On the Development of Extended Communication Driven DSS within Dynamic Manufacturing Networks

Collaboration in the manufacturing supply chain has been widely discussed, and a wealth of concepts is at hand. In our research, we looked at implementations across several industries of collaborative decision making across supply chains, and our findings show that the slow progress to date regarding inter-organisational collaborative decision may be due to a lack of common understanding of this concept, and the difficulty of integrating external requirements of customers and suppliers into intransparent internal decision control. In this paper, we focus on the case of integration and production management of dynamic manufacturing networks that is characterized by non-centralized decision making. We set out to clarify internal decision collaboration concepts based on research and technology led on collaborative work and enterprise modelling techniques, and discuss how information technology can support and improve business and managerial decision-making within supply chains. This paper begins with examining the Communication Driven Decision Support System (DSS) concept and its integration within a supply chain point of view. Based on that examination, a framework for inter-organisational decision support is discussed. Finally, the new framework is linked to the traditional Decision Support Systems and the overall Information Management solutions. We conclude that the effectiveness of supply chain collaboration relies upon two factors: the level to which it integrates internal and external decisions at strategic, tactical and operational levels, and the level to which the efforts are aligned to the supply chain settings in terms of the geographical dispersion, the demand pattern, and the product characteristics.