B.

Principles of Material Handling

Design and Selection of

1. Planning Principle. All MH should
be the result of a deliberate plan

Plant Equipment where the needs, performance

objectives, and functional
specification of the proposed
I. MATERIAL HANDLING methods are completely defined at
• Material handling (MH) involves the outset.
“short-distance movement that 2. Standardization Principle. MH
usually takes place within the methods, equipment, controls and
confines of a building such as a software should be standardized
plant or a warehouse and between a within the limits of achieving overall
building and a transportation performance objectives and without
agency.” sacrificing needed flexibility,
• It can be used to create “time and modularity, and throughput.
place utility” through the handling, 3. Work Principle. MH work (defined
storage, and control of material, as as material flow multiplied by the
distinct from manufacturing (i.e., distance moved) should be
fabrication and assembly minimized without sacrificing
operations), which creates “form productivity or the level of service
utility” by changing the shape, required of the operation.
form, and makeup of material. 4. Ergonomic Principle. Human
capabilities and limitations must be
A. Design of Material Handling recognized and respected in the
Systems design of MH tasks and equipment to
• A common approach to the design ensure safe and effective operations.
of MH systems is to consider MH as 5. Unit Load Principle. Unit loads
a cost to be minimized. This shall be appropriately sized and
approach may be the most configured in a way that achieves the
appropriate in many situations material flow and inventory
because, while MH can add real objectives at each stage in the supply
value to a product, it is usually chain.
difficult to identify and quantify the 6. Space Utilization Principle.
benefits associated with MH; it is Effective and efficient use must be
much easier to identify and quantify made of all available (cubic) space.
the costs of MH (e.g., the cost of 7. System Principle. Material
MH equipment, the cost of indirect movement and storage activities
MH labor, etc.). should be fully integrated to form a
• Once the design of a production coordinated, operational system
process (exclusive of MH which spans receiving, inspection,
considerations) is completed, storage, production, assembly,
alternate MHS designs are packaging, unitizing, order selection,
generated, each of which satisfies shipping, and transportation, and the
the MH requirements of the handling of returns.
production process. The least cost 8. Automation Principle. MH
MHS design is then selected. operations should be mechanized
and/or automated where feasible to
improve operational efficiency,
 increase responsiveness, improve
consistency and predictability,
decrease operating costs, and to
eliminate repetitive or potentially
unsafe manual labor.
9. Environmental Principle.
Environmental impact and energy
consumption should be considered as
criteria when designing or selecting
alternative equipment and MHS.
10. Life Cycle Cost Principle. A
thorough economic analysis should
account for the entire life cycle of all
MHE and resulting systems.

C. Characteristics of Materials • The figure shows an example of

• The characteristics of materials alternate ways of handling a dry bulk
affecting handling include the material: as containerized (bagged)
following: size (width, depth, items on pallets handled using unit
height); weight (weight per item, or handling equipment (boxcar, pallet,
per unit volume); shape (round, fork truck), or as bulk material
square, long, rectangular, irregular); handled using bulk handling
and other (slippery, fragile, sticky, equipment (hopper car, pneumatic
explosive, frozen). conveyor, bulk storage bin).
Material Categories
Physical State
Material Category
Solid Liquid Gas
Individual units Part, assembly - -
Containerized items Carton, bag, tote,
Barrel Cylinder
box, pallet, bin
Bulk materials Sand, cement, Oxygen,
Liquid chemicals,
coal, granular nitrogen, carbon
solvents, gasoline
products dioxide

D. The Unit Load Concept Advantages of unit loads:

• A unit load is either a single unit of 1. More items can be handled at the
an item, or multiple units so arranged same time, thereby reducing the
or restricted that they can be handled number of trips required and,
as a single unit and maintain their potentially, reducing handling costs,
integrity. loading and unloading times, and
product damage.
Unit versus bulk handling of 2. Enables the use of standardized
materials material handling equipment.
Disadvantages of unit loads: Material Handling Equipment
1. Time spent forming and breaking 1. Transport Equipment
down the unit load. a. Conveyors
2. Cost of containers/pallets and other 1. Chute conveyor
load restraining materials used in the 2. Wheel conveyor
unit load. 3. Roller conveyor
3. Empty containers/pallets may need 4. Chain conveyor
to be returned to their point of origin. 5. Slat conveyor
6. Flat belt conveyor
Basic ways of restraining a unit load: 7. Magnetic belt conveyor
• Self-restraining—one or more units 8. Troughed belt conveyor
that can maintain their integrity when 9. Bucket conveyor
handled as a single item (e.g., a 10. Vibrating conveyor
single part or interlocking parts) 11. Screw conveyor
• Platforms—pallets (paper, wood, 12. Pneumatic conveyor
plastic, metal), skids (metal, plastic) 13. Vertical conveyor
• Sheets—slipsheets (plastic, 14. Cart-on-track conveyor
cardboard, plywood) 15. Tow conveyor
• Reusable containers—tote pans, 16. Trolley conveyor
pallet boxes, skid boxes, bins, 17. Power-and-free conveyor
baskets, bulk containers (e.g., 18. Monorail
barrels), intermodal containers 19. Sortation conveyor
• Disposable containers—cartons,
bags, crates b. Cranes
• Racks—racks 1. Jib crane
2. Bridge crane
• Load stabilization—strapping,
3. Gantry crane
shrink-wrapping, stretch-wrapping,
4. Stacker crane
glue, tape, wire, rubber bands
c. Industrial Trucks
Basic ways of moving a unit load:
1. Hand truck
• Use of a lifting device under the mass
2. Pallet jack
of the load (e.g., a pallet and fork
3. Walkie stacker
truck)
4. Pallet truck
• Inserting a lifting element into the
5. Platform truck
body of the load (e.g., a coil of steel)
6. Counterbalanced lift truck
• Squeezing the load between two 7. Narrow-aisle straddle truck
lifting surfaces (e.g., lifting a light 8. Narrow-aisle reach truck
carton between your hands, or the 9. Turret truck
use of carton clamps on a lift truck) 10. Order picker
• Suspending the load (e.g., hoist and 11. Side loader
crane) 12. Tractor-trailer
13. Personnel and burden
carrier
14. Automatic guided vehicle
 14. A frame
d. No Equipment 15. Automatic storage/retrieval
1. Manual system

2. Positioning Equipment 5. Identification and Control

1. Manual (no equipment) Equipment
2. Lift/tilt/turn table 1. Manual (no equipment)
3. Dock leveler 2. Bar codes
4. Ball transfer table 3. Radio frequency identification
5. Rotary index table tags
6. Parts feeder 4. Voice recognition
7. Air film device 5. Magnetic stripes
8. Houst 6. Machine vision
9. Balancer 7. Portable data terminals
10. Marupulator
11. Industrial robot E. Major Equipment Categories
1. Transport Equipment. Equipment
3. Unit Load Formation Equipment used to move material from one
1. Self-restraining (no equipment) location to another (e.g., between
2. Pallets workplaces, between a loading dock
3. Skids and a storage area, etc.). The major
4. Slipsheets subcategories of transport
5. Tote pans equipment are conveyors, cranes,
6. Pallet/skid boxes and industrial trucks. Material can
7. Bins/baskets/racks also be transported manually using
8. Cartons no equipment.
9. Bags 2. Positioning Equipment.
10. Bulk load containers Equipment used to handle material
11. Crates at a single location (e.g., to feed
12. Intermodal containers and/or manipulate materials so that
13. Strapping/tape/glue are in the correct position for
14. Shrink-wrap/stretch wrap subsequent handling, machining,
15. Palletizes transport, or storage). Unlike
transport equipment, positioning
4. Storage Equipment equipment is usually used for
1. Block stacking (no equipment) handling at a single workplace.
2. Selective pallet rack Material can also be positioned
3. Drive-in rack manually using no equipment.
4. Drive-through rack 3. Unit Load Formation Equipment.
5. Push-back rack Equipment used to restrict materials
6. Flow-through rack so that they maintain their integrity
7. Sliding rack when handled a single load during
8. Cantilever rack transport and for storage. If
9. Stacking frame materials are self-restraining (e.g., a
10. Bin shelving single part or interlocking parts),
11. Storage drawers then they can be formed into a unit
12. Storage carousel load with no equipment.
13. Vertical lift module
 4. Storage Equipment. Equipment research reports and personal
used for holding or buffering experience.
materials over a period of time.
Some storage equipment may a. Machinery Costs
include the transport of materials. If Once a particular type of tillage,
materials are block stacked directly planting, weed control, or
on the floor, then no storage harvesting machine has been
equipment is required. selected, the question of how to
5. Identification and Control minimize machinery costs must
Equipment. Equipment used to be answered. Machinery that is
collect and communicate the too large for a particular farming
information that is used to situation will cause machinery
coordinate the flow of materials ownership costs to be
within a facility and between a unnecessarily high over the long
facility and its suppliers and run; machinery that is too small
customers. The identification of may result in lower crop yields
materials and associated control can or reduced quality.
be performed manually with no b. Ownership Costs
specialized equipment. Machinery ownership costs
include charges for depreciation,
interest on investment, property
II. PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS taxes, insurance and machinery
A. Farm Machinery Selection housing. These costs increase in
1. Machine Performance direct proportion to machinery
▪ First, each piece of machinery investment and size.
must perform reliably under a c. Operating Costs
variety of field conditions or it is Operating costs include fuel,
a poor investment regardless of lubricants and repairs. Operating
its cost. costs per area change very little
▪ Tillage implements should as machinery size is increased or
prepare a satisfactory seedbed decreased. Using larger
while conserving moisture, machinery consumes more fuel
destroying early weed growth and and lubricants per hour, but this
minimizing erosion potential. is essentially offset by the fact
▪ Planters and seeders should that larger area is covered per
provide consistent seed hour. Much the same is true of
placement and population as well repair costs. Thus, operating
as properly apply pesticides and costs are of minor importance
fertilizers. when deciding what size
▪ Harvesting equipment must machinery is best suited to a
harvest clean, undamaged grain certain farming operation.
while minimizing field losses. d. Labor Cost
▪ The performance of a machine As machinery capacity
often depends on the skill of the increases, the number of hours
operator, or on weather and soil required to complete field
conditions. Nevertheless, operations over a given area
differences among machines can naturally declines.
be evaluated through field trials,
 If hourly or part-time hired labor
operates machinery, it is
appropriate to use the wage rate Factors That Affect the Size of
paid, plus the cost of any other Machinery Needed
benefits which may be provided, Machinery recommendations must
as the labor cost. If the farmer- be based on the characteristics of
owner or a hired worker who is each individual farm. The following
paid a fixed wage operates factors influence machinery
machinery, then it is proper to selection:
value labor at its opportunity
cost, or the estimated return it Number of Crop Acres
could earn if it were used ▪ As more crop acres are
elsewhere in the farm business, farmed, larger-scale
such as in livestock enterprises. machinery is needed to ensure
that planting and harvesting
2. Timeliness Costs are completed in a timely
In many cases, crop yields and fashion.
quality are affected by the dates of ▪ An alternative is to acquire a
planting and harvesting. This second unit of some
represents a “hidden” cost machines, if an additional
associated with farm machinery, but tractor and operator are
an important one nevertheless. The available.
value of these yield losses is
commonly referred to as Labor Supply
“timeliness costs.” ▪ The area that can be
completed each day is the
a. Total Machinery Costs most critical measure of
For very small machinery machinery capacity, more
(relative to crop area), a slight than machine width or area
increase in machinery size can completed per hour.
lower timeliness and labor costs Increasing the labor supply by
significantly, enough to more hiring extra operators or by
than offset the higher fixed working longer hours during
costs. However, as machinery critical periods may be a
size continues to increase, the relatively inexpensive way of
timeliness cost savings stretching machinery
diminish, and eventually total capacity.
costs begin to rise. One ▪ In addition, the cost of
objective of additional labor only needs to
machinery selection, then, is to be incurred in those years in
select machinery in the size which it is actually used,
range where total machinery while the cost of investing in
costs are lowest. larger machinery becomes
“locked in” as soon as the
investment is made.
▪ On the other hand, extra labor
may not always be available
when needed, and working
 long hours over several days as an aid to machinery
can present a safety hazard. selection, past weather
records can be used as a guide.
Tillage Practices ▪ Machinery selection should
▪ The number of field days be based on long-run weather
needed before planting is patterns even though it results
completed depends partly on in excess machinery capacity
the number of separate in some years and insufficient
operations completed on each capacity in other years.
area.
▪ Reducing the number of Risk Management
tillage practices performed or ▪ Fluctuations in the number
performing more than one and occurrence of suitable
practice in the same trip field days from year to year
effectively decreases the cause timeliness costs to vary
amount of machinery capacity even when the machinery set,
needed to complete field number of crop areas and
operations on time. labor supply do not change.
▪ Of course, machinery cost ▪ Investing in larger machinery
savings from reduced tillage can reduce the variability of
must be compared to possible net machinery costs by
increased chemical costs and ensuring that crops are planted
effects on yields. and harvested on time even in
years in which there are few
Crop Mix good working days.
▪ Diversification of crops tends ▪ Machinery fixed costs would
to spread out the periods when be higher with larger
timely completion of field machinery, but they would not
operations is critical. fluctuate as long as the
▪ Harvesting can also be machinery set did not change.
completed over a longer time
period. Thus, growing more 3. How Large Should Machinery
than one or two crops reduces Be?
the machinery capacity ▪ One way to measure the
needed for a given number of capacity of a set of machinery
crop acres. However, it may is by the number of work days
also require purchasing required to complete field
additional types of machinery, operations. This depends on
especially for harvesting. the number of crop area,
machinery operations
Weather performed, size of the
▪ Weather patterns determine machinery in use, and
the number of days suitable availability of labor.
for fieldwork in a given time ▪ A number of different
period each year. Although machinery combinations may
actual weather conditions allow fieldwork to be
cannot be predicted far completed in the same number
enough in advance to be used of days. In putting together, a
 machinery set, it is also maximum possible speed when
important to correctly match running (including both slow
machinery sizes and tractor cycles and small stops).
power. Using tractors with Examples include machine
horsepower in excess of that wear, substandard materials, and
required for the implement misfeeds.
being pulled results in ➢ Quality Loss includes
excessive depreciation and productivity lost from
interest costs, while using too manufacturing parts that do not
little horsepower may cause meet quality standards after the
faster engine wear out. first pass (similar to the concept
of first pass yield). This includes
B. Overall Equipment Effectiveness scrap and parts that require
• Overall Equipment rework.
Effectiveness (OEE) is a metric
that identifies the percentage of • OEE works particularly well for
planned production time that is discrete manufacturing processes,
truly productive. where it is used to measure
• An OEE score of 100% represents equipment performance.
perfect production: manufacturing • Breaks and changeovers should be
only good parts, as fast as possible, included in Planned Production
with no down time. Time (and thus as part of the OEE
• OEE is calculated from three calculation). In general, if time can
underlying factors: Availability, be used for value-added
Performance, and Quality. Each of production (i.e., manufacturing to
these factors represents a different meet customer needs as opposed to
perspective of how close your manufacturing for inventory) it
manufacturing process is to perfect should be included in OEE. This
production. helps ensure that all losses are
tracked and that the true capacity
of equipment is exposed.
• OEE should be part of a balanced
approach to improving
productivity. Solely focusing on
OEE can encourage teams to
• Another way to look at the three overproduce (leading to excess
factors is in terms of loss: inventory), run equipment beyond
➢ Availability Loss includes all rated parameters (potentially
events that stop planned leading to safety issues), overstaff
production for an appreciable processes (reducing labor
amount of time (usually several productivity), or other
minutes). Examples include counterproductive behaviors.
equipment failures, unplanned
maintenance, material Benefits
shortages, and changeovers. • In the short term, OEE identifies
➢ Performance Loss includes all the total opportunity for
factors that cause the process to improvement (sometimes
operate at less than the
 referred to as “uncovering the applying ideas towards
hidden factory”) for a given improvement. Preferably, select
piece of equipment (or process). a pilot area that manufactures
• In the long term, OEE helps you either one part or multiple parts
drive improvement through a with the same cycle time.
better understanding of losses. It b. Identify Constraint
also provides an objective way • OEE should be measured at
to set improvement targets and the constraint step of your
track progress towards reaching process (sometimes referred
those targets. to as the bottleneck). The
constraint is the single step
Roles or machine that governs
• OEE measurement is typically (i.e., limits) the throughput
implemented by a cross- of the overall process.
discipline manufacturing team Improving the constraint
and then handed over to will improve the overall
management to drive sustained process. If the constraint
long-term improvement. moves because you’ve
improved the former
constraint, move your OEE
measurement to the new
constraint and start again.
• Identify the constraint step
of your process.
c. Choose Measurement Method
Measuring OOE • OEE measurement can be
manual or automated.
1. Define Project: things to decide
before you start your OEE project 2. Capture OEE Data: everything you
a. Select Pilot Area need to calculate OEE
• When implementing any new
initiative, it is usually best to Only three pieces of information are
start small and expand from a needed to calculate OEE:
base of success. For OEE, that a. Good Count
means starting with a pilot • Good Count should only include
implementation on a single parts that are defect-free the first
machine, cell, or line. Creating time through the process. This is
an OEE score at multiple points similar in concept to First Pass
will give you conflicting Yield, which defines good parts
information and potentially lead as units that pass through the
you to focus on less critical manufacturing process the first
aspects of your process. time without needing rework.
• Select a pilot area where your • Identify how you will collect
employees are engaged and Good Count. For manual
motivated; ideally an area where measurement look for a counter
employees are interested in immediately after the constraint
learning new things and that reliably counts good parts.
 For automated measurement look (e.g., breakdowns) or planned
for a sensor immediately after the stops (e.g., changeovers).
constraint that is triggered only
for good parts. b. Total Count
b. Ideal Cycle Time • Total Count is required to
• Ideal Cycle Time is the measure OEE Quality. It can be
theoretical minimum time to measured directly, or Reject
produce one part (it is NOT a Count can be measured instead,
‘budget’ or ‘standard’ time). It is and added to Good Count to
important that Ideal Cycle Time calculate Total Count.
be a true and honest measure of
how fast the process can run, even c. Changeover Policy
if the process currently runs • Measure changeover time
slower due to product, material, consistently by defining the start
or equipment problems. and end points of each event.
• Determine the Ideal Cycle Time. • Document a policy for measuring
The preferred method is to use Changeover Time. Three
Nameplate Capacity (the design common options are:
capacity specified by the 1. First Good Part is measured
equipment builder). An alternate as the time between the last
method is to perform a time study good part produced (before
(measuring the absolute fastest setup) to the first good part
speed the process can support). produced (after setup).
c. Planned Production Time 2. Consistent Good Parts is
• Planned Production Time is the measured as the time between
total time that the manufacturing the last good part produced
process is scheduled for (before setup) to the first
production. It is the yardstick instance of consistently
against which Fully Productive producing parts that meet
Time is measured. quality standards (after setup).
• Start with shift time and decide if 3. Full Speed is measured as the
certain types of planned stops will last good part produced at full
be excluded (i.e., will not count speed (before setup) to the
against OEE). Most companies first good part produced at full
exclude only breaks (including speed (after setup).
lunches) and meetings.
d. Stop Reasons
3. Capture Detailed Loss Data: • Stop reasons provide
everything you need to calculate insights as to why the
Availability, Performance, and process has stopped –
Quality especially for unplanned
stops. They are an
a. Stop Time essential part of any
• Stop Time is defined as all-time manufacturing
where the manufacturing process improvement program.
was intended to be running but
was not due to unplanned stops