A study on coordination of a large project in a virtual enterprise

Abstract

Under the IMS (Intelligent Manufacturing Systems) program, CSIRO assisted the ANZAC Ship Alliance in Australia to establish a framework for coordinating team members working in a cross company project from different locations. The ANZAC Ship Alliance is a virtual enterprise formed by 3 major partners with the aim to provide management and implementation of capability changes in ANZAC class frigates. Our earlier study proved that significant modifications are essential in order to adapt project operations to different practices of individual companies. This paper describes the study of the actual processes within an ANZAC Ship Alliance project, the techniques used to identify the information and workflow as well as the relationships with the stakeholders. Development of a web-based system that significantly enhances the effectiveness of collaboration within the virtual enterprise is presented. © 2004 by Springer Science+Business Media New York.