MODULE4:

MATERIAL HANDLING

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Definition

■ Material handling is the art and science associated with the movement,
storage, control, and protection of goods and materials throughout the
process of their manufacture, distribution, consumption, and disposal.
■ Material handling means providing the right amount of the right
material, in the right condition, at the right place, in the right position,
in the right sequence, and for the right cost, by the right method(s).

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Right Amount

■ Inventory needed
■ Just-in-time philosophy
■ matching of production lot sizes and transfer batch sizes

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RIGHT MATERIAL
❑ Common errors in manual order picking: picking the wrong amount
and picking the wrong materials
❑ Accurate identification system is needed.

❑ Simplifying the parts numbering system and maintaining the integrity

and accuracy of the system are most fundamental tasks.

RIGHT CONDITION

 The state in which the customer desires to receive the material.

 Without damage.

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Right Sequence
■ The impact of the “right sequence” of activities performed on the
efficiency of a manufacturing or distribution operations.
■ Combining steps and changing the sequence.

RIGHT ORIENTATION
 Positioning the material for ease of handling
 Critical in automated systems.

 Changing the part design

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 Right Place
■ Addresses both transportation and storage
■ Directly transport the materials to the point of use rather than store
the materials at the intermediate location.

RIGHT TIME

 On time delivery
 A flexible material handling system such as manually operated lift
trucks has very wide deviations in transport times, while an automated
guided vehicle system has more predictable transport times.

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Right Cost
■ The right cost is not necessarily the lowest cost.
■ The goal is to design the most efficient material handling systems at
the most reasonable cost

RIGHT METHOD
 It is methods and not method: use more than one method is generally
right things to do
 if there are right methods, then there must be wrong methods

 Recognize what makes method right and what makes method wrong.

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Scope of Material Handling

Three views on the scope of material handling activities

■ Conventional View: Movement of materials from one location to
another.
■ Contemporary View: Expands the focus to the overall movement of
materials in a factory or warehouse.
■ Progressive View: Total system view.

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Material Handling Principles

■ Planning: Define the needs, strategic performance objectives and functional

specification
■ Standardization: less variety and customization in the methods and
equipment employed.
■ Work: measure of work is material flow multiplied by the distance moved.
■ Ergonomics: Work and working conditions should support the abilities of a
worker, reduce repetitive and strenuous manual labour, and emphasize
safety.
■ Unit load: Move several individual items together as a single load

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Material Handling Principles Contd.
■ Space utilization: Three dimensional and therefore is counted as cubic space
■ System: Material movement and storage should be coordinated throughout all
processes, from receiving to shipping, transportation and the handling of
returns.
■ Automation: To improve operational efficiency, responsiveness, consistency &
predictability
■ Environment: consider Energy use and potential environmental impact ,
reusability & recycling , safe practices for hazardous materials.
■ Life cycle cost: Include all cash flows that will occur from the time the first
dollar is spent to plan or procure a new piece of equipment or to put in place a
new method, until that method and/or equipment is totally replaced.

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Material Handling Checklists

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Designing Material Handling Systems (The
six-phased engineering design process )
1. Define the objectives and scope of the MH system.
2. Analyze the requirements for moving, storing, protecting, and
controlling material.
3. Generate alternative designs for meeting material handling system
requirements.
4. Evaluate alternative material handling system designs.
5. Select the preferred design for moving, storing, protecting, and
controlling material.
6. Implement the preferred design, including the selection of suppliers,
training of personnel, installation, debug and start up of equipment,
and periodic audits of system performance.
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Material Handling System Equation
Material + Moves + Methods = Recommended System

A questioning attitude should prevail

■ What defines the type of materials moved

■ Where and when identify the place and time requirements
■ How and who point the material handling methods.
■ Which point the preferred system.

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Specification of the Design

■ State the intended function

■ Collect the necessary data about the material
■ Identify the moves- origin, destination, path, and length
■ Determine the basic handling system to be used
■ Degree of mechanization desired
■ Perform an initial screening of suitable equipment
■ Select suitable candidate equipment from them

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■ Evaluate the candidate equipment
■ Consider cost and utilization
■ Match equipment with material characteristics
■ Select suitable unit loads and match them with material and
equipment characteristics.

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Factors That Influence the Design

■ Costs of equipment and unit loads & availability of funds: degree of

mechanization
■ Physical characteristics of the building and the available space and Aisle
width: mobile equipment
■ Ceiling height: overhead equipment
■ Management attitude on Safety , employee welfare: equipment and
machines

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Unit Load

■ The unit load concept depends on the fact that it is more economical to
move items and material in groups than individually.
■ A unit load is defined as a number of items arranged such that they can
be handled as a single object.
■ This can be accomplished by palletization, unitization, and
containerization
■ Small loads increase the transportation requirements but can
potentially reduce work-in-process inventory.

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Advantages
■ Helps in uniform handling and uniform storage operations
■ Reduced burden on information and control systems
■ Efficient space utilization
■ Protection against material damage is provided.

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Disadvantages:
■ assembling and disassembling cost is high
■ container and wrapping costs incurred
■ empty returnable container handling cost is high
■ Disposal cost is high

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Degree of Mechanization

■ The extent to which a process has been mechanized

■ Changing from working largely or exclusively by hand or with animals to
doing that work with machinery
■ Complex, causes speed changes
■ Transfer of human skills to machines
■ Automation is another term

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■ The levels of mechanization can be classified as:

– Manual and dependent on physical effort

– Mechanized
– Mechanized complemented with computers
– Automated
– Fully automated

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Advantages of Mechanization
■ Reduced production cost ■ Increased accuracy
■ Increased productivity ■ Standardization, simplification and
uniformity of work can be
■ Improved safety
maintained.
■ Reduced human fatigue and risks
■ Does correctly and punctually-
■ Reduced labour earns goodwill.
■ Effective control on production ■ Mechanization reduces the
process monotony
■ Increased overall profit
■ Reduced inventory

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Disadvantages of Higher Degree of
Mechanization
■ High investment
■ An idle machine is a waste and costly
■ Lead to unemployment in some cases
■ Operator skill needed
■ Changing machines is expensive
■ Cannot be trained- meant only for specific jobs
■ Breaks down if no electricity
■ Depreciation
■ May become obsolete
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Material-Handling cost

■ Equipment cost, which comprises the purchasing of the equipment as

well as auxiliary components and their installation
■ Operating cost, which includes maintenance, fuel, and labor cost,
consisting of both wages and injury compensation
■ Unit purchase cost, which is associated with purchasing the pallets and
containers
■ Cost due to packaging and damaged materials

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BASICS OF MH EQUIPMENT SELECTION

■ Important decision: affects both the cost and efficiency

■ Factors for selecting MH Equipment:

1. Properties of the Material:
– Solid, liquid or Gas
– Fragile, corrosive or toxic
2. Layout and Characteristic of the building
– Space availability
– Low-level ceiling many preclude the use of hoist or cranes

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 – If the building is multi-storied, ramp for industrial trucks may be used.
– Layout itself will indicate the type of production operation and suitable equipment
–Floor capacity also helps in selecting the best material handling equipment.
3. Production Flow
– Constant flow: Conveyor
– Non constant: Movable equipment (trucks)

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4. Cost Considerations
– Most important consideration
– Initial investment
– Operating cost
– Maintenance cost are the major costs to be considered

5. Nature of Operations
– Temporary
– Permanent
– Continuous flow
– Intermittent flow
– Horizontal flow pattern
– Vertical flow pattern

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6. Engineering Factors
– Door, ceiling dimensions, floor space, floor conditions and structural strengths

7. Equipment reliability
– Reliability of the equipment and supplier reputation and the after sale
services plays an important role in selecting the equipment.

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ANALYZING AN EXISTING MH SYSTEM
■ Determination of functional efficiency
■ Check for the following symptoms
– Backtracking in material flow path,
– Built-in hindrances to flow,
– Cluttered aisles,
– Confusion at the dock,
– Disorganized storage,
– Excess scrap,
– Excess handling of individual pieces
– Excess manual effort,
– Excess walking,
– Failure to use gravity,
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– Fragmented operations,
– High indirect labor costs,
– Idle machines,
– Inefficient use of skilled worker,
– Lack of cube storage,
– Lack of parts,
– Lack of supplies,
– Long hauls,
– Material piled up on the floor,
– Overcrowding Poor housekeeping,
– Poor inventory control,
– Product damage,
– Repetitive handling,
– Service areas not conveniently located,
– Truck delayed or tiled up,
– Two-person lifting jobs.
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Material Handling Improvements –
Advantages and Disadvantages
■ Advantages:
1. reduced costs and damage,
2. increased throughput,
3. productivity, space and
4. equipment utilization,
5. improved working conditions

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It can also result in some demerits
■ Increased capital requirements,
■ Decreased flexibility,
■ Decreased maintainability

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Material Handling Equipment

1. Containers and Unitizing Equipment

2. Material Transport Equipment
3. Storage and Retrieved Equipment
4. Automated Data Collection and Communication Equipment

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Containers and Unitizing Equipment
■ Container
– Pallets (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stibEk_8gTY)
– Skids and Skid Boxes
– Tote Pan

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■ Unitizers
– to unitize a load, special equipment has been designed to facilitate
the formation of a unit load

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Material Transport Equipment and their
uses
■ Conveyors
– Chute Conveyor
– Belt Conveyor
– Roller Conveyor

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– Wheel Conveyor
– Slat Conveyor
– Chain Conveyor

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– Tow Line Conveyor
– Trolley Conveyor
– Power and Free Conveyor
– Cart-on-Track Conveyor
– Sorting Conveyor

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Industrial Vehicle

– Walking
– Riding
– Automated
– Monorails, Hoists, Cranes

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AGVS IN MATERIAL HANDLING
■ An automated guided vehicle(AGV) is a mobile robot that follows
markers or wires in the floor, or uses vision, magnets, or lasers for
navigation. They are most often used in industrial applications to move
materials around a manufacturing facility or warehouse
■ They are typically used
– where high volumes of repetitive movements of
material is required
– where little or no human decision making skill is required.
– In processes where change is contact,
– Where equipment such as conveyors are undesirable.

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– Computer-controlled and wheel based, automatic guided vehicles are
load carriers that travel along the floor of a facility without an
onboard operator or driver.
– Their movement is directed by a combination of software and sensor-
based guidance systems.
– They move on a predictable path with precisely controlled
acceleration and deceleration, and include automatic obstacle
detection bumpers, AGVs provide safe movement of loads.

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AGV applications

■ Transportation of
– Raw materials
– work-in-process
– finished goods
– storage/retrieval
– other movements in support of picking in warehousing and
distribution applications

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AGV types

■ Automated carts - The simplest kind of AGV with minimal features for
lowest cost implementation.
■ Unit load AGVs - Individual vehicles that transport loads (typically
pallets, bins, carts or bundles) on forks or on the AGV’s deck. Roll-
handling AGVs specifically handle heavy rolls of steel or paper.
■ Tugger AGVs – Powered units pulling a series of non-motorized trailers
that each carries a load.
■ Automated forklift AGVs - An existing forklift truck whose controls
have been converted to allow unmanned operation.

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Areas of Application
■ Assembly: Moving products through production processes
■ Kitting: Collecting parts for assembly
■ Transportation: Loading pallets and loose parts
■ Staging: Delivering pallets for production processes
■ Warehousing: Moving products from stretch wrappers to docks or
storage
■ Order picking: Moving ordered products to trailer loading area for
distribution, and transporting a platform for a picker to place selected
items upon
■ Parts/just-in-time (JIT) delivery: Towing trailers of parts/materials to
consumption points
■ Transfer/shuttle: Transfer loads across high traffic aisles. 46
Benefits
■ Accountability – Once a product is onboard an AGV, it is tracked so
“lost” or misplaced product will be minimized
■ Automatic line balancing – In a production environment with multiple
operations conducted at varying times, AGVs can assist in line balancing
■ Cost control - An AGV system’s costs are very predictable, while labor
costs tend to increase and can change quickly depending on local
economic conditions
■ Facility maintenance – Collision avoidance capabilities prevent damage
within the facility
■ Flexibility – An AGV’s path can be changed as production and handling
needs evolve
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■ Reduced operating costs
■ Reduction in product damage – AGVs handle products gently, reducing
scrap and waste
■ Repeatability - AGVs perform repetitive movement tasks predictably and
reliably
■ Safety – AGVs always follow their guide path and stop if they encounter
an obstruction, improving the safety of surrounding personnel
■ Scheduling – Because of their reliability and on-time delivery, AGVs
improve scheduling capabilities and the efficiency of operations
■ Scalability – More AGVs can be added to expand capacity
and throughput
■ Fewer restrictions – Free-roaming, AGVs eliminate access issues created
by conveyors and require less space than conventional forklifts, allowing
for narrower aisles

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■ More efficient use of personnel: Many fork-lift truck operators are no
longer required.
■ Efficient work environment: They allow loading and unloading of each
station independently of other stations, thus permitting each operator to
work at his or her own pace and not limiting the operator to the speed of
the conveyor.
■ Better use of floor space: Buried guide lines in the floor do not
permanently occupy floor space as do the conveyors fixed on the floor.
■ Adaptability to automation: They can operate efficiently with other
automated and computer-controlled systems.
■ Integration within plants: They can provide a link between different
cells of automation within the plant.
■ Adaptability to existing facilities: A new AGV system can be installed
within an existing plant with a minimum of structural changes in the plant
building.
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Storage and Retrieval Equipment
■ Unit Load Storage and Retrieval
■ Small Load Storage and Retrieval
■ Automatics Identification and Communication

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PACKAGING

■ Packaging is an important aspect in overall production

and MH, and requires input from engineering, production, graphics, and
advertising personnel
■ The specifications depend on the product design and any change in
design can cause a significant change in package requirements. It is
therefore essential to consider packaging in the design, production,
and material handling phases of the product, separately. The size,
shape, and colors of the packaging can be very instrumental in product
sales.

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■ Packaging mainly serves to protect a product from damage caused by
handling or exposure to environmental conditions involving heat,
moisture, light, and even electronic interference and radiation.
■ The type of packaging also contributes to formation of the unit load,
which is necessary in the selection and use of the type of material
handling equipment.
■ Two major aspects in designing the package are careful consideration
and evaluation of all available material that can be used.
■ Of particular importance are the static electricity, humidity,
temperature, and barrier qualities; the material should keep out water
and moisture, greases, oils, gasses, and odours while holding in the
product.

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■ The most common type of packaging materials are glass, metal, paper,
cardboard, wood, and petrochemical products such as synthetic rubber
and plastics
■ Some of the equipment available for this purpose:
– automatic adhesive sealers,
– automatic tape sealers,
– stitchers,
– staplers,
– Wrappers
– palletizers

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 Major categories in packaging
■ Consumer: retail and institutional- characterized by small units of
products handled in large numbers
– When the packaging is for retail purposes its appearance should be
emphasized
■ Industrial: For institutional use, protection, cost, and convenience are
much more important than appearance.
– Quite commonly, large-sized units of a product indicate industrial
packaging
■ Military: Military packaging, is specified by the government.

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EQUIPMENT-OPERATING COST PER UNIT
DISTANCE
■ A forklift truck initially costs $20,000 and has an expected life of 5
years. Fuel cost is $10.00 per 8 hours of operation, and maintenance
cost is $1.50 an hour. If the truck travels an average of 10,000 feet per
day, determine the cost per foot. Assume that the truck operates 360
days a year and that the operator is paid $10.00 an hour.

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■ Determine depreciation. Using the straight line depreciation method,
– 20,000/5 years × 1 year/360 days × 1 day/8 hours =
$1.39/hour
■ The distance travelled per hour is
– 10,000 feet/day × 1 day/8 hours = 1250 feet/hour
■ Total cost per hour = maintenance + fuel + depreciation + operator
costs
= 1.50 + 10/8 + 1.39 + 10.00 = $14.14/hour
■ Operating cost per foot = cost per hour/ feet per hour = 14.14/ 1250
= $0.0113/foot

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■ The warehouse receives daily loads of items A, B, and C from the plant,
and shipments are made once a week. Information about these items
is given in Table. The company is considering purchasing a tractor that
pulls four trailers, a forklift truck, or a hand truck for use in
transporting. The loading and unloading costs include not only the cost
for loading and unloading for one trip, but also the cost for making the
return trip to pick up another load. Determine the least expensive
method for transporting the goods.

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■ For item A, using the tractor truck, the capacity of each truck is the
volume of the truck divided by the volume of the item.
– Capacity = (60/12)*(27/6)*(72/6) = 240 units/truck
■ Four trailers are pulled by the tractor. Total capacity = 960 units per trip

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■ Receiving cost = Loading and unloading cost per week+ travel cost per week
=( Loading and unloading cost per trip) trips per day )(5 days) + ( cost per
foot ) (number of trips) (feet per trip) (5 days)
■ Shipping cost = Loading and unloading cost per order + Travel cost per order
=(Loading and unloading cost per trip) (Number of trips) +
(Cost per foot) (number of trips) (feet per trip)
■ Total cost = Receiving cost + Shipping cost

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Machine Layouts

■ The machine layout problem is a type of layout problem in which the

optimum locations of machines are determined if they must be placed
in one of the following arrangements
– Linear or single row
– Loop or circular row
– Double or multiple row serpentine flow
– Backtracking

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Linear bidirectional flow

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Loop flow

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Serpentine flow

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Backtracking

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■ The mathematical formulation of the machine layout problem can be
formed as

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Single-Row Layout Example

■ Let us consider four machines in a single-row.

■ The following assumptions are made for the problem:
– The flow of the materials is bidirectional, that is, travel is permitted
in either direction.
– The clearance between any two machines is 2 units.
– The cost of transporting a unit material for unit distance between
two
machines is 1.

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■ Place machine A on the left-hand side of machine C.
■ Place machine A on the right-hand side of machine D.
■ Place machine B on the left-hand side of machine C.
■ Place machine B on the right-hand side of machine D

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Total cost = 18*5+ 18*12 = 306

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Loop Layout

■ The following assumptions are made for this problem:

– The flow of the materials is unidirectional, that is, travel is
permitted in one direction only.
– The clearance between any two machines is 2 units.
– The cost of transporting a unit material for unit distance between
two machines is 1

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loop length = 24 units
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