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This paper introduces a strategic framework for designing and operating agile manufacturing networks, enabling to collaboratively plan, control and manage day-to-day contingencies in a dynamic environment. It is based on a distributed collaborative vision of manufacturing systems. We first introduce a network-oriented organizational strategy according to which a manufacturing business dynamically organizes its operations through the configuration and activation of a distributed network of interdependent responsible manufacturing centers. Then, we present a collaborative relationships strategy as a contractual approach to implement operational networks. Finally, we introduce an operational strategy, showing how this networked collaborative approach can be used to manage day-to-day activities and contingencies in a close-to-reality manner. The concepts underlying the strategic framework are illustrated using a simplified case inspired by our manufacturing partner, a world-class motorcoach manufacturer.

This paper presents the NetMan1 strategic framework for enabling networked manufacturing. NetMan aims at providing both a framework for the design of responsibility-oriented manufacturing networks and a collaborative business methodological framework to operate agile manufacturing networks in a dynamic environment. In the first part, we present some of the main studies influencing the development of our approach. In the second part, we introduce our open-network organization strategy. We present two fundamental aspects in the NetMan organizational framework: the NetMan centers, which are the elementary business entities that constitute the manufacturing network organization, and the NetMan networks. We describe the essence of such manufacturing networks and illustrate their application through three network alternatives for a simple case inspired by our manufacturing partner, the world-class bus manufacturer Prévost Car from the Volvo group. This enables us to introduce how the NetMan methodology could be used to design hierarchical networks of business entities and to operate such networks. The third part of the paper presents the collaborative relationship strategy. We describe an approach to elaborate collaborative mechanisms between business entities. Finally, the fourth part describes the operational strategy used by the manufacturing entities to realize day-to-day business operations. We use the illustrative applications mentioned above to present the fundamental operational mechanisms.

Our objective in this paper has been to introduce the NetMan strategic framework for networked manufacturing, as a performance enabler for manufacturers in the new economy. We have introduced the generic and open concepts underlying our network approach to design and operate agile manufacturing businesses. We have emphasized collaborative planning and control allowing to manage operations and contingencies in a very close-to-reality manner. The paper has focused on the organization of the network and its centers, the collaborative relationships between these centers, and the dynamics of the operational system. The strategic framework has been validated from a conceptual perspective through multiple exchanges with key personnel from our manufacturing partner, Prévost Car. With the help of our technological partner, APG Solutions et Technologies, we are currently engaged in the development of a prototype software sustaining the framework depicted in this paper. This prototype is being implemented as a Java-based distributed and multiagent application. It aims to implement key aspects of the framework, applied to our bus manufacturing case. Specific field-based experimentation and evaluation of the software and overall framework is planned with Prévost Car. Furthermore, we are developing a Java-based distributed multiagent simulation environment [72] allowing us to simulate the dynamics of a manufacturing network designed and operated according to the NetMan framework, in order to allow us to perform rigorous simulation-based experiments to better understand and predict the performance of such networks. The combination of these two developments is a major undertaking planned to mobilize the NetMan team until December 2000.