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Structuring SMEs Collaborations Within a Cluster

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Product Lifecycle Management. PLM in Transition Times: The Place of Humans and Transformative Technologies (PLM 2022)

Part of the book series: IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology ((IFIPAICT,volume 667))

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Abstract

Innovation is not limited to products and services; it is also used in a company’s processes such as interactions with its environment, i.e., open innovation. According to our research, there are few approaches to effectively enable and support collaboration between manufacturing companies, even if they are in the same industrial cluster. We selected a platform to structure collaboration between companies, based on a business model framework. We tested this platform with two partners in the Quebec aerospace cluster that knew each other. To evaluate the collaboration, we identified the criteria to quantify collaboration effectiveness, such as the number of topics or projects discussed, the number of meetings created or the success rate of the knowledge exchange. Experimentation was carried out over five months, with detailed observations of collaboration’s evolution. This platform initiated several collaborations between the two partners and increased the partners’ technological knowledge maturity. However, several obstacles, such as difference of vocabulary and intellectual property exist and hinder communication. These could become troublesome when partners who don’t know each other. Resolving these difficulties is the purpose of our future research.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. École de Technologie Supérieure, Montréal, Québec, H3C 1K3, Canada

    Mélick Proulx & Mickaël Gardoni

  2. APEX Precision, Saint-Lazare, Québec, J7T 2B5, Canada

    Shadi Farha

Authors
  1. Mélick Proulx
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  2. Mickaël Gardoni
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  3. Shadi Farha
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mélick Proulx .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire G-SCOP, Institut Polytechnique de Grenoble, Grenoble, France

    Frédéric Noël

  2. IPEK, OST Ostschweizer Fachhochschule, Rapperswil, Switzerland

    Felix Nyffenegger

  3. École de Technologie Supérieure, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Louis Rivest

  4. Qatar University, Doha, Qatar

    Abdelaziz Bouras

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Proulx, M., Gardoni, M., Farha, S. (2023). Structuring SMEs Collaborations Within a Cluster. In: Noël, F., Nyffenegger, F., Rivest, L., Bouras, A. (eds) Product Lifecycle Management. PLM in Transition Times: The Place of Humans and Transformative Technologies. PLM 2022. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, vol 667. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25182-5_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25182-5_4

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-25181-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-25182-5

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