Abstract: As the dairy industry transitions toward high-quality development, working capital management has become essential for enhancing corporate financial resilience and market competitiveness. Traditional management approaches, which analyze operational segments in isolation, fail to meet the coordination demands of modern industrial chains. From a value chain perspective, this study takes Liziyuan as a case example to construct a working capital analysis framework that integrates internal value chain activities—procurement, production, and sales—with external partnerships involving suppliers and distributors. The findings indicate that Liziyuan demonstrates certain advantages in managing working capital within its procurement and sales stages. However, challenges such as the rapid increase in other payables during production, overly conservative credit policies, and a fragmented customer base constrain its profitability and market expansion. Comparative analysis with industry leader Yili supports the identification of these issues. The study proposed targeted recommendations, including strengthening supplier collaboration, regulating fund outflow paths, adjusting credit policies, and accelerating digital transformation. This research aimed to offer both theoretical insights and practical guidance for dairy enterprises seeking to establish a systematic and synergistic working capital management system.

Key words: working capital management, value chain perspective, Liziyuan, dairy enterprise