ISE 312 Chapter 8 (Sule) Material Handling: Principles & Equipment Description
Spring Semester
Two Primary Reasons for study & careful planning of a material-handling system (MHS)
1. Material Handling costs are a large portion of production costs
2. Material Handling costs impacts the operation & design of a facility
Objectives
> Increase Throughput
> Decrease Inventory
> Decrease Operating Expense
Reducing Production Costs through efficient handling
> To increase the efficiency of material flow by ensuring the availability of material when
& where they are needed.
> To reduce the material handling cost.
> To improve facility utilization.
> To improve safety and working conditions
> To facilitate the manufacturing process.
> To increase productivity
Principles Of Material Handling:
1. Planning
Plan all material-handling & storage activities to obtain maximum overall operating
efficiency.
2. System Flow
Integrate as many handling activities as is practical into a coordinated system of
operations covering vendor, receiving, storage, production, inspection, packaging,
warehousing, shipping, transportation, & customer.
3. Material Flow
Provide an operation sequence & equipment layout optimizing material flow.
4. Simplification
5. Gravity
6. Space Utilization
Simplify handling by reducing, eliminating, or combining unnecessary movements
and/or equipment.
Use gravity to move material whenever practical.
Make optimum utilization of the building cube.
7. Unit size
8. Mechanization
Increase the quantity, size, or weight of unit loads or flow rate.
Mechanize handling operations.
9. Automation
10. Equipment
Provide automation to include production, handling, and storage functions.
In selecting handling equipment, consider all aspects of the material handled, the
movement, and the method to be used.
Standardize handling methods as well as type and sizes of handling equipment.
11. Standardization
12. Adaptability
13. Dead Weight
Use methods & equipment that can best perform a variety of tasks & applications
when special-purpose equipment is not justified.
Reduce the ratio of dead weight of mobile handling equipment to load carried.
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ISE 312 Chapter 8 (Sule) Material Handling: Principles & Equipment Description
Spring Semester
14. Utilization
Plan for optimum utilization of handling equipment & manpower.
15. Maintenance
16. Obsolescence
Plan for preventive maintenance & scheduled repairs of all handling equipment.
Replace obsolete handling methods & equipment when more efficient methods of
equipment will improve operations.
Use material-handling activities to improve control of production, inventory, and
order handling.
Use handling equipment to help achieve the desired production capacity.
Determine the effectiveness of handling performance in terms of expense per unit
handled.
Provide suitable methods & equipment for safe handling.
17. Control
18. Capacity
19. Performance
20. Safety
Degrees of Mechanization:
1. Manual and dependent on physical effort (includes hand trucks)
2. Mechanized (power is used for driving)
3. Mechanized complemented with computers (extension of above with computers generating directions)
4. Automated (Minimal human intervention)
5. Fully Automated (computers perform on-line control)
Unit Load Concept:
Definition – a unit load the number of items arranged such that they can be handled as a single object.
Advantages:
> Move large quantities
> Cost per piece for movement is low
> Reduced frequency of moves
> Supports stacking of materials – better cubic space utilization
> Greater speed in loading and unloading the unit load
> Protection against damage
Disadvantages:
> Conflict with large unit loads and JIT
> Container handling – return, recycle, or waste
> Extra effort to load container and unload
Main Material-Handling Costs For Design & Operating MH Systems:
> Equipment: cost to purchase equipment & to install.
> Operating: cost to maintain, fuel, and operate. (Includes labor wages & injury compensation).
> Unit purchase: cost associated with purchasing the pallets & containers.
> Packaging
> Damage
> Money Invested
> Computer support systems
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ISE 312 Chapter 8 (Sule)
Spring Semester
Material Handling: Principles & Equipment Description
Productivity Ratios:
Material-Handling-Labor Ratio
MHL = Personnel assigned to MH / Total operating personnel
Aisle Space Percentage
ASP = Space occupied by aisles / Total space
Movement/Operation Ratio
MO = number of moves / number of productive operations
Damaged Loads Ratio
DL = number of damaged loads / Total number of loads
Relationship between Material Handling & Plant Layout
Common Objectives:
1. Effect on space
2. Flow pattern
Plant Layout analyzes the equipment & associated costs in order to locate the departments that will minimize
the total material handling cost. MHS design analyses the plant layout for move length & move time.
Source & Destinations. Equipment ordered to meet these conditions. (Solve & modify until satisfactory
design is found that meets objectives).
Material-Handling Equipment Main Types:
> Conveyors
> Cranes
> Trucks
Equipment Types:
Conveyors: Belt, Roller, Chute, Slat, Screw, Chain, Overhead Monorail, Trolley, Wheel, Tow, Bucket,
Cart-on-track, Pneumatic tube
Cranes:
Hoists, Overhead Cranes, Hydraulic Scissors lift
Trucks:
Handcart, Tier platform, Hand lift, pallet jack, Power Driven hand truck, Forklift,
Material lift, Narrow-aisle, Tractor-trailer train, Drum lifter, Dolly,
Automated Guided Vehicle System
(Advantages/Disadvantages):
Conveyors:
Moves large number of items, Combine operations (inspection), Temp storage,
Fixed path, breakdowns stop system, hinder movement of mobile equipment
Cranes Hoists: Space is saved, Heavy load, lifted
High investment, limited area, straight line, operator to run
Trucks/Carts: Serve different areas, lift, load, unload
Cannot handle real heavy loads, limited capacity, aisles, most driven, no combining
Screw Conveyor: Large spiral or screw contained in a channel or tube. Rotation moves part along path.
Slat Conveyor: Moving surface made up of slats
Chute Conveyor: Slide (metal) guides materials
Chain conveyor: endless chain directly carrying loads
Monorail: overhead track with trolleys & hooks (can be closed loop)
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