Production Management in SME Networks - Evaluation of Potentials and Achievements

During the last years, the attention on SME networks has been continuously increased. Especially in the production business, SME more and more organize SME networks in order to extend their production capabilities. While a lot of potentials have been tapped by sharing production resources and knowledge, or by collaborative purchasing, the current achievements should not deceive the idle lying potentials within SME networks. Based on a case study of a SME network(s) in Germany, this paper presents a methodology that allows the evaluation of the potentials and the achievements in SME networks.