Chapter 5: Product, Process and Workflow Management

Title: Synthesising the Extended Enterprise

Author(s): David Darlington, Cathy Barnes, Alison McKay

Address: CAE Research Group School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS9 9JT | CAE Research Group School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS9 9JT | CAE Research Group School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS9 9JT

Reference: International Conference on Product Lifecycle Management 2005 pp. 271 - 281

Abstract/Summary: Managers in organisations realise that competitive advantage cannot be delivered by their core competencies without the support of complementary organisations. One way organisations meet this challenge to their core competencies is to manage the value network to ensure that the supply of product and product information is protected. In order to deliver value, organisations need ways of ensuring that demand, and supply, is met. The management of product information within business relationships provides a way of arranging the co-ordination core competencies. For networks of organisations that exist today, most of their relationships have been designed in an ad hoc manner, even though their products are often carefully designed. One problem is that there are such a large number of relationships within the value network, from raw material supplier to end customer, that need to be managed. Businesses must identify the strategic relationships that are important to them. Axiomatic design theory is a systemic approach to the design process. The concept of the extended enterprise offers a way for organisations to organise as strategic networks rather than act as single entities operating within a value network. The case study in Section 4 of this paper demonstrates that it is possible to use axiomatic design theory to define the boundaries between networks of organisations in order to design the extended enterprise and to limit its scope through the definition of important inter-organisational relationships. With a view to providing decision support in designing extended enterprise networks this paper provides a framework that can be used in the synthesis of organisational network structures. This can provide a way of assisting managers in deciding the relevant organisational relationships that constitute the extended enterprise in order to manage their core competencies. A case study from the print industry is used to explore these issues.

Order a copy of this article