MATERIALS HANDLING EQUIPMENT

LECTURE Two

Outlines

 Principles of MHE

 Selection of proper equipment

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 Principles of Materials Handling

 The word principle means, in the context of materials

handling, a prescribed rule or guide
 Principles of Materials Handling
1. PLANNING PRINCIPLE
 All handling activities should be planned.

 All material handling and storage activities need to be planned

to obtain maximum overall operating efficiency.
 Material handling planning considers every move, every storage
need, plant layout and any delay in order to minimize production
costs.
 Consider the plant layout before equipment / system design.

 Plan correct location for materials supply and disposal.

 Plan for scrap removal.

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 Cont’d
Materials Handling Equation
A simple but useful way of planning and designing a materials handling
problem is described by the materials handling equation:
If Materials Handling is necessary, then
MATERIALS + MOVES=METHODS.
 Principles of Materials Handling

2. SYSTEMS PRINCIPLE
 The system concept is that all material handling equipment
should work together so that everything fits.
 The system principle integrates as many steps in the process
as possible into a single system from the vendor through your
plant and out to your customers.
 Integrate as many handling activities as possible encompassing
full scope of operations like receiving, storage, production,
inspection, packaging, warehousing, shipping/transportation
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 Cont..

 Consider the entire scope of the handling activities, beyond the

scope of immediate concern.
 Integrate operations into handling systems like processing,
inspection, packaging etc.
 Avoid/ minimize intermediate storage.

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 Cont..
3. MATERIAL FLOW PRINCIPLE

 Plan operations sequence and equipment arrangement to

optimize material flow.

 Eliminate obstacles from material flow.

 Plan material movement in a direct path (avoid backtracking,

zig-zag movements etc.)

 Use product layout whenever possible.

 Minimize movement between floors.

 Move bulky / weighty materials the least distance.

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 Cont.
4. SIMPLIFICATION PRINCIPLE
 Reduce, combine or eliminate unnecessary movement and/or
equipment.
 It increases efficiency of materials handling.

 Avoid unnecessary handling. Eliminate re-handling as much as

possible.
 Plan direct moves. Reduce or eliminate long, awkward or
complicated moves.
 Deliver materials at correct location first time.
 Avoid use of variety of equipment types, sizes and makes.
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 Cont.

5. GRAVITY PRINCIPLE
Utilize gravity to move material whenever practicable.

There are many ways to make use of gravity to

move materials between workstations.
Use roller conveyors, slides between processes.
Use ramps between varying work or floor levels.
Use sloping floor when materials movement by hand truck is
mainly in one direction.

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 Cont.
6. Space utilization principle
 Make optimum use of building volume.

 It is to make optimum utilization of the cubic capacity of the

warehouse.
 Space equipment/processes close together.

 Eliminate or reduce temporary storage of materials.

 Stack materials to use building height.

 Clean storage areas and dispose scrap regularly.

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 Cont..
7. Unit size principle
 Increase quantity, size, weight of loads handled.

 Examine possibility of unitization of loads.

 Use containers for unitization of loads.

 Design load size to make optimum use of handling

equipment capacity.

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 Cont..
8. Safety principle
 Handling methods and handling equipment use must be safe.

 Provide adequate guards & safety devices on materials

handling equipment.
 Do not overload materials handling equipment.

 Maintain floor in good condition.

 Provide adequate shop lighting.

 Provide good housekeeping.

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 Cont..
 Materials handling equipment operators should be properly
trained.
 Keep materials handling equipment in proper condition and do
not use defective equipment.
 Use mechanical handling equipment for difficult handling
activities and to handle dangerous/ hazardous materials.
 Use proper personal protective gears during handling materials.

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 Cont.

9. Mechanization principle
 When appropriate, use mechanized or automatic materials
handling equipment.
It is to add power to eliminate manual moving.

Mechanization implies the use of mechanical tools to aid

in the movement of material.

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 Cont’d…
Consider mechanized system in the following cases:
(a) Large quantities or volumes of materials
(b) Repetitive movement
(c) (c) Long moves
(d) Hazardous move/materials,
(e) Two man lifting, moving tasks
(f) Excess manual handling
(g) Replacing large number of persons involved in handling
(h) Heavy materials
(i) Scrap removal,
(j) Feeding/unloading of high speed automated production machines.
 Cont..
10. Automation Principle
 Automatic storage and retrieval systems place material into
storage racks automatically and remove it when needed.
 Automation is the way of the future, thus even users of the
manual system must consider when it can be justified.
 Provide automation to include production, handling and
storage functions.

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 Cont..
11. Equipment selection principle
 Before selecting materials handling equipment, consider all aspects
of materials handling

 e.g. materials to be handled, moves to be made, methods to be

utilized.

 Select versatile equipment.

 Select standardized equipment.

 Consider unitization of load for handling.

 Select capacity judiciously. Provide additional capacity based on

future plan.
 • Compare alternatives based on cost of handling. 17
 Cont..
12. Standardization Principle
 Materials handling methods and equipment should be
standardized to the extent possible.
 Use standardized containers.

 Purchase standard types and sizes of equipment.

 Use standard sizes of pallets to fit products, by sizes,

equipment and transport trucks.

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 Cont..

13. FLEXIBILITY PRINCIPLE

 Use methods and equipment, which can perform different tasks and

applications.

 Buy flexible equipment like Fork Lift Truck, Conveyor etc.

 Use variable speed drives.

 Use four ways pallets, skids and containers.

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 Cont..

14. Dead Weight Principle

 Reduce the dead-weight movement.

Do not buy equipment that is bigger than necessary.

Movable materials handling equipment should be made of

lightweight materials like aluminum, magnesium etc.

Use lightweight, pallets, skids, containers etc.

Select lightweight equipment for light load.

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 Cont’d…

15.MOTION PRINCIPLE
 Stoppage of mobile equipment should be minimum.
 Reduce loading/unloading time.
 Load/unload while materials handling equipment is in motion, if
possible.
 Use mechanized loading/unloading equipment.
 Cont’d…
15 IDLE TIME PRINCIPLE
 Reduce idle or unproductive time of both materials handling equipment
and manpower.
 This principle is similar to motion principle, so far as materials handling
equipment are concerned, hence same suggestions are applicable.
Additional suggestions for ‘‘manpower’’ are:
 Deliver materials at proper rate so that operators are not idle for materials.
 Install handling equipment to reduce labour.
 Cont..
16 Maintenance Principle

 Material handling equipment must be maintained.

 Preventive maintenance (periodic and planned) is cheaper than
emergency maintenance.
 Hence, a preventive maintenance program including schedules
must be developed for each piece of material handling
equipment.
 Do schedule maintenance and repair work of all materials
handling equipment to minimize outage
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 Cont’d…
 Train operators/maintenance personnel properly.
 Follow maintenance procedures as per manufacturers'
recommendations.
 Operators should check conditions daily and report.
 Do repair/maintenance to avoid breakdowns.
 Establish preventive maintenance programme.
 Standardize equipment to reduce spares.
 Avoid over maintenance.
 Avoid over loading of materials handling equipment.
 Cont..

17. Obsolescence Principle

• Asequipment wears out, good maintenance records will
help identify worn-out equipment's.
• Replace obsolete handling methods and equipment by
more
efficient methods or equipment to improve operations.

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 Cont’d..
18. CONTROL PRINCIPLE
 Use materials handling equipment to improve production &
inventory control and order handling.
 Move materials in lots, batches, containers of a predetermined
quantity and size.
 Use containers with wire mesh for visual checking/counting.

 Use mechanized handling.

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 Cont..
19. Capacity Principle
 Use Materials Handling so that full production capacity can be
achieved.
 Use handling equipment to help achieve desired
production
capacity.
 Operate equipment at optimum rate.
 Make full use of building volume.
 Change size, shape of unit load to utilize space, equipment and
manpower.
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 Cont.
20. Performance Principle
 Select materials handling systems with higher efficiency,
measured in terms of expenses per unit load handled
 It is to determine effectiveness of handling performance in
terms of expense per unit handled Performance of material
handling can also be calculated by ratios:

Percent of Material Handling = Material handling hours

Total labour hours

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 Selection of proper equipment
 Various material handling equipment (MHE) can be perform
the same operation.
 The success of an individual handling equipment or of a
complete system depends largely upon its suitability for the
material it must handle.
 The proper choice of MHE requires knowledge of the
operational characteristics of various MHE and understanding
of the production process and organizational setup of the
enterprise.

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The process of MH equipment selection can be decomposed into two
stages

1. Determine Technical Feasibility

 Select MH equipment types that can satisfy the material
flow requirements from a technological perspective.

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• The principal technical factors for the choice of types of MHE
are the following:
I. Kinds and properties of loads to be handled

a)Unit loads: for these types of loads their form, weight, convenient
bearing surface or parts by which they can be suspended, brittleness,
temperature etc. are to be noted.

b)Bulk loads: for these types of loads lump size, tendency to cake,
volume, specific weight, temperature, chemical properties etc. are to be
known.

II.Required hourly capacity

– The knowledge of hourly capacity is essential for the determination of
the type of the operation.
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– The operation can be either continuous or intermittent.
 Cont’d…
III. Direction and length of travel
– The direction can be horizontal , inclined or vertical.
– The distance that the load moves may range from
few millimeters to thousands of meters.

IV. Methods of stacking loads at the initial, intermediate and

final points
– Mostly unit loads are stored in stacks and shelves
while bulk loads are stored in piles and bins.

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 Cont’d…
V. Characteristics of production process involved in moving
loads
– This is the most important factors to affect the choice of
MHE for the movement of materials is closely linked with
the manufacturing process.
VI. Consideration of specific local conditions

– This may include the shape and the size of area, the type
and design of the building, the possible arrangements
of processing units and ambient conditions, dust,
humidity, temperature, pressure etc.
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 Cont’d..

2. Determine Economic Feasibility

– From among the technically feasible equipment types,
select the equipment type that is most cost effective given
the material handling requirements.
– This may include capital outlay, operational cost,
considerations for further expansion, period of existence,
kind of energy available and safety operational
convenience.

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Example
• A punch press can cycle every 0.03 minute, but our time standard
for manually loading and unloading this press is only 300 pieces
per hour. Press capacity = 60 min / 0.03 = 2000 pieces/hr

Utilization = 300 / 2000 = 15%

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