Versatile manufacturing (VM) companies typically manufacture
high variety, mainly customised products in relatively low
volumes, competing for each order with other supplier
companies on the basis of price, technical expertise, delivery
time and punctuality. The research presented in this study is
included in a wide cross-disciplinary project which involved
seven research centres. In particular, this paper aims at
identifying the general requirements and guidelines for the
definition of an integrated model of the order to delivery cycle in
a VM environment, which can particularly be suitable for the
small-medium enterprise needs. A number of guidelines
emerged, mainly in the areas of customer requirements
definition and commercial configuration of customer order,
supply and production planning, and intermediate and final
project evaluation.
