Global Economic Changes, Optimization of Virtual Enterprises - Software Development

Changing market environment, global competition, rapidly fluctuating customer demands and more complex global network of supply chains require new production conceptions (Pull, Lean) and technologies. Novel supply chain paradigms (1. Lean-, 2. Agile-, 3. Leagile Supply Chain) are forms in order to increase and maintain competitiveness of companies. New organization and cooperation forms are formed. The members of an Agile Supply Chain form Virtual Enterprise (VE) network, which supports the fast and flexible fulfilment of changing customers’ demands. The goal of the study is the VE network optimization, which means the formation of optimal combination of ideal chain’s members (production companies, service providers and customers). This study is original and unique, since an optimization method, objective functions (total cost and lead time) and design constraints have been elaborated. Based on the elaborated method an optimization software has been developed which can be widely used for optimization of microand macro regional networks.