Abstract
The last decade has been characterized by times of change, including increasing levels of globalization and competition. Collaboration allowed SMEs to respond effectively to the development of new complex products and services but presented new barriers concerning the management of their business processes and relations with partners. This paper presents a new collaborative aggregate planning for non-hierarchical business networks, where SMEs collaborate in the selection of partners and definition of the operations plan required to specify, manufacture and distribute a custom made products. The proposed approach is based on negotiations undertaken by the partners in order to promote the creation of alternative operations plans and allow a multicriteria evaluation of the involved costs and delivery dates. The proposed approach promotes the reduction of communication between partners, a reactive analysis of changes to planning and associated impact, enhancement of trust (since all partners have the same weight on the decision process).

Abstract
The global industry is currently facing a growing increase in the competitiveness that forces companies to adopt and develop new strategies and methods of production. Therefore, one of the most relevant challenges in manufacturing engineering is innovatively integrating Product, Process and Factory dimensions and life cycles, in a holistic approach, from design to recycling/disposal and reuse. The challenge faced here is the synchronization and simultaneous generation of all three-domain models by integrating manufacturing engineering knowledge into the early stage of the modelling and planning processes. The next generation of factories has to be modular, scalable, flexible, open, agile and knowledge-based in order to be able to adapt, in real time, to the continuously changing market demands, technology options and regulations. Therefore, integration, flexibility and efficiency requirements and the ability to simulate the production life cycle of a factory play a crucial role in decreasing ramp-up and design times. Furthermore they play a crucial role in improving the performance in the evaluation and reconfiguration of new or existing facilities, in supporting management decisions and providing tools that can guarantee real-time performance monitoring. Therefore, it is necessary to research and implement the underlying models and ideas during the foundation stage of a new conceptual framework, which is designed to be implemented in the next generation of factories. This will be supported by suitable Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and digital infrastructures and should lay down the foundations for future applications in this research area the industrial paradigm of "Factory as a Product". In line with the context presented here, we propose the development of factory templates to address the design and operation practices throughout the entire life cycle of the factory. Different dimensions of the factory templates are presented in this paper; they cover the design and creation of the factory, its remodelling and even the disassembly and recycling stages. This entire study takes into account relevant factors such as costs, quality, time, flexibility, environmental and social issues and energy efficiency. Throughout the article, different kinds of models are presented, which describe and adjust the structure of the analysis, design and development of a factory integration project that helps provide a formal analysis of the system. Furthermore, templates integrating the factory's response to internal and external disturbances will also be developed.

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.

Abstract
This paper aims to explore the performance alignment in collaborative network environments. It has been stated that performance management based on data collection and the evaluation of key performance indicators (KPIs) may not be effective due to the different indicators and measurement systems in place for the various participants in a collaborative network (CN). Therefore, measuring the strategic and inter-organizational alignment based on key alignment indicators (KAIs) can be an excellent alternative to improve performance evaluation systems. This approach has led to the exploration of the performance prediction paradigm and develops tools to estimate a performance and evaluate the degree of alignment by creating instances of a future performance in collaborative networks.

Abstract
In order to develop the new industrial paradigm, it is necessary to explore a framework supported by planning and operational tools. Indeed, it becomes clear that more and more the next factories need to be increasingly more flexible, agile and knowledge-based in order to be able to adapt in real time to the continuously changing market demands, technology options and regulations, as well as accelerate the design process and optimise production. Therefore, in this paper a framework capable of supporting the factory planning will be presented based on predefined templates and product requirements. Furthermore, the Factory Templates will allow for process deployment, control and evaluation in real-time. © 2011 AISTI.

Abstract
This paper describes and discusses the results of an empirical study about social-networks/microblogging adoption in a financial institution. Social networking at the workplace literature is overviewed and then presented the methodology and hypothesis of the study. Interviews, a survey and a experimental pilot were used as data collection methods. An extract of the results related with the experimental pilot are discussed and some conclusions derived from them.