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Organisational Flexibility and Competitiveness pp 53–71Cite as

A Value Optimising Structure in Virtual Enterprises for Manufacturing Systems

Part of the Flexible Systems Management book series (FLEXSYS)

Abstract

The significant increase in inter-organisational collaboration during the last two decades has led to the development of the so called Virtual Enterprises, defined as an organisation which can optimally utilise operational internalisation and externalisation to improve its performance. Such Virtual Enterprises are different from traditional companies in that they can achieve tasks beyond their internal capacity, and focus more resources on core competencies thus becoming agile. To transform a traditional organisation into a virtual enterprise, it is necessary to create an alliance management function for managing alliance operations. This paper describes the development of an externalisation and internalisation (EI) management function as the core of a virtual enterprise, organised around an organisation’s value stream function. This value stream oriented structure further ensures that the optimisation is value adding.

Keywords

  • Virtual enterprises
  • Manufacturing systems
  • Optimisation
  • Alliance management
  • Value stream
  • Functional structure
  • Core competencies
  • Externalisation

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the managers of the seven case study companies, who believed in the value of this research, spent their precious time, and offered the research opportunities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Aston University, Aston Triangle, B4 7ET, Birmingham, UK

    Y. Zhang

  2. School of Engineering and Applied Science, Aston University, Aston Triangle, B4 7ET, Birmingham, UK

    Ashok K. Kochhar

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  1. Y. Zhang
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Correspondence to Ashok K. Kochhar .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Strategic Management Area, Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode, Kunnamangalam, Kozhikode, Kerala, India

    M. K. Nandakumar

  2. Quantitative Methods and Operations Management Area, Indian Institute of Management Kozhlkode, Kunnamangalam, Kozhlkode, Kerala, India

    Sanjay Jharkharia

  3. Finance, Accounting and Control Area, Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode, Kunnamangalam, Kozhikode, Kerala, India

    Abhilash S. Nair

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Zhang, Y., Kochhar, A.K. (2014). A Value Optimising Structure in Virtual Enterprises for Manufacturing Systems. In: Nandakumar, M., Jharkharia, S., Nair, A. (eds) Organisational Flexibility and Competitiveness. Flexible Systems Management. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-1668-1_5

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