Benefits and risks in Dynamic Manufacturing Networks

Abstract

More and more manufacturing enterprises realize that, by operating as single enterprises in traditional supply chains, they cannot cope with the challenges of the modern demanding environment, and that they need to adopt new and innovative strategies in order to remain competitive. The establishment of Dynamic Manufacturing Networks (DMNs) brings together various innovations, such as just-in-time delivery, flexible manufacturing, organizational streamlining, and total quality, and emerges therefore as an advanced reaction of collaborating enterprises to the constantly changing business environment and its characteristics. This paper aims to expose the benefits and risks involved in such networks, and create thereby the foundation for elaborating further on the key factors that could be utilized for attracting organizations and enterprises into embracing the vision of DMNs, supporting thus not only industrial organizations and practitioners interested in implementing such solutions, but also scholars and researchers who study these new forms of business. © IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2013.