Materialfluss
Also: Materialfluß, Material Flow, innerbetrieblicher Materialfluss, MF, Warenfluss, Güterfluss
AI-generated
Material flow refers to the totality of all physical movements of goods and materials within a facility or between locations. It encompasses every transport step from goods receipt to dispatch and forms the operational foundation for warehouse, production, and distribution logistics.
Key facts
- Material flow encompasses all physical movements of goods within a location and between locations, from goods receipt to dispatch.
- Bottlenecks in material flow frequently occur at interfaces between manual and automated areas, as well as where buffers are insufficiently dimensioned.
- Material flow is typically controlled through the interplay of a WMS, a material flow computer, and data capture systems such as barcode scanners.
- Careful flow structure planning — including sources, sinks, and intersection-free routing — is the foundation of any sustainable warehouse or production layout.
What is material flow?
Material flow describes all physical movements of raw materials, consumables, semi-finished products, and finished goods along the internal process chain. The term encompasses all transport operations: goods receipt, put-away, replenishment, picking, production supply, packaging, and dispatch preparation. Material flow must be clearly distinguished from information flow, which describes data and status messages rather than physical movements.
How does material flow work in practice?
Every material flow can be represented as a network of sources, sinks, and connections. Sources include goods receipt docks or production stages, while sinks are dispatch buffers or handover points to the customer. In between lie transport means such as conveyor technology, industrial trucks, or automated guided vehicles, as well as buffer zones that absorb volume fluctuations.
In practice, material flow is controlled and monitored by several systems:
- A warehouse management system (WMS) issues storage and transport orders.
- A material flow computer or material flow controller (MFC) coordinates automatic conveyor technology in real time.
- Data capture terminals and scanners record movement data at critical points.
Bottlenecks typically occur where peak throughput meets limited buffer capacity or where manual and automated sections intersect. A bottleneck analysis helps identify these points before they become a planning problem.
What matters when designing material flow?
Several aspects must be considered when planning and evaluating a material flow. First, the flow structure — whether one-way routing, intersection-free layouts, or loop routing — largely determines how cleanly streams can be separated and how much control effort is required. Second, dimensioning must be based on realistic peak-load scenarios, not just average values. Third, the level of automation control must match the order volume: oversized systems generate high fixed costs, while undersized systems become bottlenecks.
Vendors and planning service providers place different emphases here, which is why requirements should be documented early in a specification sheet. Simulation tools can help model various scenarios before investment decisions are made.
Related terms
- AGV
AGV (Automated Guided Vehicle) refers to driverless transport vehicles that automatically move goods in warehouses and production environments. They follow predefined or sensor-controlled routes without a human driver.
- AMR
AMR (Autonomous Mobile Robot) is a driverless, self-navigating transport robot that moves goods within a warehouse without any fixed installed infrastructure. It orientates itself independently using sensors and digital maps, and dynamically avoids obstacles.
- Automatisierung
Automation refers to the use of technologies and systems to execute processes fully or partially without human intervention. In intralogistics, the spectrum ranges from simple conveyor systems to fully automated high-bay warehouses with autonomous vehicles.
- Bestandsführung
Inventory management refers to the system-supported administration and continuous updating of all warehouse and material stocks within a company. It forms the basis for planning, procurement and accounting – and ensures that the book inventory and physical inventory are in agreement at all times.
- Bottleneck Analyse
Bottleneck analysis identifies the process step with the lowest capacity in a logistics system, making the limiting factor for overall throughput visible.
- Cross-Docking
Cross-docking is a logistics method in which goods are transferred directly from inbound to outbound transport at a transshipment point, without going through conventional put-away and storage.
- Cross-Docking
Cross-docking refers to a goods handling process in which items are transferred directly from inbound receiving to outbound shipping without interim storage. The goal is to reduce throughput times and avoid warehousing costs.
- Dimensionierung
Dimensioning refers to the systematic design of warehouse capacities, material handling equipment, and logistics systems based on volume frameworks, throughput requirements, and peak loads. It forms the planning foundation for investment decisions in intralogistics.
- Disposition
Disposition refers to the operational planning and control of resources, quantities, and orders in logistics – for example in transport or materials disposition. It encompasses capacity assignment, scheduling, prioritization, and response to disruptions.
- Distributionslogistik
Distribution logistics encompasses all processes that move goods from the manufacturer or warehouse to the end customer – from network planning through storage and transportation to order fulfillment.
- Kommissionierung
Order picking is the process of assembling individual items from warehouse stock to fulfill a specific customer order — the most labor-intensive step in the warehouse.