COLLABORATIVE MANUFACTURING:EMERGING TRENDS AND CONCLUSIONS

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EMERGING TRENDS AND CONCLUSIONS

The strongest emerging trend that we can observe in the collaborative manufacturing arena is part- nership. In the past, the concept of the giant, self-sufficient corporation with presence in several continents prevailed. Emerging now and expected to increase in the years to come are agile enterprises willing to take advantage of and participate in partnerships. The times of winning everything or losing everything are behind us. What matters now is staying in business as competitively as possible. Collaborative efforts move beyond the manufacturing function downstream where significant oppor- tunities exist. Manufacturing is integrating and aligning itself with the rest of the value chain, leaving behind concepts such as product marginal profit that controlled operations for so long. The future will be driven by adaptive channels (Narus and Anderson 1996) for acquiring supplies, producing, delivering, and providing after-sale service. Companies will continue to drive inefficiencies out and become agile systems, forcing companies around them to move in the same direction.

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