Fractal management systems for extended, holonic enterprises

The complexity and the extension of the production environment are increasing at a fastening pace. This ever-increasing complexity requires new and more flexible Management Systems and decision supports that go above and beyond ERP's. Any information system designed and developed to support a manufacturing enterprise has as a (sometimes implicit) first step: the modeling of the enterprise. Four metaphors are briefly explored, in relation to the increasing complexity of the environment to be modeled, and to the parallel increasing flexibility of the resulting models: The econometric model The hydraulic model The cybernetic model The chain value (Porter) In these last years a new enterprise organization called holonic or cellular has been defined. It is embodied by a multilevel network of holons, a network that has a high degree of flexibility, because it can easily restructure itself depending on the circumstances: in fact each holon has the capability of surviving even if detached by any network, and the ability to search for a new network to integrate into. The holonic structure has a fractal nature, so that each holon is in turn made of holons, and the single persons cooperating in the enterprise represent the lower level. This structure is the best one for enduring the chaotic evolution of the manufacturing environment. The paper concludes with the proposal of a modeling technique to be used when designing the Management System for a manufacturing organization.