Virtual Integration of the Tile Industry (VITI)

Abstract

A virtual enterprise (VE) can be considered a temporary alliance between enterprises located in different parts of the world that intervene in the diverse phases of the life cycle of a product or service, and work to share skills, resources and costs. However, designing and managing an efficient and integrated virtual enterprise that presents the semblance of a single enterprise to customers is a very complex task. To support this, new methods enabling the integration of virtual enterprises must be developed and their use must be popularised through examples and application experiences. This paper reports the practical results of the Virtual Integration of the Tile Industry (VTTI) research project. This is primarily a systematic methodology, a set of models with the best work practices and a set of software applications for business integration adapted to the particularities of virtual enterprises. The collection of data and the validation and application of the results was made possible thanks to the collaboration of one of the leading virtual tile enterprises. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2003.