OptiVE: An interactive platform for the design and analysis of virtual enterprises

Abstract

OptiVE is a platform for designing and analyzing virtual enterprises. OptiVE has two modes of operations. In composition mode, business entrepreneurs can define elementary enterprises as well as create complex virtual enterprises from enterprises already registered in the system. In analysis mode, business analysts can explore the structure and properties of registered enterprises and ask the system to optimize them: Find a particular combination of participants and a specific production path that will deliver the best outcome (produce the target product at the lowest overall cost). OptiVE is founded on a formal model with rigorous syntax and semantics and uses mixed integer linear programming (MILP) to find its optimal solutions. A prototype implementation of OptiVE is also described. The system insulates its users from technical details, offering an intuitive graphical user interface for operating in either mode. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.