Abstract
The ability to describe business processes as executable models has always been one of the fundamental premises of workflow management. Yet, the tacit nature of human knowledge is often an obstacle to eliciting accurate process models. On the other hand, the result of process modeling is a static plan of action, which is difficult to adapt to changing procedures or to different business goals. In this article, we attempt to address these problems by approaching workflow management with a combination of learning and planning techniques. Assuming that processes cannot be fully described at buildtime, we make use of learning techniques, namely Inductive Logic Programming (ILP), in order to discover workflow activities and to describe them as planning operators. These operators will be subsequently fed to a partial-order planner in order to find the process model as a planning solution. The continuous interplay between learning, planning and execution aims at arriving at a feasible plan by successive refinement of the operators. The approach is illustrated in two simple scenarios. Following a discussion of related work, the paper concludes by presenting the main challenges that remain to be solved.

Abstract
The virtual enterprise model is an emerging approach in answer to the new requirements of the business environment, relying on dynamically-reconfigurable partnerships, with extremely high performances, strongly time-oriented while being highly focused on cost and quality, in permanent alignment with the market, and strongly supported by information and communication technology, dictating a paradigm face shift to the traditional organizational models. Networking and reconfiguration dynamics are the main characteristics of this model, requiring enabling and supporting environments, at bearable costs. Some existing technologies and Internet-based environments can partially support this organizational model, but the reconfiguration dynamics can only be assured by environments able to manage, control, and enable networking and dynamics in virtual enterprise creation/reconfiguration. Several environments are introduced in the chapter, and particular focus is given to the market of resources, an environment coping with the requirements of the virtual enterprise model. © 2007, Idea Group Inc.

Abstract
The phenomenon of the enterprise organizational reconfiguration and its dynamics as a business alignment enabler is discussed. Business alignment means the enterprise's actions undertaken to gain synergy between the business; that is, the market opportunity and the provision of the required, or innovative, product, with the required, or designed, specifications at the required, or proper, time, with the lowest cost and best possible return (financial or other). The enterprise's organization "fast reconfiguration," either as a proactive or as a reactive action, or "fast adaptation" or "flexibility" (as a "reactive" action), is seen as the main enabler of business alignment and the main requirement for achieving competitiveness. The need to keep a close alignment with the dynamic market environment in permanent change implies the high dynamics of the organizations' organization, or organizational structure, reconfiguration. The first part of the text presents enterprise's requirements for competitiveness and business alignment, while the second part discusses the phenomenon of the enterprise reconfigurability as the business alignment enabler. In the third part, an analysis of some organizational and management approaches, from the reconfigurability point of view, is presented. The text ends with a conclusion and references. © 2007, Idea Group Inc.

Abstract
This paper describes an order planning system for dynamic supply chains, addressing the requirements of a make-to-order business environment. A distributed and decentralized information system based on an architecture of agents and extensively using the internet was designed and implemented, so as to enable new and more powerful decision support. The system aims at responding to the basic requirements of cooperativeness, integration and configurability. It was developed under the scope of the IST European Project Co-OPERATE and implements the functionality defined in the context of the 'request feasibility studies for the network' (ReFS) business solution.

Abstract
In this paper we present a Decision Support System (DSS) to deal with the partner selection problem taking place in the formation or re-organization of a Virtual Enterprise (VE). This DSS is based on a multi-criteria model and handles several types of data (numerical, interval, linguistic and binary). This approach is used to facilitate the expression of the decision maker's preferences and assessments about the potential partners and can be performed individually or by group. The system also allows the assignment of a degree of confidence to each linguistic statement. the operation of the DSS is structured in two phases. In the first phase it determines the set of non-dominated alternatives (potential VEs) through the use of meta-heuristics. The second phase ranks the alternatives for a possible network of enterprises configuring the VE. This is achieved through a procedure based on linguistic analysis and distance measures.

Abstract
One major practical problem when applying traditional metaheuristics seems to be their strong dependency on parameter tuning. This issue is frequently pointed out as a major shortcoming of metaheuristics and is often a reason for Decision-Makers to reject using this type of approach in practical situations. In this paper we present a new search strategy - Constraint Oriented Neighbourhoods - that tries to overcome the referred drawback. The aim is to control the grade of randomness of metaheuristics, by defining "special" neighbourhood movements, that lead to a more robust heuristic, less dependent on parameter tuning. This is achieved by selecting and applying particular movements that take into account the potential violation of problem constraints. The strategy is illustrated in a real problem arising in the area of Power Systems Management - the Unit Commitment Problem, the computational experiments on a set of problem instances systematically outperforming those presented in the literature, both in terms of efficiency, quality of the solution and robustness of the algorithm.