Abstract
Due to the dramatic change of the market competition for industrial manufacturers - especially in TCFI (Textile, Clothing and Footwear Industry) - in the recent past resulting from the globalization and consequent openness of the markets together with the financial crisis, resulted in an increased need of networked collaborative approaches and tools. This pressing need of collaboration among SMEs (small medium enterprises) is changing the overall strategic approaches of the companies in the way they address the market demand. Company managers are realizing that in order to compete in open markets with increased responsiveness, they need to develop and provide new, complex and high configurable products and services supported in fully functional collaborative networks. This paper presents a new collaborative aggregated planning approach for supplier networks, where groups of SMEs collaborate in the formation of the network, the definition of the operations plans, in replying to customer inquiries and the release of individual production orders for each unit in the network. The proposed approach promotes the definition of multi-criteria evaluated production plans through collaborative negotiation and individual capacity checking validation. © 2012 IEEE.

Abstract
The increasing globalization of the past decades forces the companies to update its supply network strategy in line with the new and challenging context of a competitive market and additional uncertainty. This research, through the development of a model, wants to shed light on which are the most important determinants that influence the supply chain configuration and strategy and how they impact on the performance of the whole supply chain. © 2012 IEEE.

Abstract
Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to study the alignment measurement in collaborative networks, using the fit concept and predictive performance measurement as its main enablers. A performance prediction approach is used in order to control a collaborative business network based not only in present and past performance measurements of each partner, but also taking into account the future behaviour of the intra- and inter-organisational processes performance. Design/methodology/approach - An exploratory case study was applied to a Brazilian collaborative network and mathematical approaches normally used in control theory were adopted to support alignment measurement. Findings - The use of predictive measurements to manage the alignment between the results of inter-organisational processes and performance targets set by the collaborative network. Research limitations/implications - This approach was applied in a specific supply chain network, based on three industrial companies. For other network typologies it will be necessary to evaluate the alignment that can be achieved. Practical implications - This predictive approach makes it possible to manage performance pro-actively using feedforward and feedback control. Therefore, tools that consider performance estimation are used based on a data fusion approach, with a proper combination of leading and lagging measurements, which make it possible to use forecasting methods and tools to achieve good predictions. Originality/value - The paper introduces an approach to alignment measurement leveraged by the new paradigm of performance prediction and presents an alignment metric for collaborative networks. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Abstract
In clothing and footwear business sector, consumer needs and expectations of specific target groups - such as elderly, obese, disabled, or diabetic persons - are arising as challenging opportunities for European companies that are asked to supply small series of innovative and fashionable goods of high quality, affordable price and eco-compatible. This paper aims at propose a three level (strategic, tactical, and operational) reference model to support the Textile, Clothing and Footwear (TCF) collaborative supply networks in addressing the need for Fashionable and Healthy Clothing & Footwear products.

Abstract
The paper proposes a Flexibility Requirements Model and a Factory Templates Framework to support the dynamic Virtual Organization decision-makers in order to reach effective response to the emergent business opportunities ensuring profitability. Through the construction and analysis of the flexibility requirements model, the network managers can achieve and conceive better strategies to model and breed new dynamic VOs. This paper also presents the leagility concept as a new paradigm fit to equip the network management with a hybrid approach that better tackle the performance challenges imposed by the new and competitive business environments.

Abstract
The design, production and distribution of small series of health fashionable goods for specific target groups of wide impact in terms of market for the European industry as elderly, disables, diabetics and obese people represents a challenging opportunity for European companies which are asked to supply the demand with affordable price and eco-compatible products. Added to this challenge, textile, clothing and footwear manufactures seek for innovative collaborative networking solutions that could provide an entire digital life-cycle for the products and services required by the market. Aligned with this need, the EU CoReNet project aims to design and develop a new smart collaborative consumer-driven framework with the related services and components. This paper addresses the multidisciplinary complexity of customer-oriented and eco-friendly networks for health fashionable goods in particular addressing business requirements analysis, value chain issues, co-planning production and co-design topics in collaborative business processes tailored for high variability of the consumers demand and expectations.