Material flow (or "materials flow") is the description of the transportation of
raw material
A raw material, also known as a feedstock, unprocessed material, or primary commodity, is a basic material that is used to produce goods, finished goods, energy, or intermediate materials/Intermediate goods that are feedstock for future finished ...
s, pre-fabricates, parts, components, integrated objects and final products as a flow of entities. The term applies mainly to advanced modeling of
supply chain management
In commerce, supply chain management (SCM) deals with a system of procurement (purchasing raw materials/components), operations management, logistics and marketing channels, through which raw materials can be developed into finished produc ...
and its use has been largely subsumed under this heading.
[Mills, J., Schmitz, J. and Frizelle, G.]
A strategic review of "supply networks"
''International Journal of Operations & Production Management'', volume 24, No. 10, 2004, page 1012, accessed on 28 February 2025
As industrial material flow can easily become very complex, several different specialized simulation tools have been developed for complex systems. Typical tools include:
*
AnyLogic
* AutoMod for logistics systems
*
Plant Simulation for production system.
References
Control engineering
Industrial ecology
Industrial engineering
Systems ecology
Resource economics
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