Formation and planning of virtual production networks (VPN) in metallurgical clusters

Abstract

A significant problem of small and medium enterprises in the metallurgical sector is that submitted orders very often exceed the individual production capacity at the disposal of each company according to production capacity limitations (machinery, equipment and time availability), competencies, skills, etc. Therefore, the idea of the creation of virtual production networks (VPN) of small and medium enterprises within a metallurgical cluster appears to be particularly attractive. The development of such networks depends on design solutions and tools which help companies to quickly plan a VPN to jointly execute production orders. In the paper, the new method for formation and rapid planning of virtual production network within metallurgical clusters is proposed.