Introduction

Abstract

A manufacturing enterprise is a group of independent companies, often located in different countries, forming a strategic alliance with the common goal of designing, manufacturing, and delivering right-quality products to customer groups faster than other alliance groups and vertically integrated firms. Such enterprises are common in all industrial sectors including the automobile, pharmaceutical, aerospace, electronics, computer, food, and apparel industries. The lowering of trade barriers by various countries, combined with rapid advances in logistics and information technology, has led to the proliferation of global manufacturing networks or enterprises. In global manufacturing of this kind, components may be sourced from several countries, assembled in yet another country, and distributed to the customers all over the world. These networks are not generally under single ownership but are group formations of independent companies in alliance for a specific and special purpose. The alliance between groups of companies creates enterprises that compete with other cooperating groups. Thus, cooperation and competition occur at different levels. Networks, constellations, groups, clusters, virtual corporations, and enterprises are various names given to these cooperating entities about which there is vast amount of literature.