15. - 17. 5. 2013, Brno, Czech Republic, EU SYSTEM OF PRODUCTION FLOW PLANNING IN METALWORKING CLUSTERS Sebastian SANIUK University of Zielona Góra, Licealna 9, 65-417 Zielona Góra, Poland, s.saniuk@wez.uz.zgora.pl Abstract The cluster concept is becoming increasingly popular as an effective form of business organization. Clusters, which are a flexible form of horizontal cooperation among the three groups of players: companies, scientific research bodies and public authorities; provide an environment which facilitates the rapid development of innovative forms of cooperation between different players. In addition, they form an ideal base for the creation of production networks oriented to emerging business opportunities in the market. The submitted paper concerns the production flow planning in a set of small and medium enterprises (SME's) functioning within regional metalworking industry clusters. Surveys conducted as part of research into one of the Polish metalworking clusters underline a need to combine the potential of enterprises in order to manufacture new production orders which significantly exceed the production capacity of any single cluster enterprise. In this paper, a computer system which allows the integration of cooperating enterprises, sharing of production capacity of enterprises and the possibility of production order execution is presented. This system improves the productivity of the production resources of metalworking cluster enterprises and has a positive effect both on the development of small and medium enterprises belonging to the cluster and the region as a whole. Keywords: industrial metalworking clusters, production orders planning, production flow planning, prototyping of production networks, SME’s. 1. INTRODUCTION The highly dynamic market challenges and the advantages of the facilities offered by advances in information and communication technologies mean that today’s enterprises are increasingly operating in networked environments [4], [9]. Nowadays, participation in networks very often plays an important role for many organizations, especially small and medium enterprises, which strive to achieve a differentiated competitive advantage [3], [8]. Networked companies can increase their benefits through sharing competencies and resources [1]. Therefore, the cluster concept is becoming more popular in both the scientific and business communities. The potential that lies in the SME sector can, through appropriate policies to support the development of regional industrial clusters and the formation of production networks within them, provide an additional source of development across the region. This helps to maintain a high level of employment and innovation, and develops and improves the competitiveness of businesses connected to the cluster [3]. Nowadays, a very important problem highlighted in literature is the lack of tools supporting the process of production orders planning within small and medium enterprises of clusters [5]. This implies a need to develop procedures and computer systems that will evaluate the feasibility of a new production order given the available production capacity of potential partners (enterprises) of the cluster, and facilitate the selection of a set of companies to ensure its realization [3], [5] . The production flow planning in the cluster is based, on the one hand, on taking into account the requirements of carrying out the planned production order, and on the other hand, the possibilities of