MATERIAL HANDLING

DEFINITION

Material handling is defined by the Material Handling Industry of Americal as “the movement ,
protection, storage and control of materials and products throughout the process of manufacture and
distribution, consumption and disposal”.

The handling of materials must be performed 1. safely 2. Efficiently 3. At low cost 4. In a timely manner,
5. Accurately(the right materials in the right quantities to the right locations), and 6. Without damage to
the materials.

Overview of Material Handling

Material handling is one of the activities in the larger distribution system by which materials, parts, and
products are - 1. Moved, 2. Stored, and 3. Tracked in the world’s commercial infrastructure. Logistics is
concerned with the acquisition, movement, storage, and distribution of materials and products, as well
as the planning and control of these operations in order to satisfy customer demand. Logistics
operations can be divided into two basic categories: 1. external logistics 2. internal logistics.

External logistics

• External logistics is concerned with transportation and related activities that occur outside of a
facility.

• In general, these activities involve the movement of materials between different geographical
locations.

• The five traditional modes of transportation are rail, truck, air, ship, and pipeline.

Types of industrial trucks:

 • Hand trucks

• Pallet Jacks

• Pallet trucks

• Walkie Stackers

• Platform trucks

• Order picker

• Sideloader

• Many types of AGV

Internal logistics

Internal logistics, more popularly known as material handling, involves the movement and storage of
materials inside a given facility. the various types of equipment used in material handling.

Material Handling Equipment

A great variety of material handling equipment is available commercially. The equipment can be
classified into five categories (1) Transport equipment, (2) Positioning equipment, (3) Unit load
formation equipment, (4) Storage equipment, and (5) Identification and control equipment.

Transport Equipment

Material transport equipment is used to move materials inside a factory, warehouse, or other facility.
The five main types of equipment are (1)Industrial trucks, (2) Automated guided vehicles, (3) Rail-guided
vehicles, (4) Conveyors, and (5) Hoists and Cranes.
Industrial Trucks - refer to the different kinds of transportation items and vehicles used to
move materials and products in materials handling.

1 - Convertible Hand Truck

2 - Pallet Jacks
 3 - Pallet Jack Truck

4 - Walkie Stacker

5 - Platform Truck

6 - Warehouse Order Picker

 7 - Side Loader

8 - AGV

9 - Rail guided Vehicle

 10 - Hoist and Cranes

11 - Conveyor

Positioning Equipment

This category consists of equipment used to handle parts and other materials at a single location: for
example -Loading and unloading parts from a production machine in a work cell. Positioning is
accomplished by industrial robots that perform material handling and parts feeders in automated
assembly. Hoists used at a single location can also be included in this category.
 12 - Pick and Place Machine

13 - Forklift AGV with Stabilizer Pad

Unit Load Formation Equipment

https://youtu.be/UB_rTOvSgiM

The term unitizing equipment refers to (1) containers used to hold individual items during handling and
(2) equipment used to load and package the containers. Containers include pallets, tote pans, boxes,
baskets, barrels and drums, some of which are shown in Figure.

14 - Wooden Pallet

15 - Pallet Box
 16 - Tote Box

17 - barrels and drums

Storage Equipment

Storage methods and equipment can be classified into two major categories: (1) conventional storage
methods and (2) automated storage systems Conventional storage methods include -

• bulk storage (storing items in an open floor area), rack systems (for pallets), shelving and bins,
and drawer storage.

• In general, conventional storage methods are labor-intensive.

• Human workers put materials into storage and retrieve them from storage.

Automated storage systems are designed to reduce or eliminate the manual labor involved in these
functions. Mathematical models are developed to predict throughput and other performance
characteristics of automated storage systems.
Identification and Control Equipment

• The scope of material handling includes keeping track of the materials being moved and stored.

• This is usually done by affixing some kind of label to the item, carton, or unit load that uniquely
identifies it.

• The most common label used today is a bar code that can be read quickly and automatically by
bar code readers.

• This is the same basic technology used by grocery stores and retail merchandisers.

• An alternative identification technology that is growing in importance is RFID (for radio

frequency identification).

Design Considerations in Material Handling

Material handling equipment is usually assembled into a system. The system must be specified and
configured to satisfy the requirements of a particular application. Design of the system depends on the
 materials to be handled, quantities and distances to be moved, type of production facility served by
the handling system, and other factors, including available budget.

Material Characteristics

For handling purposes, materials can be classified by the physical characteristics presented in Table

18 - Characteristics of Materials in Material Handling

Flow Rate, Routing, and Scheduling

Other factors must be considered in determining which type of equipment is most appropriate for the
application. These other factors include -

• Quantities and flow rates of materials to be moved,

• Routing factors, and

• Scheduling of the moves.

The amount of material moved must be considered in the context of time, that is, how much material is
moved within a given time period. The amount of material moved per unit time is referred to as the
flow rate. Depending on the form of the material, flow rate is measured in - 1. Pieces per hour 2. Pallet
loads per hour, 3.Tons per hour, or similar units. Whether the material must be moved as individual
units, in batches, or continuously has an effect on the selection of handling method.

Routing factors include- "pickup and drop-off locations, move distances, routing variations, and
conditions that exist along the routes".
"Handling cost is directly related to the distance of the move: The longer the move distance, the greater
the cost. " Routing variations occur because different materials follow different flow patterns in the
factory or warehouse. If these differences exist, the material handling system must be f lexible enough to
deal with them. Conditions along the route include - *floor surface condition, *traffic congestion,
*whether a portion of the move is outdoors, *whether the path is straight line or involves turns and
changes in elevation, and *the presence or absence of people along the path.

Scheduling relates to the timing of each individual delivery. In production as well as in many other
material handling applications, the material must be picked up and delivered promptly to its proper
destination to maintain peak performance and efficiency of the overall system. The handling system
must be responsive to need for timely pickup and delivery of the items. Rush jobs
increase material handling cost. Scheduling urgency is often mitigated by providing space for buffer
stocks of materials at pickup and drop-off points. This allows a “float” of materials to exist in the system,
thus reducing the pressure on the handling system for immediate response to a delivery request.