Facility Layout Chapter 4: Material Handling

Facility Layout and Operations

• Chapter 4 focuses on Material Handling

• Material handling is a critical aspect of facility design, integral to the overall process

• Layout design and material handling system design are inseparable

• Material handling accounts for 25% of employees, 55% of factory space, and 87% of production time in typical industrial facilities

Material Handling

• Material handling is the art and science of moving, storing, controlling, and protecting goods and materials throughout production, distribution, consumption, and disposal

• This includes providing the correct amount of the right material in the right condition, at the right place, in the right position, and sequence for the right cost and method

Material Handling Principles

• There are 10 Material Handling Principles:

  • Planning Principle: A pre-defined action plan outlining material, movements, and methods

  • Standardization Principle: Reduced variety and customization in methods and equipment

  • Work Principle: Material flow, volume, weight, or count per unit of time multiplied by the distance moved to measure work

  • Ergonomic Principle: Adapting work/working conditions to accommodate worker abilities

  • Unit Load Principle: A single entity for storage or movement (like pallets, containers, totes)

  • Space Utilization Principle: Material handling space is three-dimensional (cubic)

  • System Principle: Interacting entities forming a unified whole

  • Automation Principle: Application of electromechanical devices/electronics/computer based systems to operate, control services and production activities

  • Environmental Principle: Avoiding natural resource wastage and mitigating negative environmental impacts

  • Life-Cycle Cost Principle: Cash flows from planning to equipment replacement/method implementation

Designing Material Handling Systems

• Key components of material handling include:

  • Materials, including products, items, substances, or people moved, transported, or physically relocated
  • The move, including origin, travel path, destination, frequency
  • The method, including equipment, people, procedures, and physical facilities to enact the move

• The "What Question": Material types, characteristics, quantities moved/stored

• The "Where Question": Material origin, delivery points, storage locations, optimization of tasks

• The "When Question": Material need timing, automation/mechanization timing points

• The "How Question": Methods of movement/storage, inventory maintenance, and analytical process

• The "Who Question": Material handlers, maintenance personnel, and design team involvement

• The "Which Question": Necessary operations, equipment options, cost-effectiveness, preferred alternative selection

Material Handling Equipment

• Major categories:

  • Containers & Unitizing Equipment (containers, unitizers)
  • Material Transport Equipment (Conveyors, industrial vehicles, monorails, hoists, and cranes)
  • Storage & Retrieval Equipment (unit load, small load storage, retrieval, automatic data collection, communication equipment, and automatic identification/recognition)
  • Positioning Equipment (used at a single location to align items for storage/machining/transport)

• Equipment for Transport includes conveyors, cranes, industrial trucks (hand trucks, forklifts)

• Positioning equipment includes lift tables and dock levelers

• Storage equipment includes pallet racks, split case order picking systems, and drive-through racks.

Unit Load Design

• Unit load principle is crucial for material handling efficiency in larger shipments

• Unit load design involves defining load specifications (type, size, weight, configuration).

• This determines handling equipment, forming, and breaking down the loads.

• Proper size progression of containers in a system is important for more efficient operation.