The topicality of the research is related to the priorities within supply chain management field raised in the European Commission 6th and 7th framework programmes. They cover moving towards knowledge-based approaches and integration of European companies in global supply and distribution networks with the aim to serve regional markets efficiently and to achieve cost-optimal production and logistic processes in the future. The thesis is aimed at developing simulation-based optimality evaluation procedure for multi-echelon supply chain planning methods under uncertain conditions in order to determine switching moment between planning alternatives. In the thesis the problem of planning methods analysis within product life cycle and under uncertainty is formulated, the usefulness of simulation utilisation in order to solve the discussed problem is overviewed, the concept of optimality gap is analysed and its essence is described. The characteristic of the main effects of the influencing factors is discussed. In addition, the simulation-based alternative comparison methods are analysed and supplemented with a case study of statistical comparison methods utilisation in a planning task. After analysing and solving the gaps determined during research, modelling methods of stochastic demand are investigated to work with a wide range of demand variability, as well as sensitivity analysis of the factors that influence models performance measures is introduced within optimality gap evaluation procedure in order to run simulation experiments and create production rules. Developed procedure allows improving supply chain planning processes by taking into account the main phases of product’s life cycle. Approbation of the developed procedure is done within ES 6th framework programme project “ECLIPS” and is based on the business case of chemical industrial company’s supply chain. The thesis includes introduction, 5 chapters and conclusions. It contains 143 pages, 43 figures and 20 tables in the main text, 113 titles large bibliography and 1 appendix.