That flow is the common feature of substance flow and fluid flow is the viewpoint emphasized in the paper. Some notes on fluid mechanics, including the two approaches of fluid flow description, were given. The concepts of the chain and the chain group of product life cycles, which are essential for understanding the specific features of substance flow, were advanced. Taking the specific feature of substance flow into consideration, on the analogy of the two approaches in fluid mechanics, two approaches of substance flow analysis, i.e. L method and E model, were formulated. Illustrative models of steady and unsteady substance flow were sketched by both methods, and comparison between them was made in general.