A study of optimal manufacturing flexibility of supply Chain

Facing all kinds of changes in supply chain management, increasing the flexibility of supply chain has become conditioned response. That's because flexibility can increase the capability of output and raise the traffic intensity of supply chain system; however, the cost of supply chain must increase accordingly. Thus, decision makers must balance the attractions of flexibility against the prospects of high cost. This paper studies the relationship between flexibility benefit and flexibility cost of supply chain. To get the optimal manufacturing flexibility easily and quickly, the relationship between marginal cost and average total cost in Principles of Economics is introduced into the paper. An example is arranged to illustrate how to get the optimal manufacturing flexibility of supply chain easily.