The module Material Flow Planning of 4flow vista® facilitates the efficient planning of functional areas, processes, resources, materials placement and layout for selected company sites.

The application of 4flow vista® to internal material flow planning leads to:

• the transparency of internal logistics processes and their costs,
• quick response in decision-making situations by planning and comparing various scenarios,
• effective visualization of the planning results and thus their higher acceptance within the company,
• a reduction in manual planning efforts.

The key benefit of the module, Material Flow Planning of 4flow vista®, is the significant reduction of internal logistics costs through more accurate planning and continuous optimization.

The planning of internal materials flow logistics concentrates on the design and optimization of functional areas and material flow processes within company sites. Internal locations such as receiving, warehousing, order picking etc. are mapped in 4flow vista®. Accordingly, you can choose between viewing only the production site or view the production site as part of the whole logistics network. 4flow vista® facilitates the different views by designing physical processes and structures of logistics networks in several layers.

Internal materials flow planning using 4flow vista® basically consists of:

• Optimizing the expenditure for resources 
• Guaranteeing supply security
• Optimizing of storage costs
• Optimizing internal transportation costs
• Reducing throughput time and minimizing inventory
• Optimizing and visualizing materials placement
• Determining the demand for containers
• Determining the demand for personnel in each funtional area and process

The 2. and 3. Layer of 4flow vista® facilitate the planning of the internal materials flow. The planner creates an internal network deploying functional areas and internal transportation relations. Besides receiving and shipping, further functional areas like production, warehousing, order picking or individual assembly lines can be mapped. Using 4flow vista®, the planner can define a factory layout as a reference and position further building layouts within the factory layout.

4flow vista® uses an uncomplicated definition of production and assembly zones which allows an automatic explosion of the bill of material. The material requirements for production are calculated based on build-rate, number of parts per finished part and the demand. These requirements are passed on to the preliminary locations.

4flow vista® facilitates floor space analyses as well as the planning of materials placement. 4flow vista® enables the planner to verify the feasibility of the materials placement at a location. In the next step, 4flow vista® allows the planner to visualize the materials placement in the layout.

For each functional area the resources required in regard to personnel, floor space or equipment  can be calculated directly. Different shift models or manufacturing calenders can be taken into account. Moreover, the efficiency of the functional areas at various sites can be compared. Finally, costs can be calculated, on the basis of the demand for resources.

Another output of using 4flow vista® for supply chain design is the analysis of the demand for containers at individual sites. It enables the planner to quantify investments and determine packaging costs.

Using 4flow vista® Materials Flow Planning reduces the time spent on a project and improves the quality of your results. The disadvantages of conventional planning are avoided.

• Using 4flow vista® the materials planning within the firm is standardized. All planners use the same methods and algorithms.
• 4flow vista® assists the planner with multiple optimization functions.
• 4flow vista facilitates the modelling, visualization and evaluation of functional areas and processes. Planners are able to assess a large number of scenarios.
• 4flow vista® provides you with a common database. All planners work collaboratively on the same planning projects. 
• Using 4flow vista®, existing planning projects can be recycled. Planners can use projects they already worked on as the foundation for work in progress, and they may make modifications to these projects. 

For further information please read the White Paper 4flow vista® - module material flow planning.

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