TECNICA networking

Textile extended enterprise

network management
on e-collaboration platforms
Sven-Volker Rehm, Zoi Chourmouziadou,
Giacomo Copani, Andrea Rossi
In the scope of the European Commission’s Fifth Community Research Framework Programme, at Ditf - Itv
Denkendorf, new concepts, methodologies and Ict architectures for cooperation and coordination in multi-stage
value added networks of textile and clothing industries have been developed and applied. The first part of this
article outlines how methods of knowledge-oriented management can support the cooperative planning of
production network resources and their allocation to dynamic business processes for efficiently networked
organizations. The second part of the article reviews in particular the experiences gathered when introducing new
methods for Extended Enterprise network management, making use of process-oriented modeling of the production
networks, allowing for a flexible network configuration and coordination. Chapter three describes the
implementation platform used for validation of the newly developed conception and methods, which has been
configured and installed for several production networks of textile small and medium enterprises (Smes) as part of a
European research project.

Keyword: Networked and Virtual Organisations [3].

Dynamic manufacturing network integration, network analysis
and design methodology, e-collaboration platform.
The textile and clothing companies in Europe traditionally cul-
tivate a co-operative management culture along a multi-stage
value added chain, networked horizontally and vertically, whi-
ch is very similar to the Virtually Extended Enterprise para-
digm. They co-operate inside of specific clusters, as well as
between these clusters, by creating dynamic enterprise
networks. Every textile product is therefore the result of co-
operation between partners with different competences and cor-
responding contributions. Taking into account today’s demands
for complexity and diversity of goods and services, their acqui-
sition and marketing, the world-wide scope of business rela-
tions and the drastically shortened product life cycles, also the
majority of textile companies can pursue a save way into the
future only by adopting appropriate partnerships for concurrent
enterprising – within different organizational and legal forms,
generally speaking in the form of dynamic networks, as a col-
lective term for a variety of co-operational forms. In order to
assure future competitiveness, they are forced to put into practi-
ce the appropriate infrastructure in terms of state of the art con-
cepts, methods and (internet-) technologies for Dynamically
S. Volker Rehm, Management Research Centre of the German Institutes
for Textile and Fibre Research Denkendorf, Denkendorf, Germany; Z.
Chourmouziadou, Dept. Erp, Diasfalisis Ltd., Athens, Greece; G. Copani,
innovActing Srl, Milan Italy; A. Rossi, innovActing Srl Milan, Italy
Oriented at the underlying pillars of virtualisation and dynamic
network integration, sharing knowledge between manufactu-
ring partners through appropriate integration methods and
knowledge-based approaches, is the idea of introducing
Extended Enterprise concepts in manufacturing networks. In
order to support knowledge-based network manufacturing ma-
nagement, consequently a knowledge-based approach for reali-
sation of a dynamic network integration has been developed
during the three year research project Texterm (Textile
Extended Enterprise Resource Management System) [7].
In this project, three typical European networks of textile com-
panies located in Germany, Italy and Spain provided the appli-
cation fields for the development of an e-collaboration platform
for dynamic configuration, co-ordination and monitoring of
Extended Enterprises (Efikton, see Chapter III), as well as tools
and services to analyze and design Extended Enterprise
networks, in the form of a modelling and project management
methodology (Net Consultant, see paragraph “Proceeding and
hands-on experiences of an extended enterprise network intro-
duction”).
The results have been developed and applied in close co-opera-
tion between research institutes, software providers and indu-
strial partners. During the three-year project, all networks, con-
sisting of four, six, respectively 14 core companies, and their
relationships to business partners (suppliers, customers, sub-
contractors) throughout the textile major production stages as
outlined in figure 1, have been re-designed organizationally.
For selected major Network Business Cases the Extended

Marzo 2005 - Automazione e Strumentazione - 87

 TECNICA networking
Enterprise concept has been implemented on the e-business
collaboration platform developed, and with help of the develo-
ped tools and services. One example is given from integration
of the confectioning stage of a large Sme Home Textile
network in the second paragraph (“proceeding and hands-on
experiences on extended enterprise network introduction”). The
tools and platform developed have been adapted to other indu-
strial environments and have been carried out successfully
within these other settings as well.
Knowledge-based network manufacturing management
Within the multi-stage topology of the textile and clothing va-
lue added chain (see figure 1), the challenge for management of
Extended Enterprise networks evolves against the background
of two basic elements: Network manufacturing management on
the one hand, and knowledge-based management on the other.
Figure 1 - The challenge for knowledge-based co-ordination of production planning
tasks in Extended Enterprise networks: knowledge-based network manufacturing
management (adapted from [4])
Network Manufacturing Management describes the challenge
of planning and co-ordinating manufacturing networks. In par-
ticular, the selection of available capacities and of appropriate
routes for transformation and supply processes within an
Extended Enterprise manufacturing network is in the spotlight.
With the help of vertical integration of program planning and
scheduling, as well as with horizontal integration by co-ordi-
Figure 2 - Virtual Capacity and Compression Effect through Dynamic Network Integration (adapted from [5])
88 - Automazione e Strumentazione - Marzo 2005
nated networking, a Virtual Capacity and Compression
Effect is to be achieved (see figure 2). The resulting eco-
nomy of time (∆T*D) can be used on the one hand, to enable
a significantly shortened delivery time, e.g. in cases of re-or-
dered products, or on the other hand, to start production as
late as possible when trying to hit a pre-defined delivery da-
te, e.g. during quantity changes on basis of market sales fore-
casts for a textile collection [5].
Knowledge-based Management deals in particular with the
challenge of sharing knowledge and information between
network partners in an appropriate way that allows for an ef-
fective and efficient coordination of the production planning
tasks and related business processes inside the network. The
knowledge existing within the manufacturing network has
been called Net Knowledge. The knowledge addressed with
this term, is covering knowledge: about organisations, e.g.
asking “Who are the right partners for collaboration?”
(Organisational Knowledge); about procedu-
res, “Which manufacturing services do the
partners offer?” (Procedural Knowledge);
about operations, “What are the status and the
actual manufacturing opportunities of the
partners?” (Operational Knowledge).
These different classes of knowledge are to be
gathered within the manufacturing network,
which is enabled by a network analysis and
design methodology, Net Consultant. It is a
methodology and project management ap-
proach for identifying, gathering, analysing
and designing the respective Net Knowledge.
It allows to model knowledge and the respec-
tively accompanying information within cer-
tain model types and tables, that distinguish
also between several levels of confidentiality
in between networking partners:
- within the Public Domain, knowledge (and information) is
available in principle to everybody, even people outside
the network;
- inside the Network Domain, only network members are al-
lowed to access the gathered data, which is handled by the
collaboration platform;
- inside the Corporate Domain, there is comprised knowled-
 TECNICA networking

ge and information which shall only be accessed by close
network partners.
These three levels of confidentiality (or domains of knowled-
ge) are being analysed by the Net Consultant methodology
and shall be realised by appropriate structures of the collabo-
ration platform (Efikton).
Having analysed the knowledge existing in the manufactu-
ring network according to the structure outlined above, it be-
comes possible to (re-) design the network partners’ relation-
ships according to new partnering strategies and structures:
The objective of this Dynamic Network Integration is, to
make partners collaborate as close as necessary, by making
use of the appropriate processes and by exchanging the infor-
mation objects containing only actually required information
within the actual business relation (called Network Business
Case, see the second paragraph of this article). Three levels
for collaboration have been defined within the Planning
Integration methodology:
- on the Market Interaction level, a sales-based cooperation
is envisaged, and accordingly, only product catalogues and
price lists have to be exchanged;
- on the Planning Integration level, the partners already ha-
ve experiences in collaboration, and continue a planning-
based cooperation, where process and service agreements
allow for a discussion of the partner’s shop floor status and
machine allocation;
- on the deepest level of integration, the Activity Integration
level, the actual process status of a manufacturing partner
is being opened up (e.g. via the collaboration platform and
an interface to the partner’s shop floor control), and its ma-
nufacturing partner can actively re-schedule orders on the
partner’s shop floor.
Following these methodological approaches (validated in the
scope of the Texterm research project), it is possible to
methodologically introduce appropriate integration strategies
for knowledge-based network manufacturing management
within newly designed Extended Enterprise networks. In the
following section, the task of IT support of this
conception, is considered in more detail.
and order processes (Transflows), that enable the implemen-
tation of the knowledge-oriented approach to integration stra-
tegies described (see figure 3). As realisation of this idea
within the Texterm research project, the Efikton platform has
been developed, which will be described in detail in Chapter
III, following three structural requirements coming from the
conceptual considerations, as outnumbered below [4]:
- Dynamic Network Configuration: This requirement com-
prises the task of situation-oriented creation of topologies
as routes across the network, with network partners as no-
des for multi-stage value added processes, as well as logi-
stics, Planflows and Transflows as business processes
between these nodes.
- Network Coordination: The platform must be able to con-
trol the coordination process between the participating
community members with identification of topologies
(Dynamic Network Configuration) and Decision Support
for Network Design [6], as well as initiation, control/stee-
ring and monitoring of Planflows, Transflows and perfor-
mance indicators and measures.
- Network Communication and Collaboration: Finally, the
platform must support knowledge generation, evaluation,
distribution and representation throughout the network
with help of a common data base, as well as it must be able
to carry out workflow scheduling.
Proceeding and hands-on experiences of an
extended enterprise network introduction
Project settings and re-engineering approach
We describe below a methodology for introduction of an
Extended Enterprise network which has been developed in
the context of the European community research project
Texterm (Textile Extended Enterprise Resource Management
System). The industrial partner that has been the leader dri-
ving this implementation is an important Italian home textile

E-collaboration platforms for multi-stage

manufacturing networks

When it comes to implementation of the appro-

priate integration strategies designed within
manufacturing networks and communities, with
the goal of a proper coordination of manufactu-
ring networks, the technological basis must be
considered in detail. A network e-business col-
laboration platform must fulfil three basic tasks
in order to support the Dynamic Network
Integration, as outlined below. The underlying
concept followed in the research work carried
out by the authors, has been to establish a com-
mon (but selective) data base allowing for pro-
Figure 3 - The concept of dynamic network integration: process-oriented
cess-oriented control of work flows for plan-
coordination of manufacturing networks (adapted from [4])
ning (Planflows) as well as for administration

Marzo 2005 - Automazione e Strumentazione - 89

 TECNICA networking
group which deals with a number of external partners invol-
ved in the home textile confectioning production step of its
value added chain (see figure 3). Objective of the confectio-
ning manufacturing process is to produce the final home tex-
tile product ready to be sold from the retailer (covering pro-
duction steps like cutting, sewing, ironing, packaging etc.),
receiving the finished fabrics and the confectioning accesso-
ries (e.g. buttons) as input materials. The partners involved
into this process are usually not part of the group, and are in
Italy usually called “Terzisti” (sub-contractor).
Before introduction of the Extended Enterprise network con-
cept to the group, the task of Terzisti management had been
considered highly complicated, time consuming and was one
of the major causes for extra costs and not in line quality.
This was principally due to the lack of coordination and of
immediate communication that the external confectioning
processes need, together with the limited number of potential
partners that could be involved. A good coordination
between Terzisti and the textile group is therefore required in
particular in the following processes: Order management,
from order sending (from the group to Terzisti), to order ac-
ceptance or rejection (by Terzisti), to order closing after deli-
very and payment. A good coordination between the two ac-
tors in this process can permit a fast answer to the client’s
group about the feasibility of their orders and the possibility
to maintain the requested dates; Confection process, as
Terzisti are only able to start their manufacturing service af-
ter having received by the Group all the input materials ne-
cessary for the confection, such as the finished fabrics and
the confectioning accessories.
Furthermore, during the confection process, it is very com-
mon that Terzisti have some “production doubt” in terms of
cycle to be used or quality to obtain: all these problems have
to be solved in order not to stop the confection or not to de-
lay its start.
The coordination and the immediate communication before
introduction of the Extended Enterprise network concept we-
re obtained by a certain number of people of the textile group
whose task was to visit their Terzisti day by day, in order to
expedite the process, i.e. to make sure that the orders were
running on time and to solve with them current production
problems. Even if most of the Terzisti are located in the geo-
graphic area around the production headquarters of the group
for historical reasons, the possibility to visit them as frequen-
tly as it had been required, was limited by the geographic di-
stances and thus, it was normal that some unexpected emer-
gency had to be managed every day: this was the cause for
management difficulties of the textile group. Furthermore,
general tasks like globalisation and the opportunity to deloca-
lise part of the production in the emerging countries is pu-
shing more and more the group to establish new partnerships,
especially in Eastern Europe and in India: in this perspective,
the Terzisti management task has become a problem more
and more important.
Even from Terzisti side, the complexity mentioned above has
caused some internal efficiency problem: the lack of integra-
tion and communication, in fact, did not permit them to opti-
90 - Automazione e Strumentazione - Marzo 2005
mize their production schedule because new big orders were
coming without any advice. Another example was the immo-
bilisation of input materials sent by the group into their
stocks, due to the impossibility to start the production becau-
se some input material was missing and the textile group it-
self, did not recognise it because of the big total volume of
orders to be managed.
In order to improve this situation, a consulting approach to
re-engineer the existing group’s production network and to
implement the formerly described Extended Enterprise con-
cept has been applied, composed of the following steps:
Project Start-up, Analysis, Design, Implementation and
Continuous Improvement, as shown in figure 4. A conti-
nuous project management activity has been carried out to
ensure times, costs and quality of the results in this particu-
larly complex context, characterized by a high number of ac-
tors involved in the project (several Terzisti, the partners of
the textile group, IT supplier, group internal and external
consultants, management researchers).
Figure 4 - Consulting approached followed for implementation of
Extended Enterprise networks [2]
Project Start-up
The first task when starting the project has been the identifi-
cation of the most appropriate Terzisti to be involved in the
implementation. Since the high level of innovation of the ma-
nagement model to be introduced and the need of the support
of a modern IT infrastructure, Terzisti with good manage-
ment and IT skills were needed for the success of the work.
Thus, from the total number of 21 Terzisti used from the
group for the finishing external manufacturing operations,
four of them have been selected after an Abc analysis in whi-
ch the turnover that they realise with the textile group has
been considered. After that, some information has been col-
lected internally to the group (asking to the people that fre-
quently visit these Terzisti) in order to verify if the high vo-
lumes they realise with the group effectively corresponds to
good managerial and IT skills and instruments.
The four Terzisti have been than invited to the kick-off mee-
ting, in which the following topics have been discussed: ge-
neral introduction about the Texterm (Textile Extended En-
terprise Resource Management System) project and the in-
volvement of the textile group; scope and objectives of the
project; state and advance of the project; reason for Terzisti’s
involvement at that point of the project; plan for collabora-
tion between the textile group and Terzisti in the scope of the
project; advantages foreseen with the implementation of the
Extended Enterprise network approach to future collaboration.
 TECNICA networking
The aim of the kick-off meeting was even to start a team buil-
ding activity with Terzisti and to understand which were their
expectations from this kind of project.
The participation of Terzisti to this meeting has been enthusia-
stic and they have immediately expressed some macro-problem
inherent to project topics that they wanted to be solved. It has
been verified in the same time that the approach of one Terzista
was rather strategically management oriented, while another’s
was more practically IT oriented. These considerations have
been very useful for preparation and organisation of visits to
each of them, as described in the next phases.
Analysis
In this phase a detailed analysis of all the business processes in
the area of order management and processing has been carried
out. In particular, the investigated business processes have
been: medium-term production plans submission and negotia-
tion; order submission; order negotiation (acceptation or rejec-
tion); manufacturing process monitoring; sending/receiving
material for the order; finished products delivery; order closing.
The above mentioned processes have been studied following an
integrated logic, starting the analysis internally to the textile
group, and afterwards continuing with several visits to Terzisti
plants.
The processes have been analysed and mapped following a
methodology developed within the Texterm project, called Net
Consultant, which has the objective to deeply understand and
re-engineer the processes in a network of (Extended) enterpri-
ses. The Net Consultant consists of a set of model types and
tools (a part of them realised with Microsoft Excel documents,
others with the Ids Scheer AG Aris Toolset model types) to be
used in a predefined order and detail.
The analysis has been carried out gathering qualitative and
quantitative documentation regarding the existing network pro-
cesses and interviewing the key personnel of each enterprise
belonging to the network to be implemented. The analysis fa-
ced the main aspects of organisation, activity flows and infor-
mation systems of each company involved in the project. In the
first part of the analysis, the one realised internally to the group,
the major information flows, material flows and money flows
between all the partners of the network have been reconstructed
for the production of all the product families, leading to the ela-
boration of 64 network business cases. These network business
cases allow to preliminarily identify the most frequent areas of
criticism to be detailed during the following analysis of the bu-
siness processes mentioned above. The result of the Analysis
phase has been a clear and shared picture of all the actors that
had to be involved in the future Extended Enterprise network,
the understanding of the actual problems and inefficiencies re-
lated to their organisation, information systems and activity
flows and, especially, the understanding of all the differences
between them in integrating their activities. For example, the
way to process the same order, was not the same between the
four Terzisti, neither the IT system supports used by them,
neither the information exchanged.
This is a crucial aspect for the implementation of a business
network, in which a good compromise between standard and
self-customised processes, IT instruments and methodologies
has to be reached.
Design
Starting from the current business process knowledge and their
inefficiencies in terms of activities, organisation and informa-
tion system support, and from the conceptual idea of Extended
Enterprise collaboration approach, in this phase, redesigned bu-
siness processes have been projected and proposed to the actors
of the network.
The redesign of the processes has been elaborated by:
- proposing new activity flows, more rational and efficient
compared to the actual ones. The suggestion for this proposal
came by the observation of the different practices in the
network and choosing, improving and standardising the best
practice ones. An example of this, has been the introduction
of the quality control of the input material sent by the textile
group immediately after its reception, and not at the moment
of the use for the manufacturing. Another example has been
the introduction of a structured communication about the
production plan changes, with the possibility for the Terzisti
to accept it or not;
- describing the detailed information system requirements that
could make the system able to support the new network busi-
ness processes. The specifications have been written as work-
flows to be implemented, information fields to be used, secu-
rity criteria to be respected, such the ones concerning the ac-
cess to the prices of the manufacturing services agreed
between the network partners;
- Introducing new organisational roles necessary to run the bu-
siness process, like a focal point in each Terzista factory.
The Design phase has been faced elaborating a first proposal
which has been submitted to the people of the group and of
Terzisti, in order to discuss together about its practical feasibi-
lity and to receive new ideas for the design.
The result of the Design phase has been a shared and documen-
ted structure of the integration situation and business processes
of the “to-be” situation.
Implementation
Comparing the “to-be” situation designed in the previous phase
with the “as-is” situation mapped in the analysis phase, all the
organisational, IT and process gaps have been identified. For
each gap, a project implementation plan has been elaborated in
order to build the “to-be” scenario of the Extended Enterprise
network.
The organisational issues have been solved with training activi-
ties to the key personnel, in which the new business processes
with their IT supports have been showed, together with their
advantages.
The major effort has been dedicated to the implementation of
the newly developed information system to support the new
network business processes, the Efikton system of Diasfalisis.
In particular, a key of success of this activity has been the pre-
vious knowledge of the business and organisation consultants
about the IT platform that the provider will have implemented,
before the design phase. This knowledge has permitted to:
Marzo 2005 - Automazione e Strumentazione - 91
 TECNICA networking
project the new situation according to the possibilities offered
by the used information technology; transfer very quickly and
with efficacy the needs and the system specification to IT peo-
ple; participate to the technical development of the IT informa-
tion system with the specialists; control effectively the IT sy-
stem development and anticipate possible problems before the
test phase.
After the first development of a prototype of the information
system, a test phase has been programmed with the key users of
the textile group and the Terzisti, in order to identify and solve
the existing bugs and to receive further ideas of improvement
coming from the real use of the system. During this field tests,
a first training activity has been carried out to introduce the
information system functionality and to anticipate any resistan-
ce behaviour of the future users, especially from the ones less
IT-oriented. In fact, the first impression of some of them has
not been completely positive, due to the poor use of internet
they did before, but, when they understood the advantages that
the new information system could bring to the working process
itself, they have immediately changed their opinion and they
become the most enthusiastic ones.
It is very important to outline that a reason of the success of the
IT system developed has been the possibility to customise with
a certain freedom the process management for each Terzista,
using the terminology an the workflow more closely to their
single reality, not forcing them to adopt standard and rigid pre-
confectioned processes.
Continuous Improvement
After the implementation phase, a structured activity of perfor-
mance monitoring of the new Extended Enterprise network
concept has started. The aim is to continue improving the desi-
gned business processes, measuring key performance indicators
(like the delivery delay, the whole order processing time ecc.)
and identifying the new possible areas of intervention.
The benefits measured over a two-year period within the three
Texterm pilot networks from textile and clothing industries,
mainly concern: reduction of throughput times (-30%); reduc-
tion of stock levels (-20%); reduction of transport cost (-9%);
reduction of response time (delivery; -21%), leading to higher
order fulfilment rate (96%); reduction of depreciation need for
intermediate and final products (-60%); savings in storage costs
(0,5% of turnover); savings in interest rates (for stocks; 4% of
stock value) and also to improvement of client satisfaction (in-
dex; +39%).
Conception and properties
of the e-collaboration platform Efikton
The e-collaboration platform Efikton, that has been develo-
ped in the Texterm Project, is based principally on the logic
of Dynamically Networked Enterprises and has been exten-
ded to cover several other business needs. In general, the
platform aims at providing the necessary environment for the
support of any type of communication and cooperation
within a network.
92 - Automazione e Strumentazione - Marzo 2005
Network Communication and Collaboration
The Efikton platform main objective is to provide the necessary
framework for the support of communication of any type of
information and with any type of process routing. This is the
reason why the Efikton does not impose certain information
sets, but these are defined per Application. An Application is
considered a set of data structures for the support of a certain
network needs, e.g. definition of Products, Services, Contracts
and Orders for the support of a Sales Scenario. The platform is
designed to work independently from the type of database used.
The database on the other hand consists of two different types
of data (see figure 5):
- System Data: This part of Database contains standard Efikton
information for the system setup, customization, functions
and user environment.
- Application Data: This part contains custom information that
needs to be communicated within a Dynamic Network ser-
ving a specific purpose. The Applications can be more than
one on every Database while the Application data can be also
retrieved from different Databases with different physical lo-
cations. This property adds on the flexibility of the system
that can be used as a virtual data integration platform.
Figure 5 - Efikton Topology
The Efikton system provides the User Interface for the view
and manipulation of the Database information and can be ac-
cessed by all the system users through Internet. As a result the
Efikton platform acts as a gate for the distribution of certain
information and functionalities depending on the access rights
allocated per User.
The Efikton has an inherent functionality for the process-orien-
ted control of work flows in a way so that to permit collabora-
tion of network partners. For every type of application data the-
re can be defined a custom series of permitted routing with pos-
sible alternatives. This routing is expressed in terms of status.
Every piece of information that participates in a routing carries
the dynamic information of its Current Status within a business
process. For example a Sales Order can be “New”,
“Approved”, “Rejected”, “Completed”, “Cancelled” (see figu-
 TECNICA networking
re 6). For every Status are defined all the possible Next
Statuses according to the relevant process in a way to consti-
tute the routing. Efikton supports the functionalities that con-
trol the allowable routing and perform the transition from one
Status to another. An example could be the “New” Sales
Orders that can be either “Approved” or “Rejected”. One sy-
stem User with managerial role could view the “New” Sales
Orders and advance them to the appropriate Next Status. The
“Approved” Sales Orders may be forwarded to the warehouse
in order to be satisfied, while the “Rejected” to be returned to
the Customer that placed them. In this way the Efikton per-
mits both planning (Planflows) and implementation
(Transflows) of work flows.
Figure 6 - Work Flow Management Example in *Efikton*
Dynamic Network Configuration
The Efikton provides the necessary structures for the defini-
tion, configuration and management of Dynamic Networks.
This is achieved by using different structured levels (see figu-
re 7) for the definition of the partners, their roles and their se-
curity access rights to the system. The basic structure units
used by the system are:
- Company: As Company is considered a group of Members
that belong to the same enterprise. The Company can be a
Network Partner without specifying its exact role and posi-
tioning in it.
- Member: As Member is considered the Business Unit/
Department/ Plant-Branch/ Production Line that executes a
specific function and carries a specific role within a
Dynamic Network. For example, one factory that participa-
tes in a Dynamic Network for outsourcing textile services
and has two production lines, one for sewing and one for
confection, can be considered as one Company with two
Members. The role of the Member is identical with the
Network Node according to the Net consultant modeling
methodology. Every Member can participate in certain
Business Processes, communicate with certain Members of
the Network and activate certain types of transactions de-
pending on its role.
- User: Every Member can have more than one User. The
User is the last entity of the structure that actually has ac-
cess on the Efikton. Every User can view and manipulate
any subset of the information that the Member can access.
The role of the User apart from the access to the system is
important because it allows the allocation of the Member
responsibilities. Every User can access a different menu on
the platform in order to view different data and perform dif-
ferent actions.
Figure 7 - Efikton Network Configuration Basic Units
As a result, the Companies and Members of a Dynamic
Network are defined globally while the Users can be managed
on Network Node level.
Network Coordination
Efikton provides a set of properties and special features for
the coordination of the Network Partners. The architecture of
the system is open, so that to allow changes, improvements
and upgrades using the inherent application development
tools, mostly without programming. The Application Data is
independent from the Efikton system, therefore changes on
Database level do not affect the system functionality and can
be performed while it is in use. In addition, the Efikton envi-
ronment provides a set of user-oriented development tools for
the configuration of the application. As a result all system cu-
stomizations and parameterizations can be done at runtime,
without programming and with direct application on the sy-
stem. Finally, the platform development is performed in a
way so that to enhance the system functionalities without
spoiling the existing ones, therefore any upgrade can be done
easily without impact on the existing system. As a consequen-
ce, Efikton is considered an Open System from different
aspects.
For the management of data Efikton uses inherent structures
and components. The User Menus are customized with
Folders and Functions. The Folders constitute a tree view and
can contain Functions. The Functions are browsers that view
and manage certain datasets, with parameters, filters and other
customizations. The Functions build or use existing database
relationships, such as one-to-many or many-to-many, in order
to create preferable data structures. On every Function there
can be assigned standard or customized Action Buttons. The
Action Buttons perform actions on the data records accessed,
such as Edit, Split, Reporting, Exporting, Save, Delete and
others. In this way the application data can be exploited throu-
Marzo 2005 - Automazione e Strumentazione - 93
 TECNICA networking
gh a customizable User Interface according to the business
needs and the user access rights.
Since the same dataset can be accessed by several different
partners, an important issue that arises is the security. Efikton
controls the security on two levels:
- Menu Access: a menu consists of Folders, Functions,
Action Buttons and data. For every User can be assigned
different access security rights on a menu, in a way so that
to access the Folders, Functions, Action Buttons and data
allowed according to his role.
- Data Access: on the data accessed there can be set filters
and controls on Company, Member and User level. Every
User that accesses the system has the information of the
Member and the Company that belongs. So, the data every
User can view/access can be filtered accordingly. In this
way it is possible to achieve security among Network
Partners, so that each node to access only the data allowed.
Efikton environment provides also several value-adding func-
tionalities for the end users and the application developers. It
has multi-lingual functions on the menu, data and user help
manual level that are activated at runtime. There is the poten-
tial to report and export data using other compatible applica-
tions. It uses components that allow attachment of files and
Urls on data records. It supports queries on the available data-
sets and standard user defined preferences for the manage-
ment of the Applications Appearance and Content.
The process of implementing a new application on the
Efikton platform, after relevant business analysis, involves
mainly two phases:
- Database Structure: create the necessary Application
Database Structures on a Database compatible with Efikton.
- Application Environment: create the Application
Environment on Efikton using the system inherent tools for
this purpose.
Benefits of Efikton
Due to its flexibility and open architecture environment the
Efikton has extended its application area apart from the colla-
borative networks, covering also other business needs. From
one point of view multi-branch companies are very close and
can be simulated by Dynamic Network models. Apart from
this Efikton platform has been used for applications that cover
internal business needs for planning, control, execution and
improvement of internal business processes [1].
The use of Efikton can support and lead to competitive advan-
tages such as: customization of the Data and Information
Structures used; incorporation of any Business Process, Logic
and Workflow; suitable of multi-company, multi-branch in-
stallations; dynamic multi-language environment; support of
changes, improvements, upgrades, new functionalities
without any impact on the existing Applications; provision as
a standalone platform, as an Application Service Provider
(Asp) to many companies, or as a corporate application por-
tal; use for several different business purposes (e.g. replace an
Erp system or substitute functionalities that cannot be covered
in a satisfactory manner by an Erp system).
94 - Automazione e Strumentazione - Marzo 2005
Conclusion
In this paper, new conceptual approaches, methods and tools
for textile Extended Enterprise network management with the
help of e-collaboration platforms have been outlined.
The validation of the Extended Enterprise concept, by re-en-
gineering three pilot networks with help of a newly developed
methodology (Net Consultant), and its implementation on an
e-collaboration platform (Efikton) which has been carried out
as part of a European Community research project has proven
significant benefits for network management activities. Both
of the results obtained, the network design methodology and
the Efikton platform, have by now also been adapted and ap-
plied within other industrial settings and industries.
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Acknowledgements:The results presented in this paper have been develo-
ped as part of the European Commission Growth community research
project Texterm (Textile Extended Enterprise Resource Management
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those of the authors only. All copyrights, trademarks etc. mentioned in
this paper are property of their respective owners.