The original version of this chapter was revised: The copyright line was incorrect. This has been corrected. The Erratum to this chapter is available at DOI: L. M. Camarinha-Matos (ed.), Collaborative Business Ecosystems and Virtual Enterprises © IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2002 10.1007/978-0-387-35585-6_68 DISTRIBUTED ENTERPRISES CONFIGURATION: ORDERS ALLOCATION WITHIN NETWORKS OF FIRMS Abdelkader Hammami 1 , Patrick Burlat 1 , Xavier Boucher 1 ( 1) &ole des Mines de Saint-Etienne - Centre SIMMO 158 cours Fauriel,42023 Saint Etienne Cedex 2, FRANCE { hammami, burlat, boucher}@emse.fr Abstract: This paper describes a case study about an order allocation method for networks of firms. The method we present aims to calculate satisfying routes for each order, according to antagonist criteria such as resource occupation and knowledge acquisition. The order allocation procedure is first based on a product description (focusing on required activities and competencies), and second on the identification of the available competencies within networks of SMEs. 1. INTRODUCTION This paper deals with "networks of firms", i.e. virtual industrial structures linked with horizontal agreements (unlike the "fum network" managed by a mainspring firm). Those networks are made of independent firms virtually linked together to achieve a goal. Different types of networks can be identified according to the nature of the relations that federate their members, for example (Poulin, 1994) : Purchasing network (economies of scale for purchases and supplies), Production network Goint production), New market oriented network (sharing new business services to increase turn over), (Quality certification network - sharing quality experts to obtain ISO 9000 certification), Data exchange standardization network (constructing and adopting common norms to exchange data), etc. These types of network are not mutually exclusive. For example, a group may correspond at the same time to a production network and a purchasing network. Inside networks, co-ordination is not carried out through a hierarchical organization (as in the ftrm) or through price mechanism (as on the market), but through co-operation and interaction between ftrms within the network, and more exactly, by mutual adjustment and learning processes. In that context, our research specially addresses networks of SMEs. Network of SMEs are particular because the shareholder and the manager of a SME is often the same person. According to most studies, co-ordination is a relevant problem for network of SMEs, where each partner preserves its independence and often runs its own decision making processes among the network. Furthermore, different kinds of opportunism may appear among