Achieving flexibility: a new trend in suplly chain management

Scientific monograph Achieving flexibility: a new trend in supply chain management focuses on a current topic in operations management that transcends the boundaries of a single enterprise and creates foundations for partnership development in supply chain. The main objective of this monograph is to explore the extent of utilization of various measures to increase supply chain flexibility in Slovak enterprises operating in manufacturing industry and to create a framework for modelling metrics of supply chain flexibility. This monograph is divided into three main parts. In the beginning the motivation for this study is provided which also includes a brief literature review of researched topics such as supply chain definition, various flexibility characterizations and methods designed to increase supply chain flexibility. Secondly, the findings of empirical research conducted on sample file of Slovak manufacturing enterprises are provided. Research methodology is also explained in detail since this empirical study was conducted on a representative sample of Slovak enterprises. The last section of this publication describes the proposed models and frameworks created based on both literature research and findings from the empirical research. This chapter also includes the model assessment in terms of its practical applications and discussion including possibilities for further research.