Title: E-collaborative commerce for small- and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises

Authors: Saurin Badiyani, Vinesh Raja

Addresses: Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), International Manufacturing Centre, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK. ' Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), International Manufacturing Centre, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK

Abstract: This paper describes the system which was developed as a part work of joint ERDF-DTI-funded B2B-MC project. The world of mass customisation and globalisation has forced manufacturing industry towards outsourcing of manufacturing and product development activities, resulting in the formation of synchronously operating collaborative networks. Within such collaborative environment there is a need for information and communication technology infrastructure that integrates all the processes within supply chain, right from effective collaboration with partners, bidding/gaining contract, procurement, processing to the final delivery of product. This paper presents description and discusses the components of a developed system with a scenario, which depicts innovative way of integrating existing collaborative bidding and supply chain management process within manufacturing industry.

Keywords: e-collaboration; collaborative bidding; supply chain management; SCM; traffic lights visualisation; agile environments; lucid environments; e-commerce; electronic commerce; supply chain collaboration; mass customisation; collaborative networks; procurement; small and medium-sized enterprises; SMEs; manufacturing industry.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLSM.2009.021650

International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management, 2009 Vol.5 No.1/2, pp.176 - 190

Published online: 30 Nov 2008 *

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