COST FACTOR

The cost factors include investment cost, labour cost, and anticipated service hours per year,

utilization, and unit load carrying ability, loading and unloading characteristics, operating costs and

the size requirements are the factors for evolution of material handling equipment. Other factors

to be considered are source of power, conditions where the equipment has to operate and such

other technical aspects. Therefore, choices of equipments in organisation will improve the material

handling system through work study techniques. They usually result in improving the ratio of

operating time to loading time through palletizing, avoiding duplicative movements, etc. Obsolete

handling systems can be replaced with more efficient equipments.

The effectiveness of the material handling system can be measured in terms of the ratio of

the time spent in the handling to the total time spent in production. This will cover the time

element. The cost effectiveness can be measured by the expenses incurred per unit weight

handled. It can be safely said that very few organisations try to collate the expenses and time

in this manner so as to objectively view the performance and to take remedial measures. Some

of the other indices which can be used for evaluating the performance of handling system

Broadly material handling equipment’s can be classified into two categories, namely:

(a) Fixed path equipments, and (b) Variable path equipments.

(a) Fixed path equipments which move in a fixed path. Conveyors, monorail devices, chutes

and pulley drive equipments belong to this category. A slight variation in this category is

provided by the overhead crane, which though restricted, can move materials in any

manner within a restricted area by virtue of its design. Overhead cranes have a very

good range in terms of hauling tonnage and are used for handling bulky raw materials,

stacking and at times palletizing.

(b) Variable path equipments have no restrictions in the direction of movement although

their size is a factor to be given due consideration trucks, forklifts mobile cranes and

industrial tractors belong to this category. Forklifts are available in many ranges, they are

manoeuvrable and various attachments are provided to increase their versatility.

Material Handing Equipments may be classified in five major categories.

1. CONVEYORS

Conveyors are useful for moving material between two fixed workstations, either continuously

or intermittently. They are mainly used for continuous or mass production operations—indeed,

they are suitable for most operations where the flow is more or less steady. Conveyors may be

of various types, with rollers, wheels or belts to help move the material along: these may be

power-driven or may roll freely. The decision to provide conveyors must be taken with care,

since they are usually costly to install; moreover, they are less flexible and, where two or more

converge, it is necessary to coordinate the speeds at which the two conveyors move.

2. INDUSTRIAL TRUCKS

Industrial trucks are more flexible in use than conveyors since they can move between various

points and are not permanently fixed in one place. They are, therefore, most suitable for intermitten

production and for handling various sizes and shapes of material. There are many types of truckpetrol-driven, electric, hand-powered, and so on. Their greatest advantage lies in the wide range

of attachments available; these increase the trucks ability to handle various types and shapes of

material.

3. CRANES AND HOISTS

The major advantage of cranes and hoists is that they can move heavy materials through

overhead space. However, they can usually serve only a limited area. Here again, there are

several types of crane and hoist, and within each type there are various loading capacities.

Cranes and hoists may be used both for intermittent and for continuous production.

4. CONTAINERS

These are either ‘dead’ containers (e.g. Cartons, barrels, skids, pallets) which hold the material

to be transported but do not move themselves, or ‘live’ containers (e.g. wagons, wheelbarrows

or computer self-driven containers). Handling equipments of this kind can both contain and move

the material, and is usually operated manually.

5. ROBOTS

Many types of robot exist. They vary in size, and in function and manoeuvrability. While many

robots are used for handling and transporting material, others are used to perform operations such

as welding or spray painting. An advantage of robots is that they can perform in a hostile

environment such as unhealthy conditions or carry on arduous tasks such as the repetitive

movement of heavy materials.

The choice of material-handling equipment am