Modelling and analysis of supply chain management systems

Manufacturing/service companies have undergone many evolutionary stages and paradigm shifts: from craft production to mass production, from mass to lean and now to agile manufacturing. These developments rely on market requirements and dynamism of the market. In a global market environment, companies have to compete based on flexibility and responsiveness. A number of companies attempt to improve the agility level by distributed enterprises. The concept of supply chain management (SCM) helps the companies in this environment to achieve effective enterprise integration. In the literature, there are numerous papers dealing with the concepts and strategies of SCM. However, there is a need for modelling of supply chain environments with the objective of measuring the performance of various strategies, methods and technologies. For this, the application of operational research methods can be used.