Definition: Material flow simulation
Material flow includes all processes in a company in the manufacturing industry or trade that take place to obtain, process or distribute material goods. This also applies in particular to their interlinking. If storage and transport are suboptimal, this means not only higher costs, but also more time. It is clear that a material flow simulation is of great interest for the analysis and optimization of such complex processes.
Why is a material flow simulation virtually necessary in logistics?
The process of a material flow simulation
At the beginning there is the target definition. Which target variables are to be examined, what are the visualization requirements? Then the data basis is collected and the current status is determined from the system processes. Data from the ERP system and the company’s own tracking systems are used for this purpose. Work schedules and employee surveys also play a role to really get a comprehensive picture. Material flow simulation software can only deliver good results if the data entered is of high quality. This is followed by data evaluation, where material flow simulation software really comes into its own. It is used to determine the costs of the material flows as available or planned. The results are displayed graphically at the end.