Material flow

Material flow (or "materials flow") is the description of the transportation of raw materials, pre-fabricates, parts, components, integrated objects and final products as a flow of entities.^[1] The term applies mainly to advanced modeling of supply chain management and its use has been largely subsumed under this heading.^[2]

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.