Complexity Based Management Systems (COLL-PLEXITY)
Partners:
- RWTH University of Aachen (Germany)
- ITEM St. Gallen (Switzerland)
- SZTAKI – Computer and Automation Institute, Academy of Sciences (Hungary)
- Schiesser (Germany)
- Virtuelle Fabrik (Switzerland)
The Project:
The study of industrial networks seems to have been lacking in treating some important issues such as early supplier involvement, value added networks, optimisation over the total supply chain, reduced time-to-volume during product development, transparency of processes, customer-centred production (customisation), etc. This is accentuated in view of the fact that collaborations in production industry seem to be at a failure rate of more than 50%.
It may have resulted from the absence of problem-oriented understanding of required systems set-up while underlying control mechanisms. Academic management research mainly focused on models pertaining to individual companies as single, isolated entitles. But as collaborations expand beyond regional and national boundaries into international and intercontinental networks, and because of the need of competitiveness, companies are no longer isolated. It is certainly true for the European Union with its focus on SMEs. On-going specialisation and differentiation in the value chain requires complementary approaches to address the characteristics of networks.
This project has taken up collaboration and targeted the development of a generic model of complexity as basis for a problem-to-system match framework for collaborative systems in SMEs. The issues of collaboration have been addressed by looking at stable-long-lasting partnerships, alliances and by drafting models for outsourcing, purchasing and other such activities. The on-going specialisation and differentiation indicates the need for a more dynamic approach to describe the development of collaborations and their exploitation. The overall goal has been to contribute towards a unified theory of Complexity for socio-technical systems and the construction of a Complexity Based Management System for SMEs.
Therefore, the starting point of this research had been the understanding of collaborative enterprise networks, whose emergence is induced especially in SMEs throughout the EU, which face global competition in an increasingly dynamic and unpredictable market context. They are examined as complex systems that can only ensure their viability by adapting to inter-organisational networks – considered as the efficient dyad of flexibility and agility. This springs from increasing volatility of environmental conditions such as changing consumer needs, technological and production innovation as well as political circumstances.
The project’s interdisciplinary research approach has been the application of principles of complex systems theory from variety of scientific disciplines to collaborative enterprise networks as socio-technical systems. These contributions have been identified and arranged within six themes: dynamic description, coordination possibilities, radical/integrative innovation, path dependency, information sharing, modelling and representation. Each of these themes has a unique composition of domains of distinct sciences working together to yield new basic models for the complexity in collaboration. Complementing one another, the construction of a generic model of complexity is the interdisciplinary research challenge of both science and art, which can provide the missing link that would enable management of complex systems.
This project has expanded available knowledge on the underlying mechanisms of collaborations by the acquisition of knowledge on complexity science, new perspectives on collaboration avoiding traditional pitfalls (culture, leadership, trust, etc.) - using models from natural science - and an integrated approach of science and industry working together. It has also attended to the questions of social impact that arise from both the research and its implications (and applications).