Abstract
Needs and expectations of specific target groups - such as elderly, obese, disabled, or diabetic persons- are arising as challenging opportunities for European companies which are asked to supply small series of functional and fashionable goods of high quality, affordable price and eco-compatible. In order to design, develop, produce and distribute such products, a new framework and related components of collaborative networking need to be developed, enabling the product to stay as long as digital to produce on-demand. Research is necessary in many topics like: a) consumer integrated collaborative eco-oriented design, b) radical renewal by the adoption of Rapid Manufacturing technologies; and c) the overall integration and co-ordination of business processes and information exchange by a set of new (web)services for network design and ad-hoc (re-)configuration, for real-time planning, forecasting and replenishment, d) tracking and tracing of ecology and quality.

Abstract

Abstract
To successfully compete in the market, European SMEs will have to adopt new business models and establish dynamic and non-hierarchical networks, assuring quick response, fast time to market, differentiated offerings and competitive prices. Sustainability will be found in high-variety and low-volume businesses, related with complex products design and manufacturing. This paper presents a Methodology concept, developed by the European project Net-Challenge, supporting SMEs in building and operating non-hierarchical business networks for complex products manufacturing with Engineer-To-Order (ETO) or Assemble-To-Order (ATO) strategies. © 2010 IEEE.

Abstract
This paper presents an approach to the identification of requirements for the implementation of e-business solutions in small and medium sized enterprises (SME). The approach is based oil the so-called reference models whose main purpose is to guide the process of deriving the detailed requirements for business processes and information systems support, regarding e-business activities. Firstly, an overview of the particular aspects and main difficulties of the adoption of e-business by SME is presented. This overview justifies the methodology for the implementation of e-business in SME, developed within the EC funded project MEDIAT-SME, shortly described here. Next, it is focused a particular aspect of this methodology, the reference models approach, followed by an example of its application on a real SME. Finally, the advantages and difficulties of the approach are discussed.

Abstract
Increasing demand on dynamic business network motivates manufacturing companies, especially small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to be collaborative for achieving potential market gains. This need can be fulfilled by forming non-hierarchical business network, where the partners integrate with each other after identifying specific business opportunity. This research focuses to demonstrate the methodological stages of enabling a virtual organisation within the European RTD project Net-Challenge. In this research, methodological support to identify and collect the business scenarios and basic requirements related with choosing appropriate partners, building trust and sharing valuable information among them are presented. The fundamental issues related to collaboration such as critical factors for partnerships, criteria for qualifying a potential partner, assessment of a partner are elaborated within the scope of this paper. The paper is concluded with presenting an empirical study of six case companies and the issues related to business collaboration are critically discussed. Copyright © 2012 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Abstract
The growing trend of business collaboration exerts an extra pressure on global business communities. This collaboration can be evolved in the form of hierarchical and no-hierarchical. In this research, we have considered non-hierarchical collaboration, where manufacturing firms' especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs) enjoy equal power and freedom within their networks. In order to develop such business collaboration, SMEs need to adopt different procedural steps such as build, qualify, form, operate and dissolve. In such circumstances, in this article we have proposed an implementation framework or methodology to demonstrate the logical approaches of the formation and operation of a collaborative business network. The formation and operation of this collaboration is illustrated through a complex engineer-to-order (ETO) case product. The common goals and understanding of the successful non-hierarchical business collaborations and future research directions are concluded within the scope of this paper. ©2010 IEEE.