A recently released book presents a number of results from a few related, EU-funded research projects on agile and flexible manufactuing networks. It combines the work by a large number of scholars. Amongst these, my colleague Frank Steiner and myself have provided a chapter on "Mass Customization as an Enabler of Network Resilience". A full table of contents can be found here (external link).
Intelligent Non-hierarchical Manufacturing Networks
Editors: R. Poller, L.M. Carneiro, T. Jasinski, M. Zolghadri, P. Pedrazzoli
Published by and availible from: ISTE Wiley
ISBN: 9781848214811
$: very (too) expenise, I am afraid.
The editors' summary of the book describes its content really well so there is not much point in rewriting it all from scratch:
This book provides the latest models, methods and guidelines for networked enterprises to enhance their competitiveness and move towards innovative high performance and agile industrial systems.
In many markets, competitiveness and economic growth rely greatly on the move toward innovative high performance industrial systems and agile networked enterprises through the creation and consolidation of non-hierarchical manufacturing networks of multi-national SMEs as opposed to networks based on powerful large-scale companies.
Network performance can be significantly improved through more harmonious and equitable peer-to-peer inter-enterprise relationships, conforming decentralized and collaborative decision-making models.
Traditional hierarchical manufacturing networks are based on centralized models, where some of the actors involved must adapt themselves to the constraints defined by those who are most dominant. Real-world experiences of such models have revealed some major problems due to the centralized vision of the supply chain and the sub-optimal performance of centralized decision-making. For the current highly dynamic markets, this generates major inefficiencies in operation throughout the supply chain.
This book collects the latest research regarding non-hierarchical manufacturing networks and provides enterprises with valuable models, methods and guidelines to improve their competitiveness.
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