VOSTER Matti Hannus, VTT, 17.6.20061 / 7 1.1.1.1. ICE 2003 9 th International Conference of Concurrent Enterprising

VOSTERVOSTERVOSTERVOSTERMatti HannusMatti Hannus, VTT, 17.6.2006, VTT, 17.6.2006 11 / 7 / 7 http://www.ice2003.org http://voster.vtt.fihttp://www.ice2003.org http://voster.vtt.fi

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ICE 2003ICE 2003ICE 2003ICE 2003 99thth International Conference of Concurrent Enterprising International Conference of Concurrent Enterprising Espoo, Finland, 16-18 June 2003Espoo, Finland, 16-18 June 2003

Notes and conclusions from VOSTER workshop Notes and conclusions from VOSTER workshop ICE2003 in a nutshellICE2003 in a nutshell

Wed Wed 1188 June 2003 June 2003RoadmapsRoadmaps

Mon Mon 16 June 200316 June 2003Conference papersConference papers

Tue Tue 1177 June 2003 June 2003WorkshopsWorkshops

Plenary: Keynote CE visions

Parallel sessions (~67 papers): CE Methods and Tools Virtual Organisations

Modelling Virtual Organisations

Management Knowledge Management Innovation and Project

Management Technologies for B2B

Networks CE Industrial Cases

Parallel roadmap sessions: TNEE: Network of Excellence

on Extended Enterprise ROADCON: Future RTD in

Construction ICT ROCKET: Communicating

Knowledge Essential for the Industrial Environment

VISION: Towards Next Generation Knowledge Management

VOMAP - Advanced virtual organisations

COCONET: Context Aware Knowledge Supported Work and Business Environments

Organisation and Human Issue in ICT implementation

Closing plenary

Parallel Workshops:

Collaborative Business and Collaborative Commerce

Sharing of Practices in Collaborative Work

Enterprise Engineering, Integration and Interoperability

Industrial State of Practice in Concurrent Engineering

Roundtable plenary: Reporting from workshops

67 conference papers14 posters 4 full day thematic workshops 7 half day roadmap sessions

67 conference papers14 posters 4 full day thematic workshops 7 half day roadmap sessions

See: http://www.ice2003.org for more information


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Notes and conclusions from VOSTER workshop Notes and conclusions from VOSTER workshop WWorkshop orkshop 33, Tuesday 17 June, organised by the VOSTER project, Tuesday 17 June, organised by the VOSTER projectEnterprise Engineering, IntegrationEnterprise Engineering, Integration and and InteroperabilityInteroperability

Introduction to the workshopMatti Hannus, VTT, Finland

VO Research & Experiences VOs for E-Science

Hamideh Afsarmanesh, Univ. of Amsterdam, NL

Distributed Service Management in Construction VOsAbdul Samad Kazi, VTT, Finland

Product Life-cycle ManagementKim Jansson, VTT, Finland

VOSTER:Virtual Organisations Cluster Overview of VOSTER, approach,

structureMartin Ollus, VTT, Finland

VO Best PracticesTarek Hassan, University of Loughborough, UK

VO ConceptsIris Karvonen, VTT, Finland

VO Infrastructures & InteroperabilityLuis M. Camarinha-Matos, Uninova, Portugal

VO ModellingHermann Löh, Bernhard Katzy, CETiM, Germany

Lessons & Experiences from VOs Views into VO Research in FP6

Joël Bacquet, European Commission

Discussion: Lessons LearnedModerator: Martin Ollus, VTT, Finland

Conclusions(report to the roundtable plenary = these slides)Matti Hannus, VTT, Finland

AgendaAgendaAgendaAgenda

25-30 persons attended this full day workshop25-30 persons attended this full day workshop


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Notes and conclusions from VOSTER workshop Notes and conclusions from VOSTER workshop

Introduction to the workshop - This workshop was organised by the VOSTER project, Virtual Organisations Cluster. Until now the project has assessed about 30 member projects and is starting to look at other VO projects as well. Representatives of related projects were invited to express their interest to be included in the analysis (the EOI form is available on the ICE web site / Workshop3 and also on the VOSTER web site).

VOs for E-Science - This presentation referred to a large national Dutch program. Virtual Laboratories have evolved mainly in the last 5 years. Examples of a specific needs in this area are remote sharing and controlling equipment and tools, and experience archiving. So far the focus has been mainly on Virtual Laboratory while Virtual Organisation issues are now coming into focus.

Distributed Service Management in Construction VOs - The presentation referred to web-based service platforms from projects like OSMOS and Globemen. The main challenges in construction come from simultaneous involvement of organisations and individuals in many parallel, short-term projects with changing partners. The common ICT infrastructure and services need to be set up very quickly and be easy to use. Discussion was e.g. about the required standards and problems of learning to use the quickly acquired services. Although the contruction sector has a long tradition in project / network organisations the VO concept enabled by ICT is still relatively new. The sector has been very active in VO related RTD in FP4-5.

Product Life-cycle Management - The presentation referred to Virtual Enterprise concepts from e.g. Globemen projects, and Extended Product concepts from EXPIDE. The usability of reference models was discussed. In this context reference models served mainly for mutual understanding within the consortium.


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Overview of VOSTER, approach, structure - The four following presentations summarised the current situation of the consolidation that VOSTER cluster project is doing on about 30 projects in the area of VOs.

VO Best Practices - From the member projects 32 business cases were found and organised by VO taxonomy. A number of common areas for consideration were identified e.g. partners selection, legal framework, collaboration principles, organisation, roles, ICTs etc. Some initial conclusions are: the cases cover ~50% of the potential areas of interest. The main concepts have been identified and are becoming commonly adopted. The discussion was about differences between supply chain and VE/VO, performance indicators, the awareness of target companies about being part of VOs etc. (The last item has not been a problem in cases when companies are involved in IST projects).

VO Concepts Some of the member projects of VOSTER have contributed to conceptual definitions while others have focused on specific (short term) solutions. Core concepts are being adopted although the terminology is still quite diverse. The two main types of organisational concepts have been generally recognized: the long term, preparatory environment Network (source, network, breeding environment, ...) and the temporary, performing Virtual Enterprise / Virtual Organisation. Altogether the concepts (and terms) are converging within the VOSTER team but outside the consortium there are still different interpretations. In the discussion it was suggested that promoting a common terminology within the VO community is a high priority. Other remarks were made about related concepts e.g. holonic, fractal, adaptive systems, systems theory, systems of systems etc.


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VO Infrastructures & Inter-operability – In this domain it is important to distinguish (a) vertical tools and services, and (b) horisontal infrastructures.

Currently the business models for providing infrastructure solutions are missing: they can not be bought from the market. The need to integrate components from different vendors is still a major barrier for VOs and especially for SME partners.

It was again reminded that Vos are by definition enabled by and require ICTs. However, the rapid evolution and change of technologies makes them often more like disablers rather than enablers. The short life cycle of technologies emphasizes the need for a more long-lasting theoretical (”technology-independent”) foundation of VOs.

Some further conclusions and discussions: » No common reference models exist at the moment. » The focus has so far been mainly in the early and operational life cycle stages of VOs while ”VO inheritance” management is still missing (passing experiences between different VO generations). » Systems are transaction-based with a trend to move towards (multi-) agent based systems and e-Services. » Wider cross-discipline contacts are needed because many potentially applicable technologies and solutions are being developed by others than the VO community.


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VO Modelling – VOSTER has identified and positioned various modelling purposes and approaches from the member projects. The conclusion is that no overall (”uniform”) covering modelling approach exists. Most identified models are made for system specification. Only few models serve the purpose of human understanding. This kind of ”models” are often made with very simple and ad hoc ways (e.g. Powerpoint diagrams). The analysis confirmed the presumption that three main typologies enable categorisation of all identified VO models: (1) supply chain, (2) star, (3) peer-to-peer. It is common to identify two levels: (1) network and (2) project/VO. However, few RTD projects actually modelled the network level. Most projects assumed membership in one network only.

Some conclusions: Systematic approaches and approporiate modelling tools are missing e.g. for network modelling. Reference models are not sufficient to support interoperability and can not replace context-specific models. Models tend to be very complex making re-use difficult. Reference models are needed especially for understanding of VO concepts, management and human aspects. Better coverage of business context is needed. Efforts are needed to support integration of models and using them in change management.

Some issues raised in the discussion: Useful approaches may be available from other disciplines: systems theory, multi-agent systems. Current modelling tools provide poor support for scalability i.e. stepwise moving from understanding to detail specification. There is a need for human oriented tools and formal network-oriented methods. Skill gaps in modelling exist both in RTD communities and especially in the industry.


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Views into VO Research in FP6 – About 40 projects with total budget of 50 M€ were supported in this area under FP5. The big question is what next: Collaboration and sharing of knowledge (not only data). Shifting focus from single enterprise to collaboration requires a change of mind-set. FP6 aims strongly at ERA.

Some expected characteristics of VO research in FP6: Non-incremental; More foundational; Less application development; Restructuring the fragmented area; ICTs for networked organisations; Behaviour of dynamic networks.

In the area of Networked Business something like 3-4 IPs and 1-2 NoEs are probable. They are expected to form a synchronised ”club”. Key attributes are: market impact, integration, excellence. Aim at establishing VO research as a recognised science and at industrial / European leadership.


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Discussion: Lessons Learned – Some conclusions are already summarised in previous text. Additional excerpts from discussion:

Main concepts have been defined but not widely adopted. Common terminology is needed.

VO research should be made into a scientific discipline with established concepts, terminology, and methods for analysis, engineering, testing, validation, quality assessment etc. Get recognition of different audiences using appropriate channels to reach them.

Modelling is mainly used for system specification and should be used more as the key to human understanding. Systematic and scalable approaches are missing. Missing skills are a barrier.

In the area of Best Practices some raised issues were: Increasing demand for collaboration is related to outsourcing. New ways are needed to assess willingness / preparedness to collaborate. VOs need methods to prove the quality of their products and services.

In the area of Interoperability the currently isolated research communities need to communicate more across disciplines.

About impacts on society: EU has a huge base of SMEs and cultural diversity. Collaborative networks are a key to survival. Systematic and empirical basis is needed for observing and proving impacts.

About VO research: Too little collaboration between research communities. Human behaviour and operation in VOs has many yet poorly understood differences compared to normal organisations.

About the focus of ICE conference: Pros and cons were discussed about the shifting focus from traditional concurrent engineering more towards organisational and technology issues.


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Thank you for your interest !Thank you for your interest !

Local organising team of Local organising team of ICE2003 and the VOSTER workshop:ICE2003 and the VOSTER workshop:

[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],

[email protected],[email protected],[email protected]@vtt.fi

VOSTER web site:VOSTER web site:http://voster.vtt.fihttp://voster.vtt.fi

Next ICE conference in 2004:Next ICE conference in 2004:http://www.ice-conference.orghttp://www.ice-conference.org

Documents

VOSTER Matti Hannus, VTT, 17.6.20061 / 7 1.1.1.1. ICE 2003 9 th International Conference of Concurrent Enterprising