ProProjects); - Pro-Collaboration, that establishes an effective exchange of information, knowledge, know-how and
core-capabilities (Pro-Knowledge), fosters the creation of shared values and visions as well as of a trusty and collaborative working environment (ProCollaboration), supports recognition, valorisation and integration of different cultures (Pro-Culture); - Pro-Logistics, which implements an efficient logistic system, including control systems and facility management (Pro-Stock Management, ProProduction Logistics) as well as the joint organization and management of transportations (Pro-Transportation).
especially with gaps in technical expertise, technological infrastructure, used IT tools, software integration and compatibility, as well as with (b) logistics, like the lack in common planning and warehouses management as well as difficulties in coordinating and tracking deliveries. The Pro-Framework therefore includes the main topics that need to be addressed in order to guarantee a smooth management of the EE. Furthermore, the analysis of these management issues also constitutes a milestone to identify industrial requirements for software conception. As a matter of fact, partner organizations within an EE not only need to apply specific methods to successfully implement and manage their collaboration activities but even customized software solutions to effectively communicate, coordinate, and interact, overcoming time and space barriers. The Pro-Mat (see par.4) is explicitly aimed at tackling this need.
3 Pro-eBook
Fig.1. Pro-Framework. This conceptual architecture directly reflects the main critical management areas in which typical problems may arise, as they were determined with an empirical study, and that can be resumed as organisational topics, “soft factors” and “hard factors”. Organisational topics include the integration strategy, project management and operational issues and thereby deal with (a) an overall lack of a common strategic approach and of a formal longterm agreement between the partners, (b) not aligned common project management processes, insufficient visibility on partner’s activities, a lack of interfunctional coordination and (c) different standards in production and product development technologies, inefficient processes and redundant work as well as with the need for common working procedures. “Soft factors” concern the collaboration and knowledge sharing between the individual partners to cope with (a) difficulties due to different languages and working cultures that hinder the daily activities, in establishing a community spirit as well as in turning from a competitive attitude to a collaborative one and (b) a dispersion of distinctive know-how and competences, and difficulties in the exchange of information as well as excess of paper based information flow. “Hard factors” deal with (a) technology and Information and Communication Technology,
The Pro-eBook, as an exhaustive collection of the Pro-Methodologies, is the “alive and dynamic” version of the Pro-Framework. Essentially, it is a HTML hyperdocument hierarchically structured, providing the users with contents in different formats (WORD, PDF, and JPEG among the others). The adoption of an “EE handbook” in electronic format, guarantees manifold advantages. First, an eBook is more practicable, easy to consult and navigate, more handy and easier to use than a paper based solution. An eBook is by nature networkoriented since it can be quickly distributed in network of dispersed partners or eventually can be made available to the end users via the internet. Undoubtedly, navigating a document in a dynamic and interactive manner is more “attractive” than simply reading a paper-based handbook. In addition, the hyperdocument is customizable in the way every EE can add and update contents, according to timeand business-specific context, needs, and strategies. Feedback from the industrial partners in their early use demonstrated that the e-book is a perfect way to make people understand and use the proposed methodologies. On the drawback side, proper effort must be continuously spent in order to maintain the e-book so that contents are always up-to-date and links properly working. Similarly to the Pro-Framework, the eBook is organized in three macro-areas (Organization, Collaboration, Logistics) that are exploded in nine content areas (Strategy, Projects, Operations, Culture, Knowledge, Communication, Stock management, Transportation, Production Logistics).
The design of the eBook page (Fig.2) was inspired by the SCOR model3; each page contains six sections: Processes, Performance Measures, Best Practices, Tools & Methods, Do’s and Don’ts, Software Features & Applications. In the “Processes” section, active links are provided which allow the user to access in-depth content pages on the related processes with a top-to-bottom navigation logic (the more the user navigate in depth, the more the contents are detailed and specific). In the “Performance Measures” section, key performance indicators are provided, so to enable the user to measure the effectiveness as well as timeand cost-efficiency in performing the related processes. The “Best Practices” section is dedicated to highlight top-class methods, practices and techniques that are currently adopted by best-in-class organizations; active links enable the user to directly access content-enriched documents. The “Tools & Methods” section provides the user with links to directly access documents that presents in a practical and easy-to-understand manner typical tools that can be adopted to manage the related processes. The “Do’s and Don’ts” section collects and explicates insights, experiences, suggestions, considerations, lessons learnt, as the initial heritage that emerged from surveys and case studies research. This is surely one of the most important section since it is the place where each EE end-user can transfer and store a portion of his good or bad experiences as hints for other company facing similar issues. The concept behind is that this session is expected to grow and grow following end-users personal background and experiences, thus creating value for the whole e-book. The “Software Features & Applications” section provides users with information about available software applications and respective distributors. Further relevant up-to-date contents may be retrieved by the end user himself by following the suggested links to information sources (websites, papers, etc.), as provided in the reference list of each document. This way, the e-book acts as a promoter of in-depth analysis of the related thematic contents and perfectly fulfils its objective of information and knowledge repository. Finally, in order to increase usability, navigability and easiness of retrieving information, a search engine and a navigation map are provided so to make the e-Book a very practical down-to-field supporting tool. 3 Supply Chain Operations Reference model. Website: http://www.supply-chain.org/scor.htm
Fig.2. Pro-eBook: a sample page.
4 Pro-Mat software tool Pro-Mat is an easy-to-use and low-cost software tool, reachable via internet/intranet by all involved parties within an EE. It has been conceived with a twofold purpose: on one hand, to provide organizations with a flexible enabling application to integrate with new partners, using development tools that can solve the challenges of today’s heterogeneous computing environments; on the other, to support EE partners in the effective and efficient joint management of dayto-day business activities. The software application is completely structured in three layers: presentation, business and data; this structure allows flexibility and scalability of developed tool. ASP.NET technology has been used to develop the three layers. The designed application is hosted in a World Wide Web server, so the access to the software and the graphical user interface (GUI) is web based. Pro-Mat is a world-ready application: it is cultureneutral and language-neutral, it supports new localized user interfaces and regional data through a very simple mechanism (a global BackOffice maintenance), it is installed with a default language (en-GB), but adding new languages is simple and fast. Besides, the installation procedure is very easy and quick, because no technical knowledge is required: the only requirement is to have a database platform previously installed (Oracle or Microsoft SQLServer are current choices, but any database could be used just making minor changes), then the set-up program automatically sets Database to ProMat tool needs (Database users, Tables, Procedures,
Triggers, Grants) and configures Web Application Site, Web Service Application Site and Caching policies. The main characteristic of the software architecture consists in high flexibility and adaptability to companies’ IT infrastructure. Pro-Mat enables to establish a direct communication between EE partners, through Internet or a dedicated connection, without the need of a central server. In particular, two different solutions can be implemented (Fig.3): one organization within the EE operates the Pro-Mat server and, acting as an Application Service Provider, shares it with partners, which can access Pro-Mat applications via a simple web browser; this is seen as particularly effective when offering such solution to partners in the central-east part of Europe whose level of IT infrastructure is often far behind their respective in the west. Alternatively, each EE company can install and operate its own Pro-Mat server.
C3
C4 C6
C2
EE1 EE2 EE3 EE4
Internet
C1
Web Services
C5
C8
C7
Fig.3. Pro-Mat network architecture. Regardless which solution is adopted, independence of partners’ database platforms is guaranteed and machines where Pro-Mat application is installed act both as a database server and a web server. If needed, heterogeneous applications can accede ProMat and easily integrate with it, through standard protocols and/or data representation. Pro-Mat tool (Fig.4) has been developed according to specific functional requirements expressed by organizations involved in an EE-based collaboration. Input for the software design have been derived from the conceptual framework of Pro-Methodologies, with the aim to provide the end user with a complete and coherent set of software and methodological tools able to support him in all the challenging tasks that characterize daily life of an EE. Pro-Mat has been structured in nine operative modules (Document Management, Project
Management, Production, Purchasing, Orders, Logistics, Quality, Human Resources, Community) plus one module for tool administration purpose, each providing different functionalities, so to embrace the whole lifecycle of business collaboration processes. These modules reflect needs for coordination, effective interaction, responsiveness, and interconnectivity of collaborating enterprises. In particular, Document Management and Community modules have a great relevance for they act as cross-functional supporting modules. The novelty of the Pro-Mat approach is not in the list of offered functionalities. Set of them can easily be found and probably managed with more details in other software applications and environments that are available off-the-shelf. The innovation of the Pro-Mat is the concept to offer the full set of functionalities, even if on a lower operative level, all together in a sole application to give a full perspective and thorough support to the management of EE collaborations. Foreseen advantages are the low cost of this software solution in respect to alternatives, the ease of use via standard browsers and the capability to offer a 360 degrees view over collaborative processes. As concerns the logical coherence among Pro-Mat modules and Pro-Methodologies, the respective correspondences can be assessed, as follows: the modules of Project Management, Production, Purchasing, Orders, and Quality, are conceptually included in the Pro-Organization content macro-area; modules dealing with Document Management, Human Resources and Community are included in Pro-Collaboration content macro-area; whereas Logistics functionalities are logically linked to ProLogistics cluster contents.
Fig.4. Pro-Mat: a demonstrative page. Going into details, a particular attention has been paid to the conception of Community module, which provides groupware tools for bridging cultural,
language and social gaps, by stimulating common visions and values, and enhancing information and knowledge exchange (e.g.: between multinational distributed project teams). The most important included functionalities are: multilanguage dictionary, yellow pages, white board, instant messaging, chat, translation module, forum, agenda, calendar of special EE events, common used symbols, team room, and mailing list service. The BackOffice module enables the dynamic management/configuration of the extended IT network (e.g.: join or withdrawing of EE partners): it provides functionalities for the modification of several parameters, such as database usernames and passwords, Web service urls, IP addresses, roles, languages/cultures, and so on. Furthermore, Pro-Mat tool includes workflow functionalities that support processes definition and standardization of procedures and document; it has been conceived so to effectively support both realtime/synchronous and asynchronous, as well as colocated and not co-located, interaction. As security is a must in this kind of applications, different profiles have been defined to control who can enter the tool and which information can be accessed. After login, the user can choose to work in different modalities, and according to that, Pro-Mat application distinguishes three types of information: the user can choose to work in EE modality, and therefore use “common” information, that belongs to and is shared within the whole EE; alternatively he can work with one EE partner, so sharing “public” information, which is information that belongs to one company; otherwise he can work as a single entity, and use only own “private” data (belongs to one company and is not shared with EE partners). This means that each member of the EE can define its degree of involvement and then, if necessary, adequately protect sensible data and safeguard its intellectual property rights. In a lower level, each functionality is assigned to different profiles, then not only shared/public/private type of data apply, also permissions will apply to each user. Last not least, shared information traveling in Internet is protected by the use of encryption (SSL).
5 Conclusion The building up of an EE is a huge challenge and requires a lot of efforts from potential partner organizations. The methodologies and instruments introduced in this paper are resulting from an empirical study; they are developed under continuous validation by the industrial project
partners and realized in business cases. The practiceoriented and reliable methodologies for the successful implementation and optimisation of EEbased collaborations, together with the Pro-Mat software tool, represent a portfolio of effective and efficient instruments for substantially enhancing and steering the EE establishment, development and continuous improvement, so to facilitate the identification and exploration of a common competitive edge and a long-term sustainability strategy. References: [1] Hofmann, J., Besser arbeiten in Netzwerken: Wie virtuelle Unternehmen Erfolg haben, Shaker, 2003, pp. 23-26. [2] Childe, S.J., The extended enterprise- a concept for co-operation, Production Planning and Control, Vol.9, No.4, 1998, pp 22-34. [3] Mockler, R.J., Multinational strategic alliances, Wiley, 2000. [4] Le Goff S., Prominence, Internal document on the EU co-funded project Prominence, 2002. [5] Boër, C.R., Bosani, R., Dold, C., Mauro, P., Nøstdal, R., Pierpaoli, F., Ristol, S., Prominence Project - Promoting Inter-European Networks of Collaborating Extended Enterprises, Proceedings of the 9th International Multi-Conference on Advanced Computer Systems (ACS’02-SCM), Miedzyzdroje, Poland, 2002, pp. 313-320. [6] Broecker, A., Promoting collaboration of international Extended Enterprises - A framework, methodology and software to implement and manage Extended Enterprises, Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Manufacturing Excellence 2003 (ICME’03), Melbourne, Australia, 2003. [7] Dold, C., Mauro, P., Nøstdal, R., Pierpaoli, F., Development and management of east-west European Extended Enterprises, Proceedings of the 4th IFIP Working Conference on Virtual Enterprises (Pro-VE’03), Lugano, Switzerland, 2003, pp. 467474.
