Collaborative Systems for Production Management: Ifip Tc5/Wg5.7 International Conference on Advanced Sic in Production Management Systems, September 8-13, 2002, Eindhoven, the Netherlands

The business environment throughout the world is currently going through rapid and far-reaching change. Business managers are analysing their business processes and scrutinising ways to make their systems more streamlined and competitive in order to meet the challenges posed by the global economy. Forming close alliances and integrating the operational processes with the key suppliers and customers is the mantra every one is embodying. Just as no man is an island, so no business can operate without being part of a network of businesses proactively collaborating and sharing information for mutual success. This book presents some of the latest thinking on collaborative systems by bringing together the works of leading experts who share their ideas on the state of the art research and development on Collaborative Systems for Production Management in the broadest sense. This book is composed of six parts, each focused on a specific theme: -Collaboration in Supply Chain Planning, -Collaboration in Product Innovation, -ICT Solutions for Collaborative Work, -Simulation and Modelling, -Advances in Production Management Systems, and -Advances in Applications Management Software. Each of the chapters in this book is the result of a presentation given at the Eighth International Conference on Advanced Production Management Systems (APMS2002), which was sponsored by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) and held in Eindhoven, The Netherlands in September 2002. Collaborative Systems for Production Management is essential reading for managers in the manufacturing and service industries; systems analysts; IT specialists and systems engineers; and post-graduate students of manufacturing, business and IT-related fields.