The Internet Encyclopedia (Volume 3)

P1: IML/FFX P2: IML/FFX QC: IML/FFX T1: IML

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576 VIRTUALENTERPRISES

and curriculum development initiative was funded by the

National Science Foundation as part of the emphasis to

introduce emerging engineering concepts and practices

to engineering students.

Activities and Phases in the Creation

of Internet-Based VEs

There are no structured methods or steps to support the

creation of VEs today. However, by addressing the ma-

jor issues involved to establish, sustain, and function as

a VE, industrial organizations can develop their own ap-

proaches to successfully adopt VE practices. The major

activities in any VE development include the following:

Development of an understanding of a given VE’s prod-

uct(s) and customers;

Identification of the potential VE partners and formation

of the product development teams;

Development of an information-based enterprise model

of the VE’s collaborative activities and tasks;

Design and implementation of an Internet-based dis-

tributed software system that will link all VE team

members (and possibly customers) and be used to ac-

complish the various VE activities;

Initiation of a pilot initiative in which partners function

as a VE using the implemented Internet-based system;

and

Based on performance in pilot initiative, identification

and adoption of necessary changes to the overall ap-

proach and Internet-based architecture and software

system.

Among these activities, the most important activities

are the creation of an information-oriented enterprise

model and the work associated with the design and im-

plementation of an Internet-based system to support the

functioning of a VE (Cecil, 2002c). The use of information-

oriented enterprise models are becoming increasingly

popular and have their roots in the integrated defini-

tion (IDEF) work that originated in the ICAM Program

at Wright Patterson Air Force Base decades ago. Apart

from older methodologies such as the IDEF-0 and IDEF-3

(Cecil, 2002b; Mayer, 1992), more recent development

include the enterprise modeling language (EML, pro-

posed by Virtual Enterprise Technologies) (Xavier & Cecil,

2001). EML was designed with the primary goal of en-

abling companies interested in creating and participat-

ing in VEs to conceptualize and model the way in which

partner organizations would interact with each other in

accomplishing various enterprise activities. Further, it

provides a structured way to propose and refine how to

accomplish detailed activities encompassing all or some

activities in a product development cycle (ranging from

development of a product design collaboratively to the

generation of project and manufacturing plans to sup-

plier chain management). EML enables VE team mem-

bers to describe what activities will be performed and how

to accomplish them using available resources and con-

straints. Using decompositions, detailed models at vari-

ous levels of abstraction can be built. In EML, the top-level

Influencing Criteria (IC)

Focus Unit

Task effector

Decision Objects (DO)

Associated Performing

Agents (APA)

Manufacture the

Satellite Design

Team: VE Team A

Physical Resource: Shop Floor # 22

Software Object: Controller

Constraints:Manufacturing Capabilities,

Manufacturing Schedule

Information Inputs:Process Plans, BOM

Information Objects: NI, UI, FI

Physical Objects: nanosatellite

&

Figure 7: Functional unit representations using EML.

life-cycle activities are captured as functional units. Each

functional unit can correspond to an identified life-cycle

function such as “create product design X” or “manufac-

ture design X using VE partners.” An information-rich de-

scription (or model) can be developed using four classes

of attributes including influencing criteria, task effectors,

decision objects, and associated performing agents. Fig-

ure 7 illustrates the main information attributes captured

in EML, which include focus units and the four attribute

classes. EML provides a structured basis to model VE ac-

tivities, capture their interrelationships, and specify their

accomplishment using temporal precedence criteria.

Influencing criteria help VE team members identify

major constraints as well as enable identification of in-

formation needed by VE teams or a VE subcontractor to

accomplish a certain task. For example, in Figure 7, the

information inputs needed to accomplish the target ac-

tivity “manufacture the satellite design” include process

plans and Bill of Materials (BOM). Associated perform-

ing agents help model who or which mechanisms will ac-

tually help accomplish target activities or subactivities.

&

Decision di

Manufacture

Satellite Design

Manufacture

Propulsion

Module (PM)

Manufacture

Cold Gas

Module (CGM)

Manufacture

Command

Module (CM)

Assemble

(PM, CGM)

Assemble Sub-

assembly 1

with CM of

Satellite

&

&

Sub-assembly

# 1

CM

S

S

CGM

PM

Sub-assembly

# 2

Figure 8: Decompositions of functional activities in EML.