Abstract
Nowadays, it has been observed an increasing awareness and understanding on the subject of sustainable companies and business models, addressing multi-disciplinary approaches that cover not only economical problems, but also social and environmental challenges. Supply chains and especially collaborative networks managers are increasingly aware of these sustainability issues, continuously seeking to meet current human needs while preserving environmental safety. Only this way, focusing on its sustainable growing, it is possible to preserve companies' steadiness. In order to achieve this goal, sustainable networks must ensure that each partner is fully aligned and committed with economic, environmental and social axes that rule the network operational behaviour. Nevertheless, in order to achieve this level of maturity within such complex and turbulent environments, organisations need to improve the quality of their performance assessment approaches, integrating the different sustainability perspectives. To accomplish this, it is critical to establish specific indicators responsible to formalise and evaluate partners' behaviour, according to well-identified objectives, as well as fuse this information in a comprehensive and user-friendly way. This paper presents a new approach, based on a fuzzy logic-based algorithm, for sustainable network performance and risk assessment. © 2016 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Abstract
In the ambit of Distribute/Agile/Virtual Enterprises, the resources/partners selection process is a critical issue in order to guarantee the success of such enterprises. The selection process is complex in the large sense of the word and for that we advocate the necessity of a broker to perform that task, conveniently assisted by a tool. In order to contribute to its construction, this paper presents the resolution of a resources system selection problem, designated by Dependent or Integral Selection Method without Pre-selection of Transport Resources, with two algorithms, an exact solution algorithm and an approximate one. The results demonstrate that the exact solution algorithm limitations can be covered by the approximate algorithm. With those results, the broker has the knowledge to perform the selection with the most adequate algorithm for each case of the problem (depending of the number of tasks and pre-selected resources) addressed in this paper. This paper brings a contribution to broker performance for the selection process. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Abstract
In fashion business, 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 proposing a reference model to support collaborative supply networks in addressing the need for Fashionable and Healthy Clothing and Footwear products. In particular this work describes the implementation of the model in a real case highlighting the developments and changes implied at network level. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2013.

Abstract
Production scheduling is an optimizing problem that can contribute strongly to the competitive capacity of companies producing goods and services. A way to promote the survival and the sustainability of the organizations in this upcoming era of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) is the efficient use of the resources. A complete failure to stage tasks properly can easily lead to a waste of time and resources, which could result in a low level of productivity and high monetary losses. In view of the above, it is essential to analyse and continuously develop new models of production scheduling. This paper intends to present an I4.0 oriented decision support tool to the dynamic scheduling. After a fist solution has been generated, the developed prototype has the ability to create new solutions as tasks leave the system and new ones arrive, in order to minimize a certain measure of performance. Using a single machine environment, the proposed prototype was validated in an in-depth computational study through several instances of dynamic problems with stochastic characteristics. Moreover, a more robust analysis was done, which demonstrated that there is statistical evidence that the proposed prototype performance is better than single method of scheduling and proved the effectiveness of the prototype.

Abstract
This paper describes a solution method that was created with the objective of obtaining a more efficient finished goods distribution process for a food industry company. The finished goods distribution process involves the use of the companys own fleet to serve a specific group of customers, and the use of outsourcing transportation services that can make direct and transshipment customer deliveries. The complexity of the problem is due to the need to decide which customers should be served by each of the outsourcing transportation services, direct or transshipment, and to find cost efficient solutions for the multiple vehicle routing problems created. First, an original clustering method consisting of a logical division of the customer orders using a delivery ratio based on the transportation unit cost, distance and order weight, is used to define customer clusters by service type. Then, an exact method based on a mixed integer programming model, is used to obtain optimal vehicle routing solutions, for each cluster created. The solution method for the company real instances, proved able to reach the initial proposed objectives and obtain promising results that suggest an average reduction of 34% for the operational costs, when compared to the current distribution model of the company. © 2019, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Abstract
Risk assessment is a theme of large spectrum applied in different fields. In the context of Virtual / Collaborative Enterprises there are several risks whose assessment should be aware to avoid undesirable consequences either for entire networked or for a partner in particular. The objective of this work is centered on the creation of a framework / guidelines to serve as a basis for the creation of a better risk assessment model for Virtual / Collaborative Enterprises. This work analyzed the few models available in the literature and identified some gaps that were used to purpose complementary guidelines for the design and / or improve the future risk assessment models. The pointed guidelines covered three important topics: risk factors; assessment methods; and the impact in different life cycle phases of a Virtual / Collaborative Enterprise. Considering the results of the work it is our conviction that there is space to improve the research in this field and a more robust and flexible risk assessment model should be developed. (C) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.