The optimization of material flow in production

Market demands are different: they tend to require individual, customized p roducts of high reliability and high quality and also produced in right tim e, Material flow optimization is an indispensable step to be taken, The pro posed optimization method is material flow analysis, which is giving an ins ight of the production organization of a company and its evaluation at diff erent organizational levels. The analysis is based on a technological datab ase and on the organization of individual departments of a company. It enab les a material and information flow analysis as well as an analysis of the department and machines layout respectively. The result of the analysis is material flow rationalization, thus minimizing production costs. (C) 2000 E lsevier Science Ltd, All rights reserved.