Integration of flexible manufacturing and change management processes in a service-oriented architecture

The success of a company invariably depends more and more on the ability of a company to recognize changes in its environment at an early stage and consider these changes lime v in its competitive behavior. Flexibility, as one of the major factors, marks the ability of a company to master complex environmental situations in order to boost its chances to survive and safeguard its long-term success. This article reflects on the perspectives offered by the utilization of the service oriented paradigm for realizing the integration of a flexibility evaluation platform used for 'near real-time' flexibility measurement and monitoring of a manufacturing system, within the scope of a change management platform.