1. MATERIAL HANDLING
-PIYUSH H. BHATIA

2. CONTENTS
• Introduction
• Goals of Material Handling
• Overview of Material Handling Equipment
• Considerations in Material Handling System Design
• Principles of Material Handling

3. INTRODUCTION
• Material handling is the function of moving
the right material to the right place in the
right time, in the right amount, in sequence,
and in the right condition to minimize
production cost.

4. Goals of Material Handling
• The primary goal is to reduce unit costs of production
• Maintain or improve product quality, reduce damage of
materials
• Promote safety and improve working conditions
• Promote productivity
• material should flow in a straight line
• use gravity! It is free power
• move more material at one time
• automate material handling

5. Goals of Material Handling
• Promote increased use of facilities
• Reduce tare weight (dead weight)
• Control inventory

6. Overview of Material Handling
Equipment
• Material handling equipment includes:
• Transport Equipment: industrial trucks, Automated Guided
vehicles (AGVs), monorails, conveyors, cranes and hoists.

7. Overview of Material Handling Equipment
• Storage Systems: bulk storage, rack systems, shelving and bins,
drawer storage, automated storage systems.
• Unitizing Equipment: palletizers
• Identification and Tracking systems : RFID, Barcodes.

8. Considerations in Material Handling System
Design
1. Material Characteristics
Category Measures
Physical state
Size
Weight
Shape
Condition
Safety risk and risk of
damage
Solid, liquid, or gas
Volume; length, width, height
Weight per piece, weight per unit volume
Long and flat, round, square, etc.
Hot, cold, wet, etc.
Explosive, flammable, toxic; fragile, etc.

9. . 2. Flow rate
Conveyors Conveyors
High AGV train
Manual handling
Hand trucks
Powered trucks
Unit load AGV
Low
Short Long Move Distance
Quantity of
material
moved

10. 3. Plant Layout
Layout Type Characteristics Typical MH Equipment
Fixed – position
Process
Product
Large product size, low
production rate
Variation in product and
processing, low and
medium production rates
Limited product variety,
high production rate
Cranes, hoists, industrial
trucks
Hand trucks, forklift trucks,
AGVs
Conveyors for product flow,
trucks to deliver
components to stations.

11. Principles of Material Handling
1. The Planning Principle
• Large-scale material handling projects usually require a team
approach.
• Material handling planning considers every move, every storage
need, and any delay in order to minimize production costs.
• The plan should reflect the strategic objectives of the organization
as well as the more immediate needs.

12. 2. The systems principle:
MH and storage activities should be fully integrated to
form a coordinated, operational system that includes
receiving, inspection, storage, production, assembly,
shipping, and the handling of returns.

13. 3. Simplification principle
• Simplify handling by reducing, eliminating, or
combining unnecessary movement and/or
equipment.
• Four questions to ask to simplify any job:
• Can this job be eliminated?
• If we can’t eliminate, can we combine movements
to reduce cost?
• If we can’t eliminate or combine, can we rearrange
the operations to reduce the travel distance?
• If we can’t do any of the above, can we simplify?

14. 4. Gravity principle
• Utilize gravity to move material whenever practical.
5. Space utilization principle
• The better we use our building cube, the less space
we need.
• Racks and overhead conveyors are a few examples
that promote this goal.

15. 6. Unit load principle
• Unit loads should be appropriately sized and
configured at each stage of the supply chain.
• The most common unit load is the pallet
• cardboard pallets
• plastic pallets
• wooden pallets
• steel skids

16. 7. Automation principle
• MH operations should be mechanized and/or
automated where feasible to improve operational
efficiency, increase responsiveness, improve
consistency and predictability, decrease operating
costs.
• ASRS is an example.

17. 8. The standardization principle
• Standardize handling methods as well as types and
sizes of handling equipment
• Too many sizes and brands of equipment results in
higher operational cost.
• A fewer sizes of carton will simplify the storage.
9. The dead weight principle
• Try to reduce the ratio of equipment weight to
product weight. Don’t buy equipment that is
bigger than necessary.
• Reduce tare weight.

18. 10. The maintenance principle
• Plan for preventive maintenance and scheduled
repairs of all handling equipment.
• Pallets and storage facilities need repair too.
11. The capacity principle
• Use handling equipment to help achieve desired
production capacity
• Material handling equipment can help to
maximize production equipment utilization.

19. THANK YOU