Material flow

About: Material flow is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 3050 publications have been published within this topic receiving 36844 citations. The topic is also known as: material stream.

Automated model development and parametrization of material flow simulations

Abstract: Material flow simulations are a powerful tool for planning and improving complex production systems. In practice, however, the potential of simulations cannot be exploited. Long development times and high efforts complicate a successful realization of simulation projects. In this paper we present a new approach to automate time-consuming steps in simulation projects. Based on general tracking and tracing data, our approach reduces the efforts in the area of data acquisition and automates the steps of model development, model parameterization and model implementation. The approach automatically identifies a material flow model, classifies and parametrizes the identified material flow elements and extracts basic control policies. A first prototypical implementation confirms the validity of the approach. The results show that the simulation models can be successfully created automatically with low manual effort.

Material Flow Networks as a Means of Optimizing Production Systems

Abstract: Material flow networks are a specific technique for material flow analysis Software tools based on this method have been used by many companies to analyze and improve complex production systems While their intuitive modeling approach strongly enhances the identification of optimization potentials, automatic model optimization is not yet possible The KOMSA project has closed this important methodological and instrumental gap This article presents the developed prototype of a material flow-based optimization tool We provide numerical results on the convergence of the implemented optimization algorithms The added value of integrating optimization with material flow analysis is illustrated by applying the software tool to a real optimization problem from the waste industry

Regularities of Change of The Supply Chain Operation Efficiency, Depending on The Parameters of The Transport Process

Abstract: Movement of material flow in supply chain is impossible without transport involvement It confirms importance of this element in the entire system functioning However, efficiency of supply chain based only on transport efficiency indicators is not appropriate The main purpose of it functioning is to satisfy consumers’ demand on physical inventory with minimum logistical costs At the same time, it is important to organize work of all the elements in a way to give maximum synergetic effect The issues of efficiency increase of supply chain functioning have been studied by many scientists; however, regularities of performance changes of its functioning including parameters of transportation process have not been discovered to full extent In the article the influence of technological process parameters of freight transportation to the total transport costs has been identified; simulation of the goods delivery process to distribution points has been conducted; transport efficiency regularities on distribution city routes depending on its functioning parameters has been estimated; regularities of storage costs change depending on its parameters have been identified; regularities of change of the supply chain operation efficiency, depending on the parameters of the transport process have been identified