The supply chain visibility concept described in this work has been adopted in
two practical cases in order to evaluate its business implications. One is a
visibility module for the West Midlands Collaborative Commerce Marketplace
(WMCCM). The simulation support IT system used in this research was
conceptually based on the WMCCM system. The other is the IMAGINE
(Innovative End-to-end Management of Dynamic Manufacturing Networks) EU
Framework Seven, Factory of the Future project where achieving end-to-end
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Xin Wang Page 154
6.8.1 Case One – the visibility module on WMCCM
The conceptual system described in this paper has been implemented in the West
Midlands Collaborative Commerce Marketplace (WMCCM,
www.wmccm.co.uk). This is a business ecosystem, with over 10,000 SME
members, which can quickly breed demand driven virtual organisations to target
opportunities based on the competences of member organisations rather than
their product or services. WMCCM imports e-tenders from public and private
sources. Tenders are automatically analysed and classified according to their
capability requirements. The partner search function matches the tenders and
competence descriptions in user profiles to suggest an initial best-fit grouping of
SMEs who between them have the competencies to bid for that tender contract.
This is intended to be led by the best qualified partner, who builds virtual
organisation with the help from a WMCCM broker if required. Each virtual
organisation has a secure online collaboration project space to design their
product or service and manage their supply chain using a supply chain visibility
module. This module allows the user to monitor their products or services after
setting appropriate KPIs, and to track and trace the individual components through a user defined identity code. A ‘traffic light’ dashboard shows a green,
amber and red graphic view of supply chain performance according to the status
of their KPIs. A notification function alerts the users when the amber or red
status appears.
A visibility solution for the HP case study using the WMCCM Visibility Module
Chapter 6 Discussion
Xin Wang Page 155 users need to adjust their processes based on the updated information, if the KPIs
status becomes red. The WMCCM functionality will be used to assess within a
real environment if the conclusions drawn from the experiments undertaken are
widely valid.
Figure 6.8: WMCCM Visibility Module Solution
6.8.2 Case Two – The EU IMAGINE Project
The IMAGINE Project (www.imagine-futurefactory.eu) is funded by the
European Commission under the ‘Virtual Factories and Enterprises’ theme of the
7th Framework Program (FoF-ICT-2011.7.3, Grant Agreement No: 285132). It
focuses on designing and developing a novel comprehensive solution and user-
Chapter 6 Discussion
Xin Wang Page 156 management by providing a virtual collaboration platform for the manufacturing
network and its global partners to view and integrate their manufacturing-related
sources, and to enable service-enhanced product and responsive manufacturing
processes through the value chain.
Achieving end-to-end visibility across the dynamic manufacturing network
(DMN) is the foundation of the success of the IMAGINE project. Therefore, it
links and optimises the data and process information from two disparate
management systems: Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP/MRP) and
Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES). Figure 6.10 illustrates the IMAGINE
Management and Monitoring framework. Its basic components are a DMN
management lifecycle and ICT-based supporting platform. The various blueprint
modules provide the necessary information and essential knowledge to support a
DMN lifecycle (network configuration – manufacturing design – monitoring and
governance of manufacturing network). A manufacturing blueprint repository
and partner blueprint repository allow the manufacturer to quickly configure its
production processes and its partners according to customer orders. The end-to-
end manufacturing design suite enables the impact of various decisions such as
upgrading production and changing partners to be reviewed and simulated. Once
the production is ready to launch, the quality assurance blueprint will be
introduced to measure and monitor the performance of processes according to the
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) specified in the network configuration. It
also notices the alerts to status changes and disruptions in order to respond in a
timely manner. A range of user-friendly display options, such as dashboard, chart
Chapter 6 Discussion
Xin Wang Page 157 Figure 6.9: the IMAGINE Management and Monitoring framework (Source:
Adapted from IMAGINE (2012))
An example of implementing the IMAGINE method in a bike factory. The bike
factory receives an order from customers and provides a draft specification to its
external partners. Then, the external partners work out detailed blueprints for
each component, and collaborate to develop the final product. The IMAGINE
platform automatically indicates the capacity and capability of every member of
the dynamic manufacturing network and suggests a list of suppliers, according to
the specifications of the final product. The bike factory reviews the suggested
suppliers and sends orders to the appropriate suppliers and awaits delivery. The
processes and order status can be viewed in a dashboard on the IMAGINE
platform. This platform automatically sends an alert when disruptions occur or
when there are status changes based on the defined KPIs. Once an alert is
Chapter 6 Discussion
Xin Wang Page 158 alternative supplier which is capable of carrying on the remaining orders. Finally,
the order is delivered to the customer in a timely and cost effective manner, with
the correct qualifications.