Integrated modeling and optimization of material flow and financial flow of supply chain network considering financial ratios

Abstract

In today’s competitive environment, businesses are searching for tools and instruments, using which they can reduce their costs as much as possible in order to increase profits. The supply chain as a process which requires comprehensive management can be a great help in this regard for companies. The majority of approaches evaluated in supply chain primarily deal with logistic and material flows and neglect a lot of financial dimensions. This is while the financial flow in the supply chain can play an effective role in improving and optimizing the chain and contribute heavily to the profitability of the business. This paper deals with the financial flow of the supply chain model along with the material flow. It indicates that while optimizing the financial flow will provide the maximum profit for the plant, through simultaneous modeling of both these flows, better results can be reached. On the other hand, optimizing the financial flow allows the financial factors to be also considered in the model, which helps the business reach higher profits and better management of financial processes, which in turn shifts the business towards a modern industrial unit.