Material Handling – The Lifeline For Shipping and Storage

Material Handling – The Lifeline For Shipping and Storage, has never been more important since the beginning of the pandemic which brought shortages of goods and services. It showed how important material handling within the supply chain is to our daily lives. The supply chain is simple to ignore because of the perception of simplicity with which goods typically show up on our doorsteps and store shelves.

In reality, the supply chain is a huge series of material handling procedures that entail everything from the acquisition of raw materials through shipping, distribution and storage.

Material handling is a key component of this process. Read further to learn what material handling is, why it’s necessary, and what tool requirements help it to work well.

What is Material Handling?

The short-distance movement of items either within or between buildings with a transportation vehicle or apparatus is known as material handling. It involves tasks like loading and unloading vehicles, assembling unit loads from individual goods on pallets, pulling merchandise off shelves for shipping and so much more.

A supply chain cannot exist without material handling. Before it can help to create final products, you must obtain raw materials, have reliable transportation and good preparation for shipping. For transportation, products are put into groups and then onto trucks. When they get to the warehouses, you need to be unload, process, and store on racks. Finally, they must be taken from storage and made ready for distribution when it’s time to ship.

Material Handling Is Crucial

To ensure that materials reach their destinations without damage, every step of the supply chain must have careful scrutiny. To make moving goods and materials throughout production and storage facilities as efficient as possible, material handling operations must be succinct and precise.

A strong material handling system can increase customer satisfaction, cut costs and lessen the likelihood of mishaps and product or property damage.

When the system is successful, products are simpler to locate, orders are filled more precisely and there are fewer worker accidents and injuries when a well-thought-out material handling system in place.

Keys To Successful Material Handling

• Planning: To maximize efficiency, every material handling process should have a thorough plan.
• Standardization: Without sacrificing flexibility, the techniques, tools, and software necessary for material handling should be a standard part of the plan.
• Work: To increase efficiency, material handling activities are as straightforward as possible. Shortening routes, grouping similar products for transport and other methods are in place to reduce unnecessary movement.
• Ergonomics: Planning material handling tasks and procuring equipment takes into account the strengths and weaknesses of workers in order to ensure their safety.
• Unit load: To maximize the effectiveness of moving, combine individual objects into unit loads (for example, on pallets).
• Use of space: Make efficient and effective use of all the accessible space. Make good use of vertical spaces and keep storage rooms clean and in good order.
• System: In order to create a single, integrated operational system, all material handling operations with coordination and organization a focus.
• Automation: To increase productivity and ensure worker safety, automation is part of material handling procedures as much as possible.
• Environment: Environmental effects and energy usage should be taken into consideration while designing material handling systems.
• Life cycle cost: Systems and equipment for material handling should go through a complete lifetime economic study.

Material Handling Process

Transportation

It is common for material handling to include transporting very big, heavy, or bulky objects. Modern technology makes it possible to accomplish the operation more quickly and carry fewer loads manually by using a range of tools.

Cranes, conveyors, forklifts, or pallet jacks assist in moving goods. To make them easier to transport, consolidate them into unit loads on various types of pallets. Pallets have space underneath for a forklift or pallet jack’s forks to fit.

Storage

Pallet rack shelving keep pallets easily accessible to forklifts and other equipment while increasing storage capacity. Efficient shelving will maximize vertical real estate and free up floor space.

Protection

Industrial packaging is crucial for keeping goods safe during storage and transit. To keep products that are especially brittle intact throughout the supply chain, cushioning and stress absorption solutions may be necessary. Temperature control is frequently necessary for medical and pharmaceutical supplies and equipment. For particular requirements, several businesses offer options for custom packaging design.

Movement of Materials Along The Supply Chain

Every step of your company’s supply chain, from manufacture to distribution, involves the flow of materials. Here’s a breakdown of that supplier chain in greater detail…

Manufacturing

You must move and manage finished goods and incoming shipments within your factories and storage areas during the manufacturing process.

Transporting

The manufacturer will deliver the goods to an internal warehouse or a wholesaler. For convenient, easy shipping, handle and organize items as units (perhaps on pallets).

Storage and warehousing 

In order to store the goods until they are required by the supplier or retailer, they must be offloaded safely and effectively. They also need to be moved internally within the warehouse to different storage racks or shelving.

Distribution 

The supplies must be packed and assembled into shippable units before being loaded onto trucks for distribution to merchants or customers.

Material Handling Tools Necessary
For Optimal Shipping and Storage

Short-distance transportation of commodities (by transporters, warehouses, or distributors) necessitates a significant amount of material handling machinery, transportation, and even automated systems.

Forklifts and Lift Trucks

The forklift or lift truck are likely the most common material handling vehicles. Over a quarter of a million lift trucks are sold each year in North America alone, making them a standard in every warehouse.

Pallets and Packaging

Pallets and other packaging enable your personnel to transport large items and loads using a pallet jack or casters while keeping products secure and organized for shipping.

Hoisting Equipment

It is important to maintain some type of lifting equipment, such a crane, winch or jack to make sure of proper accessibility if a warehouse has more vertical levels than a forklift or truck can easily access.

Robotics

AGVs (automated guided vehicles) and sorting robots are only two examples of the computer-driven equipment that is becoming prevalent in warehousing and materials handling.

Three Crucial Material Handling Rules

Set up reliable material handling solutions across your entire organization if you want to streamline your logistics process.

1. Use uniform unit loads across the whole supply chain.

Use the same size and format for all of your unit loads for best efficiency. Palletize your freight for easy processing with pallet trucks, winches, and jacks. Use gas or liquid containers that work with the transportation and storage facilities of your suppliers.

2. Utilize space

Make sure to make advantage of every square inch of your warehouse. In order to enhance the cubic area of your warehouse space, you must also think vertically.

3. Apply Ergonomics

Without the right tools and assistance, humans cannot lift or organize large things. Failing to remember this can result in unnecessary staff injuries. A single warehouse worker may easily load a truck with the use of hand trucks, pallets, pallet jacks, platform trucks, dock equipment and the appropriate process.

In Conclusion

To maintain material control and product safety during each stage of its trip, you must pay close attention to shipping, logistics, and material handling.

Your products and goods’ trip to their final destination is more than simply the truck, the road and the few feet it takes to get from a truck to a warehouse.  It involves a concerted effort and process to succinctly achieve safe and secure delivery goals.

You must make sure that you follow a timeline and strategy. There is very little potential for anything to go wrong because everything is taken into account and the majority of possibilities are planned and plotted out. 

Custom Equipment Company, empathizes with any Material Handling Shipping and Storage issues you may be experiencing. When using us as a supplier, please work closely with your CEC Customer Representative, to make certain your order is fulfilled in an expedient and efficient manner.