Material handling equipment is all equipment that relates to the movement, storage, control and protection of materials, goods and products throughout the process of manufacturing, distribution, consumption and disposal. Material handling equipment is the mechanical equipment involved in the complete system. Material handling equipment is generally separated into four main categories: storage and handling equipment, engineered systems, industrial trucks, and bulk material handling.
Material handling equipment is used to increase throughput, control costs and maximize productivity. There are several ways to determine if the material handling equipment is achieving peak efficiency. These include capturing all relevant data related to the warehouse's operation (such as SKUs), measuring how many times an item is "touched" from the time it is ordered until it leaves the building, making sure you are using the proper picking technology, and keeping system downtime to a minimum.
What is Industrial Material Handling Equipment?
Industrial material handling equipment encompasses a diverse range of tools, vehicles, storage units, appliances and accessories involved in transporting, storing, controlling, enumerating and protecting products at any stage of manufacturing, distribution consumption or disposal.
Important Functions of Material Handling:
Advantages of Material Handling Equipment:
Material handling equipment (MHE) is equipment used to transport, store or control material within various facilities. These facilities can include the manufacturing plants where the material is produced or the disposal sites where it ends up. Large material handling equipment includes cranes, trucks and lifts. Smaller equipment includes things such as storage bins, dollies and even cartons. The purpose of material handling equipment is to quickly, safely and more easily move material when compared with doing it manually.
Transportation:
Transportation refers to any type of material handling equipment that moves material from one spot to another. This can be from one facility to another, from one end of the facility to the other or simply from a docking platform to a storage area. Industrial trucks, haulers, cranes, conveyer belts and lifts are types of transportation equipment. Cranes are used to move material but are limited to certain zones. Lift trucks can move material just about anywhere, and conveyor belts move material along a designated path.
Positioning:
Positioning equipment is used to ensure that material is passed along safely. This can entail pivoting, turning or stacking the material. The equipment that handles positioned material can be transportation or storage equipment. Positioning equipment is mainly used to cut down on worker fatigue, ensure safer handling if the equipment is difficult to move manually, and move equipment that is unsafe for human hands.
Unit Loads:
Unit loads are equipment that stabilises or holds equipment to prevent movement during transportation or storage. Pallets, skids, bags, cartons, load containers, crates, straps, wrapping, bins, baskets and racks are some of the various kinds of loading equipment. This equipment also allows more than one item of the same material to be held by one unit load. For example, an egg carton can carry a dozen eggs at once.
Storage:
Storage allows material to sit in a facility, site or container for a long time until it is needed. Racks, bins, frames and shelves are common examples. However, there are many types of racks, including pallet racks, push-back racks, sliding racks and cantilever racks. The purpose of storage is to allow production to continue without having to stop because of an excess of the product being produced. Storage is also useful for keeping surpluses in case of a sudden demand or shortage elsewhere.
Control:
In large-scale manufacturing, storage, and disposal facilities, having a way to keep track of all of the material is important. Although it can be done manually on a smaller scale, large facilities rely on control and identification equipment. Items such as bar codes, radio frequency tags and magnetic strips make up a majority of control equipment.
