Supporting distribution networks of industrial small and medium sized enterprises

Abstract

This paper proposes a unified procedure for supporting industrial small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) with a technical solution facilitating the coordination of their distribution networks. The recommended solution emphasises the specific needs of SMEs which are: high flexibility to integrate with office- and enterprise applications, low costs of acquisition and maintenance, high level of security, flexible access methods, personalisation as well as ease of use. We introduce one of seven reference implementations that are installed in three different European countries to give an insight into the practical realisation of the concepts that we propose. The experience of the current solution is reported including common pitfalls and the way to overcome them in the continuing development work.