C M Nagaraj, CEO, Right Engineers & Equipment India Pvt Ltd, stresses on the importance of material handling process and equipment through an elaborated explanation.

Material handling refers to the total management of all materials and processes involved in the entire manufacturing procedure. This includes sourcing, delivering, movements, protection and storage of a product.

Material handling is the movement and storage of materials at the lowest possible cost through the use of proper methods and equipment. The foremost importance of material handling is that it helps productivity and thereby increases profitability of an industry.

Many industries come across lots of challenges due to lack of importance given to material handling in their plant. To know the importance of material handling the following points needs to be considered - Minimise the number of handlings; combine the movement, processing and storage of materials; reduce the distance of movement; avoid the manual handling and proper utilisation on skilled labor; move in unit load; safety and aesthetic consideration; and avoid the re-handling and back tracking. Other direct and indirect benefits of using material handling includes - Reduced time and cost for material handling; optimum use of floor space and specialties resulting in improved inventory control; reduced fatigue and improved moral for workers by eliminating accidents and disruption at work; systematic and well organised production environment and smooth material movement throughout the production life cycle.

A relatively broad definition of material handling would be that, it uses the right method to provide the right amount of the right material at the right place, at the right time, in the right sequence, in the right position, in the right condition, and at the right cost.

The principles to be considered during the design of any material handling equipment are planning, standardisation, work, ergonomic, unit load, space utilisation, system, automation, environmental, life cycle cost.

Material handling system design process consists of - Define the objectives and scope of the MHS; analyse the requirements for handling, storing, and controlling materials; generate alternative designs for meeting MHE requirements; evaluate alternative MHE designs; select the preferred design for handling, storing and controlling material; and implement the preferred design by selection of supplier then training, installation, debug, start-up and performance audits.

Factors in MHE - Type of materials; physical characteristics; quantities to be moved; source and destinations for each move; frequency or rate of each move; equipment alternatives; units to be handled; and material flow i.e. method of handlings, storing , and controlling.

Study each move with question - Can the move be eliminated; can the move be combined with another or with an in-transit operation; can the move be simplified; is sequencing the moves possible; is it advantageous; and if the move must take place, then determine the best method.

Unit load principle

Unit load is the unit to be moved or handled at one time. Its advantages are handling multiple items and reducing the number of trips. Unit load can be contained in totes, cartons, pallets, pallet boxes, etc. Enclosure and stabilisation is provided by strapping, shrink-wrapping and stretch wrapping. Unit load specification is an integral part of material handling and storage system design.

Pallets

The style and size of pallets are based on shipping and receiving restrictions, size and weight of items on the pallet, space restriction, equipment used to move the pallet, slave versus non–slave considerations, cost, supply, maintenance, aisle widths, door sizes and stacking heights.

Returnable dunnage system

Returnable dunnage system or collapsible pallets plays a vital role in saving the world by deforestation. Metal pallets designed in such a way that can be completely collapsed when not loaded and it occupies only ¼th area of the original place. The finished goods dispatched to customers or semi-finished goods for assembly or other process can be transported by collapsible metal pallets by avoiding wooden or carton boxes packing. It saves lot of money in packing material and is also environmental friendly. Material handling costs to ownership involves - Initial purchase price; operating expenses (fuel, disposables, etc); maintenance costs, direct and indirect labor cost; miscellaneous associated costs, training, insurance, damage, and environmental impacts.