Title: A study on the logistics and performance of a real 'virtual enterprise'

Authors: John P.T. Mo, Mingwei Zhou, Julia Anticev, Laszlo Nemes, Martin Jones, William P. Hall

Addresses: CSIRO Manufacturing and Infrastructure Technology, Corner of Albert and Raglan Streets, Preston, Vic. 3072, Australia. ' CSIRO Manufacturing and Infrastructure Technology, Corner of Albert and Raglan Streets, Preston, Vic. 3072, Australia. ' CSIRO Manufacturing and Infrastructure Technology, Corner of Albert and Raglan Streets, Preston, Vic. 3072, Australia. ' CSIRO Manufacturing and Infrastructure Technology, Corner of Albert and Raglan Streets, Preston, Vic. 3072, Australia. ' Tenix Defence Pty Ltd., Australia. ' Tenix Defence Pty Ltd., Australia

Abstract: Tenix won the ANZAC Ship Contract in November 1989 to build ten guided missile frigates for the navies of Australia and New Zealand. The ships are planned to have a service life of 25 to 30 years. Within this time period, there will be changes in the operational requirements for these vessels. The ANZAC Ship Alliance is a virtual enterprise formed by Tenix Defence, Saab Systems and the Australian Commonwealth with the aim to provide service support over the lifetime of the |product|. It is a framework of a dedicated supply chain that coordinates the service supplies across company boundaries. A two-stage study showed that significant changes have to be made within the supply chain in order to adapt practices in individual companies. This paper describes the processes that occurred in the alliance, the techniques that were used to identify the information and work flow in the supply chain.

Keywords: virtual enterprise; network alliance; work flow; web-based collaboration; logistics; naval engineering; supply chain management; SCM; Australia; New Zealand; defence industry; performance measurement; performance evaluation; performance management; information infrastructure; information flow.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBPM.2006.009034

International Journal of Business Performance Management, 2006 Vol.8 No.2/3, pp.152 - 169

Published online: 16 Feb 2006 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article