LESSON 8
IMPOR TANCE, PRINCIPLES OF
MATERIAL HANDLING SYSTEM , AS/RS
SYSTEMS.
Points to be discussed in this lecture:
1.Importance of material handling
2.Principles of material handling
3.Material handling system
4.AS/RS systems.
Introduction
Material handling is a very important area of concern for
industrial engineers. This is due to following reasons:
1. More than 90% of the time in material spends on shop-
floor is either in waiting or for being transported. This is a
non-value added activity. Nearly 20-30 % of this non-value
added time is consumed in material handling. Therefore,
efficient handling will save some of this non-value added
time.
2. Safe handling of material is important in the plant. This
reduces wastage, breakage, loss, scrapes, etc.
3. Efficient material handling is needed for less congestion,
timely delivery and reduced idle time of machine due to non-
availability of material.
4. Cost-efficient material handling is an important issue.
Material movement usually accounts for 10 to 90% of total
factory cost, whose average is, as per one estimate, about
25%. Therefore, a careful study of alternative modes of
material transportation are very important.
5. Better material handling is helpful in good housekeeping. .
Material handling is needed in the entire supply-chain of the
manufacturing system. From supplier to the in- coming store
of the plant, raw material or sub-assemblies’ are shipped.
Sometimes subcontractors supply semi-finished items. For this,
road transport or rail, transport is needed. At the plant Level,
raw material or semi. finished items are transported to the
various machines. Movement of material is not only along the
floor, but it may be vertical (i.e., against/along gra50,51,52vity) also.
Material Handling
It is the art and science involving movement, packaging and
storing of materials in any form by n1eansof gravity, manual
effort or power-activated machinery.
- American Materials Handling Society
PRINCIPLES OF MATERIAL HANDLING
There are some guiding principles of material handling. These
are :
1. Reduce unnecessary movement: This calls for selecting
shortest path to reach the destination.
2. Reduce congestion and bottlenecks: This calls for
eliminating obstruction and congestions in the material
handling.
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UNIT II
MATERIAL HANDLING SYSTEM
3. Scientific factory layout: This is to minimize the overall
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material movement, reduced number of trips, and reduced
costs associated with transportation.
4. Use of standard material handling equipments: This
facilitates easy maintenance of material handling equipment,
as spares are readily available.
5. Plan minimum, number of loading/unloading: This
reduces, the chances of breakage. It also reduces loading/
unloading time and cost.
6. Use gravity to transport material.
7. Use mechanized material handling equipment: This
reduces dependence on human labor.
8. Use specialized equipment, if needed.
9. Use flexible equipments, if the part variety is more or unstable.
10.Use simple and safe equipments for material handling. Operator
safety should be of prime importance. Blinkering light and
bell/sound maybe attached to material handling equipments
to warn the persons, working nearby.
11.To minimize the. down-time of the equipments, use
preventive maintenance of all equipments.
12.If labor is cheap and parts are lighter, human labor for
transporting material in trolley may be employed.
13.Loading on material handling equipment should not exceed
its designed capacity.
14. Standard size of material should be transported to reduce
time and increase efficiency.
15. Concept of unit size load should be employed. Aggregating
material into a longer Unit/container or pallet of standard
size.
16. Efficient planning and control should be ensured, for
efficiency.
17. The material. handling equipment should preferably be
dispatched if it is full of its capacity. This reduces number of
trips.
18. The material handling equipmen1should not be very bulky.
The ratio’ of its load carrying capacity and its own dead
weight should be high:
19.Concept of straight line flow should be employed as zigzag
flow causes more congestion and more time.
20.Load should preferably. be carried both ways. This means
while coming back some material may be picked-up for
delivery to an intermediate and originating point.
21.Part orientation principle should & be employed so that, while
unloading, the material position should be as per the need
of the destination point. During the transportation also,
parts should be oriented in such a way that maximum
material is accommodated with least chances of damage.
21
 22.System principle should be employed so that material handling
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system is integrated with facilities, such as inspection’,

receiving, storage assembly, packaging, etc.
23.Backtracking of parts movement should be avoided.
Material Handling Equipment
Material handling equipments are classified under various
headings. These may be:
1. Manual, or
2. Powered
Another classification is based on the paths followed by
material. These may be:
1. Fixed path equipments, such as : elevator, conveyors, chutes,
wire-guided AGV, etc.
2. Variable path equipments, such as : trolley, trucks, free-
ranging AGV, etc.
Fixed path material handling equipments allow material to
follow along a line or fixed path. Variable path equipments
allow flexibility in the path of material flow.
Pallets
Pallet is the base over which the load of material is assembled. Example pallet-loading patterns
Pallets are specially designed platforms, which may be lifted by
means of fork- lift operation.
Conveyor
Conveyors are used to transport material from one fixed point
to another fixed point. These use gravity or powered device to
carry material. Some of the conveyor systems are portable which
may be moved from time to time, but generally these are fixed.
These are more useful for the following situations:
• Moving homogeneous material
• Fixed route of movement
• Constant rate of material movement
• Mass production units
Industrial Trucks
These are manual or external powered vehicles, which can move
on a variety of paths. These are particularly useful for the
following situations:
• Uneven (intermittent) supply of material
• Varying paths of movement Unit Load Desig
• Job-shop production units
Cranes and Hoists
These are overhead lifting devices used for the movement of
material in a fixed route and fixed area of operation. These are
particularly useful in the following situations:
• Movement of intermittent load
• Different loads are of varied size, shape and weight
• Provision of ceiling support at roof of the building
columns
• Relatively heavy loads
When horizontal movement of material is difficult due to
conjestion, obstacles or navigation problem of
vehicles.(Footnotes)

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Material handling equipment

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Different Material Handling Equipments

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Different Material Handling Equipments (contd…)

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Different Material Handling Equipments (contd…)

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Different Material Handling Equipments (Contd…)

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 FACTOR Y AUTOMA TION
Different Material Handling Equipments (contd..)

Different Material Handling Equipments (Contd…)

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 Elevators and Lifts
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These are used to raise or lower material in the vertical direction.

These are different from cranes and conveyors in the sense that
lifting is done by elevators/lifts by placing the material on the
elevators/lifts just like human being-carried in lifts of a multi-
storied building.
Containers and Racks
For transporting bulk material, containers/racks are used. Bulk
material is stored in them. The advantage is the utilization of
cubical space, ease in storage and ease in handling.
AS/RS
Automated storage and Retrieval system (AS/RS) is storage
racks system in which each location and its inventory status is
maintained by a computer-controlled central unit. When certain
item is needed, computer, using its status file, locates the item
on the shelf. A driverless device, such as crane, automatically
picks up the item. This is the retrieval mechanism of the AS/
RS. In case a new item comes, the computer communicates the
lifting device about the proper place in the rack where it is to be
stored. Subsequently, the inventory status is updated.

Rectangular, automatic storage and retrieval system, which is

similar in design to most industrial automatic storage and
retrieval systems. ASRS2 has 72 cells arranged in two parallel
storage racks.
A dedicated Cartesian robot tends the two storage racks and
transfers parts between the
storage cells and the conveyor pallets stopped at the ASRS
station. A real-time, multi-tasking stand-alone controller
controls the robot.
The ASRS software provides graphic display and tracking of
ASRS contents. Different parts and templates are defined by
easy to understand symbols and can be updated online.
The software provides real-time control of inventory and part
storage and retrieval operations.

Notes:

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