Abstract:

From the beginning of the 21st century there have been a lot of changes in the economic world which also lead to changes in the enterprises and their production processes. Production itself has changed but also the position of the production in the company and its perception has changed. Those changes have been made due to changes in the global economic environment and as result of the new challenges at the market such as the shortening of lifecycle of the products, cost minimization, or achieving of better effectiveness. Other factors such as the increasing technological progress, market globalisation or higher competition intensity have even lead to chaos and to destabilisation of the markets. Not only the enterprises have to change their approach but also the institutions for vocational education have to adapt to the new challenges. There should be implementation of the new approaches to the curriculum or at least the brief information about the rapid changes in the economic and managerial environment. The sooner the enterprises adapt to those new challenges the faster they can profit from those challenges. The enterprise focus on the supply chain management due to the challenges they have to face. Thus, the article provides the analysis of the two concepts of supply chain management, namely the agile manufacturing and the lean production. There is comparison of those two concepts from the perspective of value added for the customer, by product type, and its lifecycle, with the aim of identifying the similarities and differences of these two concepts. This comparison thus helps management to make better decisions in the supply chain management. And also as the main findings and recommendation to update the educational process in the field of vocational education.

Keywords:

Agile manufacturing, Lean production, Vocational education, Supply chain management.