This report introduces the concept of industrial Virtual Enterprise in its various perspectives and presents the general functional and information exchange requirements for a supporting platform.
A draft specification of the PRODNET architecture for a VE supporting platform is presented, identifying the main functional components to be implemented, classes of messages and information, and communications infrastructure.
Socio-organizational aspects and implantation issues are also discussed.
Finally, a brief overview of related projects is included.

This report presents the implantation approach designed by PRODNET for its VE support platform.
It starts with a general overview of the PRODNET architecture. Then an analysis of the re-engineering and migration aspects related to the various modules of the architecture is made.
Finally a methodology for the analysis of the socio-organizational changes when implanting a VE is proposed.

This deliverable presents an overview of the expected changes and proposed recommendations for SMEs adopting the PRODNET infrastructure when joining virtual enterprises. Before the analysis of such changes and the presentation of the recommendations that guarantee a smooth transition, an analysis of the AS-IS end-user enterprise organization and relevant characteristics of the human resources is presented.
The last part of the deliverable presents recommendations directed to special targets. On one side the technologists are invited to think on the technology to create a special space for the human intervention and satisfaction (anthropocentric approach). In this direction some recommendations are presented in order that the technologists can incorporate, at the technology conception phase, social and organizational constraints answering to the real enterprise needs. On the other side the enterprise management staff are invited to digest the potential of the technology and to have pro-active interference on the adoption process.

This report includes an overview of the main functionalities of a PPC system for SME’S, and at the same time has attempted to identify the changes necessary to allow a company to inter-operate in a Network Environment.
Finally, a migration strategy to go from a legacy PPC system to an open system is devised.

This deliverable presents an overview of the expected changes and proposed recommendations for SME adopting the PRODNET infrastructure when joining virtual enterprises. Before the analysis of such changes and the presentation of the recommendations that guarantee a smooth transition, an analysis of the AS-IS end-user enterprise organisation and relevant characteristics of the human resources is presented.

The last part of the deliverable presents recommendations directed to special targets. On one side the technologists are invited to think on the technology to create a special space for the human intervention and satisfaction (anthropocentric approach). In this direction some recommendations are presented in order the technologists to incorporate, at the technology conception phase, social and organisational constraints answering to the real enterprise needs. On the other side the enterprise management staff are invited to digest the potential of the technology and to have pro-active interference on the adoption process.

In this deliverable, both the existing and potential information management requirements to support the PRODNET cooperation layer are identified. The cooperation network architecture is defined and an information modeling approach is presented. Also, a survey of several state-of-the-art developments in the distributed/federated information management technology is provided.

In this deliverable the distributed information management requirements addressed in task 3.1 will be studyied and modeled in terms of a PCL database schema. This model will properly represent all the information for different PCL components. Furthermore, the design of the selected information management architecture to support the particular characteristics of the VE application will be specified in detail.

In this deliverable, the PRODNET distributed information access requirements are identified and modelled. These requirements compose the query/update extensions to the SQL language. Furthermore, the available basic mechanisms for other modules to access the DIMS functionality will also be designed and specified. The definition of the basic DIMS messages and the service functions will be detailed out, considering the current stage of the developments of other PCL components within the general PRODNET architecture and the potential VE scenarios.

This document describes shortly, in its first chapter, the EDIFACT standard and identifies some systemic incidence EDI brings to Information Systems.
The second part of the document (chapters 2,3,4 &5) presents the general architecture of the EDI subsystem in terms of functional requirements, identification of the functional relationship within Prodnet and the general services expected. The last part of the document describes EDI package in the Prodnet system in terms of data structure, services provided, interfaces provided and services used.

This document reports about:

• the positioning of the EDI subsystem in the PRODNET environment and the retained general architecture to fit the requirements of the PCL (PRODNET Co-operation layer).
• the functional interface definitions and requirements,
• the description of the information flows related to EDI within PRODNET.

Included is also a technical description of the implementation. The description of the implementation of the EDI subsystem includes three major topics:

• a presentation of the technologies involved in the kernel of the EDI subsystem,
• the EDI OLE server and its services (methods),
• the EDI Subset Editor that enables to design the mapping of the data between the "in-house" data - PCL tables and the EDIFACT representation of the information,
• the PCL EDI-AP, which describes the application developed in order to implement the services provided inside PRODNET.

This report details possible approaches to the Product Data Technology Subsystem of PRODNET. The PDT system deals with the exchange of manufacturing data in STEP format. There is an initial explanation of the underlying technology. Following this are details of the possible architectures for this subsystem.
The two possibilities have been defined: a generic architecture capable of handling data based upon any information model and a specific architecture based upon a PRODNET specific information model.
The report also identifies information model in which PRODNET data can be stored and manipulated.

The deliverable presents the concept of the PDT functionality that is being developed in the WP5. The document contains:

• an introduction of systems that are involved in the application of product data in virtual enterprise environments (CAD, PDM, PPC)
• an analysis of product data that are organized in these systems (which information is shared with other systems, which system is responsible for the information)
• a description of product data management approaches based on ISO 10303 (STEP)
• the concept for the product data access (including the definition of the application programming interface)
• a scenario for the exchange of STEP physical files via EDIFACT / CONDRA

Additional to the PDT concept the paper describes an application scenario for the exchange of product data. In order to realize the whole system environment (CAD, PDM, PPC) the role of the ProSTEP products "PDM Editor" and "IntraVISION" will be outlined.

This report describes the requirements for orders management in Prodnet with particular emphasis on the acceptance and processing of orders that are incompletely or imprecisely specified.
Additionaly, the basic requirements for configuration and coordination of the cooperation layer are presented.

This report describes the prototype implementation of the Incomplete and Imprecise Orders Management functionality, included in the PPC system. A practical example of the process followed by PPC to manage incomplete and imprecise orders is presented.

This report is focused on coordination and configuration issues within the PRODNET architecture. The main topics discussed here are the need for coordination in PRODNET Cooperation Layer, the required flexibility, the application of workflow concepts and the relationship between configuration and coordination.
Furthermore, a hierarchical coordination architecture featuring three levels of coordination functionalities - Core coordination, Enterprise management, VE management - is presented. The current version of the implemented prototype is described.
Finally, the interfacing principles to be adopted by services to be invoked by the coordination module are defined.

This deliverable discusses some general services a communication infrastructure must provide. Some general issues from the EDI point of view are presented to focuses the main lines of the PRODNET communication architecture.
The security technologies providing a virtual enterprise with a safe and secure communication infrastructure are presented. The proposed safe communication infrastructure has been grounded on an evaluation of the state of the art on this subject.
It also presents the proposed PRODNET communication infrastructure architecture with a description of each component including its basic functionalities. The first draft of the communication and security/authentication services is included.

This deliverable refers to the task 8.1, whose main objective is characterized by the logistics domain analysis and requirements definition. In order to carry out these two actions the following aspects were taken into account:

-some new trends on logistics;

-an analysis about the future needs of the Prodnet end-users;

-an analysis about some other relevant ongoing projects in the area of logistics within the VE scenario.

Considering that Prodnet fundamentally deals with the VE scenario, those requirements were extended in order to cover some problems not only related to logistics, but rather to the VE life cycle. In this sense, from the logistics domain analysis and requirements definition, some guidelines were conceived and presented. They are represented in terms of "Advanced Coordination Functionalities" (ACF), which correspond to specialized software modules to be developed to help solving specific problems requiring coordination actions within the VE scenario.
Five ACFs were analyzed and two of them were selected to be implemented. They shall use the Prodnet Cooperation Layer basic services to support the VE Coordinator in the suppliers search and integrated logistics problems.

This deliverable aims to present the first version of the Advanced Coordination Functionality "Logistics Support System" that is being developed in the WP8, including some user and technical support documentation.
The main results of this deliverable are the DBP (Distributed Business Process) Model, which is directly related to the task 8.2, and the prototype itself, represented by a system called "Integrated Logistics Management Support System" (ILMSS), which is directly related to the task 8.3.
This deliverable is organized as follows: Chapter 1 introduces the main objectives and scope of the deliverable, pointing out some small deviation from the Technical Annex. Chapter 2 presents a general survey on knowledge-based decision-support-systems paradigms. Chapter 3 describes the ILMSS prototype, explaining its objective, scope, approach, architecture and the system's functionalities. Chapter 4 tackles the main ILMSS information models, describes the prototype developed in general, and stresses the documentation issue. Chapter 5 gives information about the ongoing work and next activities. Finally, ten annexes are provided comprising user and system documentation, related to the ILMSS development.
In this first ILMSS version the system is not integrated with the other PRODNET's modules. It corresponds to the Consortium strategy and it is related to that deviation. However, the links with the other modules are explicitly mentioned along the text.

This report discusses the approach followed in PRODNET for Partners Search and Selection. A general architecture based on two main data sources - Local Suppliers Directory and External Suppliers Directories - was designed and two prototype systems developed.
Future work in terms of a decision support system for partners selection is also briefly described.

This report presents the preliminary version of the PRODNET Final Demonstration Scenario that will be used to test the PRODNET key functionalities.
This document also includes the social-organisational analysis and a general overview of the PRODNET implantation plan.
A preliminary social and organisational analysis was made in order to provide guidelines to technologists trying to avoid implantation problems of the PRODNET achievements. The adoption of a new set of information technology tools and the consequent exchange of information flows and workplace contents requires a careful evaluation of the AS-IS work and decision-making flows at the project end-users (Miralago). In this preliminary analysis some desired and expected characteristics resulting from the PRODNET approach when putting it into work are presented. The matching between these characteristics and the needs/weakpoints identified results in a "should-be" concept, which is an improvement of the as-is situation.

The main objective of this deliverable is to present the demonstration scenario of the PRODNET II project and its implantation phases. The first part describes the full scenario from a business-oriented point of view, highlighting the two potential VEs (Virtual Enterprises) that can be created based on the four involved actors (Órbita, Miralago, Akros and Herten).
The second part presents the implementation details of the first phase, illustrating the basic integration mechanisms with the example of an order processing.
Considering the consortium members, specially the end-users, not only the technical aspects have been taken into account, but also the socio-organizational issues which are also discussed in this report.

The purpose of this work is to analyse the framework under which the PRODNET project might develop into a cohesive set of commercial activities.
The economic, political and technological context within which such initiative will take place is analysed, in order to assess the business potential.
A description of market variables and of market practices is made, thus detailing the market potential for the PRODNET Products.
Under such frame, strategic guidelines are proposed, and a more heuristic and incremental plan for implementing the launching of PRODNET presence in the market is debated.