Industrial Engineering Knowledge Center: Material Handling and Transport System

Friday, September 30, 2022

Material Handling and Transport System - Principles for Design and Options

Lesson 137 of Industrial Engineering ONLINE Course.

Sub-Module in Process Improvement - Transport - Material Handling Operations

Lessons 136 - 137 - 138 - 139 - 140 - 141

The 10 Principles of Material Handling [CICMHEI]

1, PLANNING PRINCIPLE:

All material handling should be the result of a deliberate plan where the needs, requirements, performance objectives, and functional specification of the proposed methods are completely defined at the outset.

• The plan should be developed in consultation between the planners and all who will use and benefit from the equipment to be employed.

• Success in planning large-scale material handling projects generally requires a team approach involving material handling system designers, suppliers, consultants when appropriate, and end user specialists from engineering, production operations, computer and information systems.

• The design process should promote concurrent engineering of product, process design, process layout, and material handling methods as opposed to independent and sequential design practices.

• The plan should reflect the strategic objectives of the organization and the design should take into consideration all the needs of all operators.

2. STANDARDIZATION PRINCIPLE (INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING):

Standardization is term is used extensively in books of scientific management and industrial engineering. Both Taylor and Gilbreth used the term in their writings.

Material handling methods, equipment, controls, and software should be standardized within the limits of achieving overall performance objectives and without sacrificing needed flexibility, modularity, and throughput.

• Standardization means planning for the requirements and less variety in the methods and equipment employed.

• Standardization applies to sizes of containers and other load forming components as well as operating

procedures and equipment

• The planner should select methods and equipment that can perform a variety of tasks under a variety of

operating conditions and in anticipation of changing future requirements.

• Standardization, flexibility, and modularity must not be incompatible.

3. WORK PRINCIPLE: Material handling work should be minimized without sacrificing the level of service required of the operation.

• The measure of material handling work is flow rate (volume, weight, or count per unit of time) multiplied by distance moved.

• Consider each pickup and set-down, or placing material in and out of storage, as distinct moves and

components of the distance moved.

• Simplifying processes by reducing, combining, shortening, or eliminating unnecessary moves will reduce work.

• Where possible, gravity should be used to move materials or to assist in their movement while respecting consideration of safety and the potential for product damage (Japanese Karakuri).

• The Work Principle applies universally, from mechanized material handling in a factory to over-the-road trucking.

• The Work Principle is implemented best by appropriate layout planning: locating the production equipment into a physical arrangement corresponding to the flow of work. This arrangement tends to minimize the distances that must be traveled by the materials being processed.

4. ERGONOMIC PRINCIPLE; Human capabilities and limitations must be recognized and respected in the design of material handling tasks and equipment to ensure safe and effective operations.

• Ergonomics is the science that seeks to adapt work or working conditions to suit the abilities of the worker.

• The material handling workplace and the equipment must be designed so they are safe for people.

• The ergonomic principle embraces both physical and mental tasks

• Equipment should be selected that eliminates repetitive and strenuous manual labor and that effectively Interacts with human operators and users

5. UNIT LOAD PRINCIPLE:

Unit loads shall be appropriately sized and configured in a way which achieves the maternal flow and inventory objectives at each stage in the supply chain.

• A unit load is one that can be stored or moved as a single entity at one time, such as a pallet, container, or tote, regardless of the number of individual items that make up the load.

• Less effort and work are required to collect and move many individual items as a single load than to move many items one at a time.

• Large unit loads are common both pre- and post manufacturing in the form of raw materials and finished goods.

- Smaller unit loads are consistent with manufacturing strategies that embrace operating objectives such as flexibilitv, continuous flow and just-in-time delivery.

Smaller unit loads (as few as one item) yield less inprocess inventory and shorter item throughput times.

6. SPACE UTILIZATION PRINCIPLE:

Effective and efficient use must be made of all available space.

• Space in material handling is three-dimensional and therefore is counted as cubic space. . ..

• In storage areas, the objective of maximizing storage density must be balanced against accessibility and selectivitv.

• When transporting loads within a facility, the use of overhead space should be considered as an option. Use of overhead material handling systems saves valuable floor space for productive purposes.

7. SYSTEM PRINCIPLE:

Material movement and storage activities should be fully integrated to form a coordinated, operational system that spans receiving, inspection, storage, production, assembly, packaging, unitizing, order selection, shipping, transportation, and the handling of returns.

• Systems integration should encompass the entire supply chain, including reverse logistics. it should include suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and customers

• Inventory levels should be minimized at all stages of production and distribution while respecting

considerations of process variability and customer service.

• Information flow and physical material flow should be integrated and treated as concurrent activities

• Methods should be provided for easily identifying materials and products, for determining their location and status within facilities and within the supply chain, and for controlling their movement.

8. AUTOMATION PRINCIPLE (INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING):

Material handling operations should be mechanized and/or automated where feasible to improve operational efficiency, increase responsiveness, improve consistency and predictability. decrease operating costs, and eliminate repetitive or potentially unsafe manual labor.

- In redesigning pre-existing processesm methods should be simplified and/or re-engineered before any efforts to install mechanized or automated systems. Such analysis may lead to elimination of unnecessary steps in the method.

• Items that are expected to be handled automatically must have standard shapes and/or features that permit mechanized and/or automated handling.

• Interface issues are critical to successful automation, including equipment-to-equipment, equipment-to load, equipment-to-operator, and In-control communications.

• Computerized material handling systems should be considered where appropriate for effective integration of material flow and information management.

9. ENVIRONMENTAL PRINCIPLE:

Environmental impact and energy consumption should be considered as criteria when designing or selecting alternative equipment and material handling systems.

• Environmental consciousness stems from a desire not to waste natural resources and to predict and

eliminate the possible negative effects of our daily actions on the environment.

• Containers, pallets, and other products used to form and protect unit loads should be designed for

reusabllity when possible and/or biodegradability after disposal.

• Materials specified as hazardous have special needs with regard to spill protection, combustibility, and

other risks.

10. LIFE CYCLE COST PRINCIPLE: A thorough economic analysis should account for the entire life cycle of all material handling equipment and resulting systems.

• life cycle costs include all cash flows that occur between the time the first dollar is spent to plan a new

material handling method or piece of equipment until that method and/or equipment is totally replaced.

• life cycle costs include capital investment, installation, setup and equipment programming, training,

system testing and acceptance, operating (labor, utilities, etc., maintenance and repair, reuse value, and

ultimate disposal.

• A plan for preventive and predictive maintenance should be prepared for the equipment and the estimated cost of maintenance and spare parts should be included In the economic analysis

• A long-range plan for replacement of the equipment when it becomes obsolete should be prepared.

• Although measurable cost is a primary factor, it is certainly not the only factor in selecting among

alternatives. Other factors of a strategic nature to the organization and that form the basis for competition in the market place should be considered and quantified whenever possible.

Material Handling - Explanation by Maynard

In Operation Analysis Book

The handling of material costs money, and therefore it should be eliminated or reduced as much as possible.

The material must be transported to the work station, it must be handled by the operator before and after processing, and finally it must be taken away again. On a punch-press operation, for example, the processing time is the time required for the press to make a single stroke, is extremely small.. All the rest of the labor expended on the part is material handling.

Material handling adds nothing to the value of the part, although it does increase its cost. Therefore, a determined attempt should be made to reduce material handling to an absolute minimum.

The material-handling problem resolves itself into two natural subdivisions, the handling of material to and from the work station and handling at the work station.

Material Handling to and from Work Station. There are a number of different ways of transporting material to and from work stations, and the one which is the most effective and efficient will depend upon such individual conditions as the size of the material to be moved, the amount, the frequency of movement, and the distance transported.

The oldest, and probably even yet the most commonly employed method is movement through human agency. A move man or an operator carries or trucks material from place to place.

In certain instances, this is a proper and efficient method. For example, if a given material is so light and so small that a supply sufficient for 2 hours work can be carried in a container the size of an ordinary bread pan, a mechanical means of transportation would be uneconomical. The handling time during the process of manufacture between operations may be as little as 1 per cent of the total processing time, because of the large number of pieces that may be carried at one time. This could undoubtedly be reduced somewhat by relaying out the work space and arranging the operators so close together that they can pass material from one to the other without getting up. Even this Is not particularly desirable, however, for little if any real saving would be made. The operations performed on such parts are usually rapid and comparatively monotonous. Getting up and going for a fresh supply of material every 2 hours or so breaks the monotony and actually acts as a rest period by providing a change of occupation. If the, handling operation did not provide this interruption and rest, fatigue would cause the operators to seek it anyway by extra trips to the washroom or drinking fountain. Material handling on small parts that provides an occasional break during a monotonous operation is desirable, and no attempt should be made to eliminate it.

Material Handling Options by Maynard

Hand Trucks. The larger the parts are, the more effort is required to handle them by hand. Added weight involves added muscular effort, and .added volume means more trips to transport
a given number of pieces. As weight and volume increase, trucks of some sort become increasingly desirable. . Human labor is required to push them from place to place, but they add to the effectiveness of that labor by making it possible to move a large number of parts easily and at one time.

Hand trucks are superior to no trucks at all, but they offer a number of disadvantages. They are bulky, and since they must be pushed through the aisles that are used by anyone who desires to go from one part of the plant to another, with or without material, they cause interference to easy movement and often serious congestion. Where only one aisle is available, empty trucks commonly flow back against the stream of loaded trucks. In addition, the trucks occupy considerable valuable floor space at the various work stations. The replacing of hand trucks by conveyers will often result in worth-while economies.

Electric Trucks. Electric trucks are used for much the same purpose as hand trucks. They require the services of an operator, but usually more material may be handled per trip, and handled faster. Electric trucks are made in a number of different styles, and special trucks are made for special applications.

Tractor-trailer Systems. When miscellaneous material must be transported to a number of different places located over a large area, electric trucks may be replaced to advantage by a
tractor-trailer train. For example, a train replaced eight electric trucks. Before its instal-lation, the electric trucks were used to transport material, some of them being assigned to- specific departments and some operated from a central point. Wherever material had to be moved, the electric trucks were used. The departmental trucks took finished material to other departments and usually returned empty. The other trucks were sent empty to whatever part of the plant they were needed. They did the required moving and then returned to the dispatch station empty. An earnest attempt was made by the dispatcher to route the trucks so that they were loaded as much as possible, but it was a difficult task. In addition, often when a rush call for service was received, all trucks were , and delays were frequent.

The installation of the tractor-trailer system reduced labor and greatly improved service throughout the plant. A route was laid out that took the train past every important material station in the plant. A regular schedule was set up, calling for several complete trips per day. The train moved along its route, drop-ping off trailers at the proper destinations and picking up others bound for different departments. Delays were reduced to a minimum, and each department knew, within a minute or two, the time it would receive incoming material or could ship outgoing material. A few of the old electric trucks were retained at first for emergency service, but the tractor-trailer system functioned so well and gave such rapid service that there was little call for
them.

Conveyers.

Conveyers are widely used throughout industry and, where they are properly installed to meet a definite need, will give worth-while economies. Considerable care must be taken to determine if a conveyer will really be an advantage before it is put in, for not all handling problems can be solved by this means. A shop superintendent was once heard to refer contemptuously to an elaborate overhead conveyer system as a "traveling storeroom/ 7 As a matter of fact, this is just what it amounted to. Because there was no real need for a conveyer in this department, it was used principally to keep unwanted material off the floor. Material would sometimes slowly circle the department for a week at a time before it was removed from the conveyer. This was wasteful, of course, and was the direct result of an improper installation.

There is a wide variety of kinds and types of conveyers offered by conveyer manufacturers for industrial use. Since conditions in every plant differ, all installations are in a sense special, but most conveyers designed to handle standard materials such as cartons, boxes, or tote pans are made up of standard sections or units. Gravity conveyers are in general cheaper than power-driven conveyers but, of course, require that the opposite ends of the conveyer be at different levels.

A conveyer does not have to be expensive or even purchased to be effective. Often a homemade arrangement of wooden boards will be as efficient as any conveyer that can be installed. On punch-press work, for example, where a product is made in several operations of approximately equal length, if the punch presses are set side by side, wooden chutes make excellent conveyers. At a given work station, the operator lays aside his finished part in the raised end of a chute. The part rolls or slides to the next operator and arrives in a position convenient for grasping.

Roller conveyers take advantage of the force of gravity to bring about material movement. The rollers run freely on ball bearings ; hence, a comparatively slight drop per foot of travel is necessary. If long distances must be covered, an occasional belt conveyer may be used to boost the material from the low end of one roller conveyer to the high end of the next. .

Other commonly used conveyers are the belt conveyer, , the spiral conveyer which may be either a roller conveyer or - a sheet-metal spiral with a steeper pitch, and the overhead chain conveyer. Many other types are also available, and special conveyers for almost any sort of specific material-handling problem can be obtained. Information and advice can be obtained from the leading conveyer manufacturers whenever an installation is contemplated. The main point to be decided upon first is the necessity for the conveyer. If a conveyer is desirable, a suitable type can be found.

Conveyers for Miscellaneous Work.

It is commonly felt that conveyers are applicable only where a standard product is manufactured in quantities. Under certain conditions, however, they may be used successfully to handle a miscellaneous variety of work. Figure 61 shows a conveyer running through a storeroom for finished material. A number of miscellaneous products are kept in this storeroom. When an order is received, material is taken from the shelves of the storeroom and is placed on the conveyer which takes it to a checker. When the order has been checked, other conveyers take it to various packing stations for packing and shipping. In spite of the variety of product handled and the number of ways in which orders are packed and shipped, a large saving was made by conveyerizing the stores and shipping department.

Another and perhaps even more striking example of the use of conveyers on miscellaneous work occurred in a machine shop doing milling and drilling operations on small quantities of metal parts. Horizontal milling machines, vertical milling machines, and sensitive, radial, and multiple spindle drill presses were used, and there was a total of 51 machines in the department. Because of the small lot sizes, each machine worked on several different jobs each day. The order in which operations were performed was by no means fixed, for some jobs required drilling before milling, others milling before drilling, and others were milled, drilled, and milled again.

The former layout is shown in the upper half of Fig. 62. Material was moved about by laborers. They brought unfinished material to the various work stations and removed finished material. Material was piled about the machines and, besides occupying floor space, was decidedly unsightly. In addition to the material-handling problems, the matter of proper production control presented difficulties. In every shop, there are always certain jobs that are undesirable from the worker's viewpoint. When a number of jobs are available, the operators will choose the most desirable and will put off doing the least desirable as long as possible. Therefore, the production department has to be continually on the alert to prevent jobs being neglected until they become overdue.

A conveyer installation eliminated the move men and overcame production-control difficulties. All material is sent out from the central dispatch station, The dispatcher has a set of records which show when each job is wanted and what the operations are that must be performed. At the proper time,, he places material on the outgoing conveyer and by means of a control apparatus shunts it off on the proper lateral conveyer which takes it to the machines. When the operation has been completed, the material is put on a return conveyer located directly below the outgoing conveyer. The job returns to the dispatcher who sends it out to the next operation. In this way, a definite control of the order in which jobs are to be done is obtained. A definite check on the production of each man is available, and certain phases of the clerical routine are simplified.

Material Handling at the Work Station. When material has been brought to the general neighborhood of the work station, the from that point until the operation Is complete is usually done by the operator. When material is brought by truck f move men, or tractor-trailer train, he usually has to walk a varying .distance to the material and transport it to working position himself. Conveyers or overhead cranes usually bring the material close to the operator.

When the material is at the work station, it must be picked up and moved to the working position. The work is done, after which the material is set aside. When the job is finished, the complete lot of material may be removed from the immediate vicinity of the work station by the operator.

The exact procedure followed "will vary considerably with varying conditions and products; but unless the material is brought directly to the operator by conveyer and the work is done on the part while it is still on the conveyer, there will be a certain amount of material handling at the work station. This should be reduced as much as conditions permit. The initial and final moves can sometimes be shortened by rearranging the layout of the department. Material handling at the workplace can be reduced by detailed motion study.

Questions. The discussion of the material-handling problem given here is of necessity rather brief. No particular mention of such transportation devices as overhead cranes or elevators has been .made, for these are usually provided when necessary and are usually installed and working at the time the operation analysis is begun.

As a matter of fact, the analysis of a single operation seldom leads to the installation of a conveyer system or other expensive handling means unless the operation is highly repetitive. Usually it results in the installation of simple handling devices such as the gravity chutes or the development of special tote pans .or racks, which facilitate the handling of the particular job.

At the same time, the desirability of the more elaborate handling devices should be considered. If several analyses indicate that a conveyer system, for example, offers possibilities, then a more general study of material handling may be undertaken. These greater possibilities should be kept in mind during all analyses.

Source: Operations Analysis by Maynard

Material Handling Robots

Material handling robots can automate some of the most tedious, dull, and unsafe tasks in a production line and is one of the easiest ways to add automation. Material handling robots enhance the efficiency of your production line and increase customer satisfaction by providing quality products in a timely manner.

The term material handling encompasses a wide variety of product movements on the shop floor. Part selection and transferring, palletizing, packing, and machine loading are just a few of the applications that are considered material handling.

But a rapid shift toward automation in e-commerce distribution centers and manufacturing plants has led to a thriving subset of robotic logistics focused on supply chains and automated material movement.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/automation-in-the-warehouse-these-self-driving-robots-aim-to-modernize-materials-handling/
https://www.robots.com/applications/material-handling

https://robotics.kawasaki.com/en1/applications/robotic-material-handling/

https://www.mmh.com/topic/tag/Collaborative_Robots

https://www.mmh.com/topic/tag/Robotics

PhD Thesis - Material transport system design in manufacturing

.author Wan, Yen-Tai en_US

date.issued 2006-04-06 en_US

http://hdl.handle.net/1853/10504

abstract This dissertation focuses on the material transport system design problem (MTSDP), integrating decisions of technology selection and flow network design. The objective is to design a MTS with minimum lifetime costs, subject to service requirements, flow network restrictions, and limited resources. We characterize the MTSDP from the perspectives of task requirements, transport technology, and space utilization.We consider fixed and variable costs, arc capacities, and empty travel in our formulations. We propose two solution approaches for the MTSDP.

The first is the compact formulation (CF) approach where the three major decisions are handled by a mixed integer non-linear programming (MINLP) formulation. Relaxation techniques are applied to linearize the model. The solution of the resulting linear formulation (MILP) provides a lower bound to that of MINLP. A tightened formulation reduces the computational time by a factor of 3.85. The experiment also shows that when control system costs are significant, designs with multiple-task clusters are more economical than those restricted to single-task clusters.

The other approach is clustering/set partition (CSP), where the three decisions are decomposed and solved sequentially.

In an example MTS design problem, three methods are compared: CSP, a GREEDY approach from the literature, and enumeration. CSP finds the optimal solution, while GREEDY results in 31% greater costs. A similar comparison with another example is made for the CF and CSP approaches. We apply the CSP approach in a case problem, using data from an auto parts manufacturer. We include flow path crossing constraints and perform experiments to determine solution quality over a range of small problem sizes. The largest difference from optimality is 3.34%, and the average is 0.98%. More importantly, based on these experiments, it seems there is no evidence that the difference percentage grows with an increase in the number of tasks.

subject Material handling equipment selection, Material handling system design

degree Ph.D. en_US

department Industrial and Systems Engineering

advisor Committee Chair: Dr. Gunter Sharp; Committee Co-Chair: Dr. Leon McGinnis; Committee Member: Dr. Doug Bodner; Committee Member: Dr. Joel Sokol; Committee Member: Dr. Martin Savelsbergh; Committee Member: Dr. Yih-Long Chang

https://smartech.gatech.edu/handle/1853/10504?show=full