Design and Implementation of a Cooperative Enterprise Selection Mechanism for Allied Concurrent Engineering Environment

Allied concurrent engineering (ACE), which combines the concepts of virtual enterprise (VE) and concurrent engineering (CE), is a highly promising business strategy for enterprises in facing global competition. ACE is designed to integrate the activities, resources, information, and organization of enterprises via enterprise alliances, thus minimizing cost, increasing competitiveness, and achieving rapid response to customer expectations. However, success of ACE depends on effective and close cooperation among allied enterprises. Selecting cooperative partners in the context of ACE thus becomes pivotal in enhancing the efficiency of ACE. This study designs and implements a cooperative enterprise selection mechanism for ACE environment. In designing this mechanism, the model and evaluation indicators for selecting cooperative enterprises for ACE are first established. Subsequently, the evaluation indicators with fuzzy semantics are quantified as the weight value via FAHP (Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process) and made into a hierarchical structure. The TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) technique is then applied to evaluate suitable cooperative enterprises, ultimately select the best cooperative enterprise and consequently increase the cooperation effectiveness of allied enterprises. Finally, an illustrative example is presented and the system is implemented to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach.