A Virtual Organization Information Systems and its reengineering for Agile Manufacturing

摘要

It is now possible to organize globally while working locally: Information technologies like e-mail, theInternet, and video conferencing to the desktop permit tight coordination of geographically dispersed workersacross time zones and cultures. Companies are not limited to physical locations for providing products andservices. Networked information systems are allowing companies to coordinate their geographically distributedcapabilities as virtual organizations. In order for organizations to succeed, they must be able to respond withagility in a geographically dispersed environment. The core for a virtual organization to increase the utilizationrate of resources to the maximum and to make full use of the transient market opportunities lies in how to bringthe potential of information technology into play. Based on the philosophy of agile manufacturing, this paperanalyses the basic concepts and connotation of Virtual Organization Information systems（VOIS）. VOIS is aninformation system composed of some independent information subsystems that are autonomous, collaborativeand belong to umpty organizations respectively. VOIS support the operation of virtual organization, and automatethe information flow across organizational boundaries. Such systems have capabilities as rapid construction, quickoperation, and agile reengineering and swift adaptability. Differences between VOIS and traditional enterpriseinformation systems are analyzed. On the basis of analyzing the structure of VOIS, an abstract hierarchicalstructure of VOIS is proposed using object-oriented method. Reengineering ideology and methods of VOIS arealso explored in light of the three layers structure.