BM_Virtual Enterprise Architecture Reference Model for Concurrent Engineering processes performance improvement: An experiment
The BM_Virtual Enterprise Architecture Reference Model (BM_VEARM) is used as an organizational structure for Concurrent Engineering (CE) teams in Agile and/or Virtual Enterprise (A/VE). CE is a resume of a set of principles that includes teamwork, client and supplier involvement, parallel and concurrent processes and continuous improvement of quality. On the other hand, an A/VE is seen as a kind of a short-term networked enterprise, with a dynamic structure, integrated over a universal set of resources, i.e. a global network of independent enterprises. The principal characteristic of the A/VE organizational model presented, in accordance with BM_VEARM, is a broker, which acts as an agent of CE team re-configurability. In order to test the potential of the CE Agile/Virtual teamwork organization according to BM_VEARM, an experiment was organized in which performance of three CE teams, with different organizations, were evaluated: 1) distributed CE team (in literature usually called “virtual” CE team); 2) agile CE team in accordance with BM_VEARM and 3) virtual CE team in accordance with BM_VEARM. The teams had the task to develop a Website. The paper presents basics of the organizational models applied, the experiment organization as well as some experimental results.










Very interesting paper. What applications of the proposed BM_Virtual Enterprise Architecture you can foresee? In what aspects future work can be done?