Collaborative network are a subject with significant growth over the past decades. Some of these collaborative networks are alliances among manufacturing enterprises, and in this case they are called manufacturing networks, those this thesis is based on. Although the collaboration between companies exist for quite some time, the integration and collaboration as something organized and structured is still a distant held for most companies. Nowadays, with the increasing customer requirements it is necessary to meet market needs efficiently. Companies that want to be competitive need to be prepared to collaborate efficiently and effectively, creating manufacturing networks capable of producing complex products.

 

ADVENTURE – ADaptive Virtual ENTerprise manufacTURing Environment – is a project funded in the Seventh Framework Programme by the European Commission. ADVENTURE creates a framework that enhances the collaboration between suppliers, manufacturers, and customers for industrial products and services.



Lately there has been some research projects related to the study of collaborations between companies, however, this study is usually directed to a section, for example, partners-finding. The importance of this project is in the standardization and interconnection of enterprises, enabling information sharing end-to-end and creating true virtual factories based on ICT.
The Adventure Project proposes to create a framework that facilitates the connection between various companies with the common goal of enabling complex manufacturing processes.

This framework is composed of several tools that allow not only the creation and operation of manufacturing processes but also the optimization of the overall manufacturing process. Some tools will be partner-finding, process creation, process optimization, information exchange as well as real-time monitoring combined with the tracking of goods. The tools will be based on SOA and web, taking advantage of these latest technologies in order to store data in the cloud, thus providing information for all partners in real time.

This will allow integration and cooperation between partners and more robust structures but also become more flexible, reducing the response to the market. Besides this sharing of processes and knowledge allow a constant evolution and development, placing the companies at the forefront of innovation.

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This MEng Dissertation Thesis is integrated in section 3.4 Conceptual Manufacturing Reference Model of the ADVENTURE project, and the main goal is to identify and describe the business processes of collaborative networks.