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The purpose of this paper is to identify the role and main attributes of manufacturing companies which operate in virtual supply chains.

In order to identify the role and main attributes of manufacturing companies enabling to operate in a virtual supply chain, a three-step statistical analysis was employed, namely exploratory factor analysis, hierarchical cluster analysis and non-hierarchical clustering technique.

The findings show that virtual supply chain operations would not be supported by manufacturing companies offering highly customized products achieved by a unit production, developed in details and engineered to order. On the contrary, the large manufacturing companies of virtual supply chains report a high level of flexibility stemming from a wide scope of more standardized products offered to the market. The conducted study show that better ability of manufacturers supporting virtual supply chains is not industry specific.

The list of investigated attributes is not complete, and other characteristics of manufacturers in virtual supply chains should be identified. Another important shortcoming of the study is its quantitative character and generalization of the findings. Each “virtual” environment in supply chains may be unique and some of the compared characteristics may differ significantly. Therefore, the aforementioned attributes should be considered separately with a conscious focus on the environmental context. The quantitative study may be greatly enhanced by applying the case study approach, showing detailed solutions and practices, and thus making the study more valuable from the theoretical and managerial standpoints.

The conducted study showed that better ability of manufacturers to support virtual supply chains is not industry specific, since the branch of electronic products and electrical equipment and components was represented by an equal share of manufacturers, both in non-virtual and virtual clusters. Furthermore, in order to operate in virtual supply chains, managers should pay attention to the structure and range of products delivered to the market. The managers should also be aware that apart from considering cost and efficiency, operating in a virtual supply chain environment also requires quality of products and processes in order to manufacture and deliver a superior value for the customers.

Having recognized major groups of indicators demonstrating the level of ability of manufacturing companies to operate in a virtual supply chain, the attributes of three clusters of manufacturers possessing different bunch of features, significant for virtual supply chains, have been distinguished.

The paper considers the implementation of a virtual manufacturing system as an alternative to outward technology licensing in a high technology industrial sector. Brief theoretical definition and description of the two strategy options is provided to give background and context. This is followed by empirical material from a longitudinal case study of a company that has developed a virtual manufacturing system in addition to its pre‐existing outward technology licensing business stream. A summary account of the company history and development is followed by description of the virtual manufacturing proposal. Analysis of this identified a number of competencies that would be required in order to succeed. The final part of the paper describes the company's response to this analysis and discusses early implementation of the virtual system. It is shown that implementation of the proposal has represented a positive response to the business challenges facing the company.

An integrated, exchangeable, sharable and distributed information environment is one of the crucial factors to ensure the competitive advantage of a virtual enterprise. A manufacturing model that describes an enterprise’s manufacturing capability information is an important part of such a distributed information infrastructure. This paper focuses on the definition of an object oriented manufacturing data model that can provide a consistent data structure for the construction of a manufacturing model for a virtual enterprise. The methodology that is employed to carry out the analysis and design of an object oriented manufacturing data model complies with the open distributed processing reference model. Unified modelling language (UML) class diagrams have been employed to represent the object oriented manufacturing data model with links to relevant ISO standards, which can be instantiated to generate a virtual, global manufacturing model. An experimental software system has been developed using ObjectStore OODBMS and Visual C++. An example manufacturing model for a simple virtual enterprise has been populated and can potentially be used to support product design and manufacturing decisions across a virtual enterprise.

This study offers a new type of manufacturing approach. This approach may be called virtual manufacturing layouts. The study concerns basic themes of the approach. These are descriptions, elements, and use of the virtual layouts. The approach has been exemplified with a case study. Advantages and disadvantages of this type of layouts have also been summarised.

Describes virtual manufacturing software which lets production engineers create life‐like, full‐action mock‐ups of automated production systems on computer workstations and then analyse and debug them before investing in costly capital equipment. Virtual manufacturing software that is compatible with CAD permits the design of manufacturing processes around three‐dimensional CAD production models. Explains that many prominent automotive companies are now using this software and gives examples. Concludes that by using virtual manufacturing as their product design tools, companies can now integrate product design, manufacturing system design and production stages, with all participants working with a single, current database.

This paper is mainly concerned with the digital manufacturing technologies in the context of the shipbuilding industry. New concepts such as digital shipbuilding, virtual shipyard, and simulation‐based design (SBD) will be explored. After reviewing the digital shipbuilding, a case study will be presented using the virtual assembly simulation system for shipbuilding (VASSS), a simulation based tool, to evaluate block erection sequence taking account of shipyard facilities, operational efficiency and equipment replacement time.

Of relatively recent origin is the virtual organisation where companies are able to marshal the necessary competencies from a range of independent external agents through the strategic use of outsourcing mechanisms. The paper discusses the challenge of accounting for intellectual capital (IC) and intangible assets and presents a financial analysis and background of companies exhibiting different levels of virtuality, from traditional manufacturing to virtual manufacturing.

This paper is based on the interaction of the researchers with three companies examining their positions on the continuum from traditional to virtual manufacturing. Case studies of the companies and some key financial results for a period of years are presented in order to explore implications and inform strategic decisions.

It concludes that conventional financial reporting for IC and intangibles has limited scope. This is elaborated through contrasts in a number of conventional accounting measures and some others, less conventional, to highlight the implications of the intellectual capital employed. The results are reported and implications of these discussed in the context of the companies whose background and activities are briefly outlined.

The measurement and management of the intangible assets and intellectual capital of organisations has been the focus of recent research in accounting and finance. This has applied to the corporate reporting of financial results involving its impact on the balance sheet, managerial accounting concerned with decisions and the internal use of various financial and non‐financial performance measures and finance where market values of companies have been shown to differ significantly from their book values as shown in published accounts.

The content will be of interest to academics studying issues surrounding the reporting and decision making concerning intellectual capital and intangibles. Additionally, managers and consultants whose companies are engaged in outsourcing and or virtual/semi‐virtual manufacturing should find the results informative.

The paper discusses the measurement of manufacturing virtuality and, in doing so, contributes to knowledge in the fields of operations strategy, operations management and accounting. Initially, the use of a virtual manufacturing operations strategy within the contemporary business environment is considered. Thereafter, a conceptual scale by which the extent of the virtuality of a manufacturing organisation can be measured is presented. A preliminary version of the scale is described together with its application to three companies manufacturing in the global electronic and electrical industrial sector. These companies, each having adopted different operations strategies, potentially represent the two extremes and a mid‐point on the virtuality scale. The empirical component of the work includes presentation of case study descriptions of the companies and the results of the application of the scale. These are shown to provide evidence of its validity. The final section of the paper analyses the current form of the model and describes how its performance might be informed by the incorporation of concepts from accounting that embrace the financial measurement of intangible company assets. It is a further demonstration of the limitations of conventional financial reporting in dealing with contemporary issues in management and business. The paper concludes by discussing the generic significance of the work and by presenting future directions for the research.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

The complexity of manufacturing systems, on-going production and existing constraints on the shop floor remain among the main challenges for the analysis, design and development of the models in product, process and factory domains. The potential of different virtual factory (VF) tools and approaches to support simultaneous engineering for the design, and development of these domains has been addressed in the literature. To fulfil this potential, there is a need for an approach which integrates the product, process and production systems for designing and developing VF and its validation in real-life cases. This paper aims to present an integrated design approach for VF design and development, as well as a demonstration implemented in a wind turbine manufacturing plant.

As the research calls for instrumental knowledge to discover the effects of intervention on the operations of an enterprise, design science research methodology is considered to be a well-suited methodology for exploring practical usefulness of a generic design to close the theory–practice gap. The study was planned as an exploratory research activity which encompassed the simultaneous design and development of artefacts and retrospective analysis of the design and implementation processes. The extended VF concept, architecture, a demonstration and procedures followed during the research work are presented and evaluated.

The artefacts (models and methods) and the VF demonstrator, which was evaluated by industry experts and scholars based on the role of the VF in improving the performance in the evaluation and reconfiguration of new or existing factories, reduce the ramp-up and design times, supporting management decisions. Preliminary results are presented and discussed.

The concept VF model, its architecture and general methodology as an integrated design and development approach, can be adopted and used for VF design and development both for discrete and continuous manufacturing plants. The development and demonstration were limited, however, because real-time synchronisation, 3D laser scanning data and a commonly shared data model, to enable the integration of different VF tools, were not achievable.

The paper presents a novel VF concept and architecture, which integrates product, process and production systems. Moreover, design and development methods of the concept and its demonstration for a wind turbine manufacturing plant are presented. The paper, therefore, contributes to the information systems and manufacturing engineering field by identifying a novel concept and approach to the effective design and development of a VF and its function in the analysis, design and development of manufacturing systems.