An approach for selection of material handling equipment and material handling system pre design

2.  handling of material in warehouse
 solving the problems involving the movement
 control and protection of materials, goods and products
 applied in both manufacturing and distributional operations
does not add
value to the
product but it
usually adds a
significant value
to the product

3. These early methods treated the three basic stages of handling—
a. materials collection
b. Manufacturing
c. product distribution
Modern materials-handling
systems, by contrast, emphasize
the integrated flow of goods from
the source of raw materials to final
user
This can be achieved by transporting
goods in large quantities and in
standardized units; by handling
procedures using cranes, conveyor belts,
and other machines; and by the careful
coordination of the movement of goods
with production, processing, and
distribution schedules

4. a. Designing the system for continues flow of material, i.e. idle time should be
zero.
b. Going in for standard equipment, which ensures low investment and flexibility
in case of changes in material handling requirements in the future.
c. Incorporating gravity flow in material flow system
d. Ensuring that the ratio of the dead weight to the payload of material handling
equipment is minimum.

5. Various material handling systems are in use, right from those
that are fully manual to the ones that are fully automatic.
However, the selection of a particular system depends in factors
such as:
i. Volumes to be handled
ii. Speed in handling
iii. Productivity
iv. Product characteristics
(weight, size, shape)
v. Nature of the product
(hazardous, perishable,
crushable)

6. 1. Planning Principle: where the needs, performance objectives,
functional specifications of the methods
2. Standardization Principle: should be standardized within the
limits of achieving overall performance objectives
3. Work Principle: should be minimized without sacrificing
productivity
The Key to Greater Productivity,
Customer Service and Profitability

7. 4. Ergonomic Principle: Human must be recognized and respected in the design of
material-handling tasks
5. Unit Load Principle: can be stored or moved as a single
6. Space Utilization Principle: All available space must be used effectively and
efficiently.
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.
8. Automation Principle: operations should be mechanized and/or automated where
feasible to improve operational efficiency
9. Environmental Principle: total energy consumption should be an evaluation
criterion
10. Life Cycle Cost Principle: A complete economic analysis should account for the
entire life cycle of all material-handling equipment and the resulting systems.

8. Lifting and Transport Equipment
Equipment that falls into this category is fork lift trucks, order picking trucks, overhead
cranes, tower cranes and belt, chain and overhead conveyors.
fork lift trucks overhead conveyors

9. Storage Equipment
within this category are pallet racks, mobile shelf units, and plastic, wood and steel containers
Automated Handling Equipment
automated guide vehicles, storage and retrieval equipment, conveying systems and product sorting
equipment

10. Material Handling Equipment Selection
Properly Match:
 The Material Characteristics
 The Move Requirements
 The Equipment Capabilities/Requirements
Other factors to be considered
include:
 Labor skills available
 Capital available
 Return on investment
 Expected life of installation

11. STUDY ON THE APPROACHES OF THE SELECTION OF
EQUIPMENT AND DESIGN OF THE MHS
Problems to overcome : minimizes cost and maximizes reliability.
Layout Design
MHS Design
Modifications
of Layout
MHS Design
Layout Design
Review of the
MHS Design
The Solution Sequence and Preferable Relations Between MHS and Facility
Layout Design
[ Sequence A ] [ Sequence B ]

12. The selection of equipment and design of the MHS
can be done using four ways:
 by means of a traditional selection method,
 using an analytical model,
 by knowledge-based approaches,
 Hybrid approaches (analytical and knowledge based approaches).
 Traditional Selection Method
1. the designer relies principally on handbooks and experience
2. approach may not be cost-effective
 Analytical Model
1. generally consider only quantifiable factors such as cost and utilization
2. often difficult to implement
 Knowledge-based Approaches
1. involves the use of expert guidelines.
2. allows extensive matching of equipment characteristics to application
requirements

13. PRODUCT AND PROCESS SPECIFICATIONS AND MHS
EQUIPMENT SELECTION FOR EACH PRODUCT
Main Features of the MHS Equipment Selection
1. Product Type (bar stock, package,
pallet load, unit)
2. Product Weight
3. Product Size (Cubic Volume)
4. Product nature (Sturdy, Fragile)
5. Product Volume
1. 1.Speed Requirements
2. Accumulation Requirements (Yes or
No)
3. Distance for Transfer
4. Frequency of Movement
5. Flexibility of Process Route
6. Loading and Unloading Requirements
7. Safety Aspects
The choice of MHS equipment depends on the product and process requirements.
For this reason, MHS equipment can be selected according to the product and
process specifications.

14. MHS Equipment
Selection
Rationalastion of the
Selected MH
Equipments
Utilisation and Detail
Design of Material
Handling System
MHS Design Stages Finding appropriate equipment for
a handling problem involves
extensive matching of product and
process features and material
handling equipment specifications.

15. The Rationalization of the MHS between
departments (nodes)
Why Rationalization required ?
 Different product types are likely to require different details.
 reducing the total investment and operating cost of the MHS.
Rail Guided Vehicle (RGV) Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV)
If there are material transfers between two departments and they require these two
types of equipment at the same time, the equipment types and their alternatives have
been considered and alternative choices must be established and arranged in a form.
If the requirement of MHS types is more than one and these types of equipment can
replace each other then select the dominant one.

16. Implementation Of The Approaches
The approach comprises three stages which are represented by two
different knowledge-bases and one external program.
• The knowledge-base contains all the rules and the objects which
describe a particular topic.
• function of the external program is to reorganize the data for the
MHS selection phase and has been developed using FORTRAN.
Product
Process
Routes
Product Database
MHS.EXE
MHS-DEP.DAT
Specifies MHS equipment
types for each product
Flow Chart of the Arrangement Procedure

17. Obtain Product and Process features for MHS
Equipment Selection
Program of Rule Set for Material Handling
Equipment Selection
MHS Equipments for Each Product
Organization of Selected Equipment (External
Program)
Rationalisation
Pre-Designed MHS
Utilisation and DETAIL DESIGN
The Main
Flow Chart
of the
Approach

18. MHS EQUIPMENT SELECTION FOR PRODUCTS
In a MHS equipment selection, the selection procedure can be carried out as
follows:
If the distances, the event intervals between arrival times and the components
are relatively large, an AGV system is likely to prove appropriate. For
generalization, each MHS equipment has been taken as a member of a class,
which has a certain number of features and which can be represented by slots in
a program.
example, an AGV may be represented using a class object and the details are
given [Leonardo Expert System Shell (Creative Logic, 1989)]
1: Name: AGV
2: Long Name:
3: Type:
4: Value:
5: Certainty:
6: Derived From:
7: IsA: mhs
8: Member Slots:
8: load_type: discrete
9: we_ran: high
10: load_size: mdm
11: req_speed: high
13: req_acc: very high
14: req_diss: high
15: frequ_req: often
16: path_flexi: high
17: load_un_ab: high

19. MHS
Equipment
Type
Load Type
Load
Capacity
Size Nature
Speed Of
System
Accumulation
Required
Distance
Frequency
Of Move
Flexibility
Of Path
Loading &
Unloading
Ability
Robots Discrete
Low-
Medium
Medium
Solid-
Fragaile
Low-
Medium
No short often low high
AGV Discrete Medium Medium
Solid-
Fragaile
Medium No medium often high high
RGV (Rail
Guided
Vehicle )
Discrete High
Medium-
Large
Solid High No long low low medium
Fork Lift Discrete High Large Solid Medium No long high high high
Conveyors Continuous
Low-
Medium
Small -
Medium
Solid
High-
Medium
Yes
short-
medium
low low medium
Manual Discrete Low Medium Solid Low No short high high high
These suggested alternatives will clearly need development with experience of
operating the design system.

20. Probem : An MHS is going to be pre-designed for a plant. The plant is designed for 6
processes and 4 different parts. The parts and process routes and their specifications
are presented in Table . When the part and process routes and their MHS equipment
information have been gathered, the first stage can be carried out for MHS equipment
selection. In this selection, for example, heavy loads, Far trips, and very big in size for
Part 3, suggests the use of a Rail Guided Vehicle (RGV). Another example can be
given for Part 1. This part is of medium weight, medium in size and has a fragile
nature; these requirements can be satisfied using an AGV.
1 2
3
4 5 6
Network Analysis and
Part Root Process of the
case study

21. Product and Process Feature for MHS Equipment Selection
Part
Number
Part
Volume
Part Route
Process
Load
Type
Load
Capacity
Size Nature
Speed Of
System
Accumulatio
n Required
Distanc
e
Frequency
Of Move
Loading &
Unloading
Ability
1 50 1-2-4-5-6 Discrete medium medium Fragile Low No
Mediu
m
High Rare
2 40 1-5-6-0 Discrete high small Solid Medium No Short Low No
3 70 1-3-4-5-6 Discrete very high very big Solid High No Far Low Frequently
4 20 1-2-3-5-6 Discrete low medium Fragile Medium Yes
Mediu
m
Medium Frequently
MHS Equipment for Parts
Product Number Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4
MHS Equipment RGV Man Fork-Lift AGV
1 2
3
4 5 6

22. From
Department
To
Department
Required MHS
Equipment
Rationalized
MHS
Equipment
1 2 RGV, Fork Lift, AGV RGV
1 3 RGV, Man, AGV, RGV
1 5 AGV AGV
2 4 Man Man
2 3 Fork Lift, AGV Fork Lift
3 2 AGV AGV
3 4 Man Man
3 5 AGV, Man AGV
4 2 AGV, Man AGV
4 5 RGV, Man, AGV, RGV
5 6 Fork Lift Fork Lift
MHS Equipment Requirements Between Departments
Product Number Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4
MHS Equipment RGV Man Fork-Lift AGV

23.  Responsive
 Flexible
 Autonomous
 Highly automatic
 Multi-functional
 Modularized
 Multi-level
 Compatible

24. The most possible objectives to do in future are:
•• High-speed, high-value material handling and logistics processes for
challenging environments
•• Low-cost, low-impact material handling and logistics capabilities to
maintain high service levels
•• The workforce of tomorrow and what is needed to develop it.

25. The field of materials handling remains still to be fully to
be fully explored.
Material handling techniques are not only industry’s
biggest opportunity — they are industry’s biggest
necessity.
Competition is beginning to force this new technology
upon industry.

26. Conclusions
 This study describes a decision aid which may be used by a designer who is
not very familiar with selection of material handling systems.
 The case study exemplifies the selection of MHS equipment using the
approach and a recommended rationalization procedure.
 A knowledge based approach can overcome the limitations of analytical
approaches which are generally limited with only quantifiable factors.
 Rationalizations of MHS equipment will reduce total investment and
operation costs.
 It highlights the importance of the material handling system design and
facility layout problem, requiring an integrated solution strategy.
 It'll help to work a system with full automation and there it'll create a scope
for future work on knowledge based programmed Material Handling System
Design.