click on star to go back to Joseph Sarkis' HomepageIn the current competitive environment of further product customization and agile response to customer requirements requires extensive resources in regard to design, manufacture and distribution of products. Stand-alone corporations are having difficulty excelling in this environment without the aid of the specialized expertise and activities of other organizations. Temporary cooperation formed through virtual enterprises or corporations may be valuable in satisfying these dynamic market and customer needs and expectations. This dynamic and continuously changing market scenario has led to a new manufacturing paradigm known as agile manufacturing. In an agile manufacturing environment marked with rapid change and specialized activities and products, the virtual corporation success depends on the performance of the various constituent organizations that form the virtual corporation. A successful virtual organization requires a careful selection of virtual partners. This paper discusses one such comprehensive virtual corporation selection methodology using the analytical network process and goal programming. The virtual constituent companies within this multi-phased methodology are evaluated on qualitative as well as quantitative factors.
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