Abstract

Virtual organization has emerged as a way to give companies maximum flexibility in an age of rapid technological change and uncertainty. The switching model of virtual organization captures the flexibility that can be achieved when there exists a strict logical separation between the requirements of a task, and the satisfiers or the means for satisfying those requirements. This thesis examines the switching model of virtual organization and presents the results of a simulation study of the model based on linear programming and the simplex algorithm. The results of the simulation show that the use of dynamic switching between alternative satisfiers in a virtual organization results in a substantial decrease in costs and an overall improvement in performance. It is also concluded that linear programming and the simplex algorithm can be used effectively in dynamic switching computation.