Streamlining the formation of virtual enterprises in the aerospace industry

Abstract

The virtual enterprise is an ideal solution to the pace of change in modern markets, where increasingly well-informed customers demand high performance, customised products, with continuing downward pressure on prices and lead times. In meeting customer requirements of this kind, the level of investment demanded of an individual manufacturer may be prohibitive, but success can be achieved through collaboration between businesses. Engineering across organisational boundaries poses many problems, but these have been the subject of study for some years, and are relatively well-supported by systems such as e-business portals, neutral file formats and shared data environments. If lead times are to be further reduced, it may be wise to target the virtual enterprise formation stage, rather than the operations that are to be conducted once the enterprise has formed. Within the VIVACE (Value Improvement through a Virtual Aeronautical Collaborative Enterprise) project, one task is to demonstrate how a significant reduction in the time required for a virtual company to create a business proposal might be achieved. This paper identifies some key obstacles, and discusses potential solutions.