Each material handling solution has its unique characteristics, highlighting the challenge of finding the best solution.
Choosing or upgrading a material handling system for industry and manufacturing may be confusing. This is a complex business full of challenges, which requires a lot of time, money and resources to complete successfully. A wrong action or lack of judgment will endanger the company's bottom line.
Unfortunately, too many operators ignore key issues and ultimately invest in solutions that lead to suboptimal production capacity, unable to develop or adapt to operating conditions and reduce the waste of overall efficiency. The selected material handling solution must be meaningful not only for today's use, but also - perhaps more importantly - for future needs. In order to ensure the best results, the company must consider and solve the following seven key issues to make a choice and provide an operationally feasible, seamless and cost-effective system.
Seven challenges
(1) Weight
In general, the lighter the load, the more options available, including simple human thrust. However, as the weight increases, it will be necessary to eliminate many possibilities of handling materials. For heavy loads - objects over 200 tons, including aircraft, ships or caissons - large gantry cranes or solutions using air cushion technology may be the only viable option. The basic problem to be solved is: can the given load handling system work under the selected weight level?
Once it is decided to eliminate potential material handling solutions based on weight and capacity, companies can evaluate secondary considerations and begin to further subdivide their solutions.
(2) Distance
At this point, it is crucial to start paying attention to the logistics of mobile loads. First question: How far will the burden move? Not all systems can handle the same distance. For example, the gantry crane may not be able to move a distance of 1000 meters continuously, especially when transporting heavy loads. On the contrary, if there is no appropriate load mobility technology, short distance mobility can easily become inefficient. For example, tracks, drag chains and transport systems are impractical in short distances.
(3) Timing
Another logistical challenge: movement frequency, duration and process cycle time. How often does the load need to move? For the one-time movement of handling equipment, of course, some solutions that need to be permanently installed, such as cranes or rails, will be eliminated immediately. In contrast, permanent installation is only meaningful for loads that are periodically moved as part of the production or service process.
More questions
How long does the whole process take? How long does the load stay at each site, that is, how long does it stay there? What is the target beat time? Imagine that a manufacturing enterprise has eight stations and plans to produce one product every day to meet its production needs, and only produces inventory when needed (beat time). This means that the operator must be able to move the product once an hour. The total transmission time multiplied by the number of stations represents the cycle time of the process.
If the operator often moves the product and the dwell time or beat time is very short, the setting of the transmission process should not be too complex, because it will increase the beat time and may reduce production efficiency. An example of this problem is the crane, whose control is usually not immediate.
Safety precautions, the availability of cranes and operators, the time for lifting/unloading loads from cranes, and the time for moving 名媛直播 need to be carefully planned to move loads through cranes. In some cases, a crane movement may take up to half an hour from the beginning to the end. If the load movement is limited to once a day, this is good, but the process of 30 minutes per hour is too cumbersome, wastes valuable time and limits the production capacity. If the load mobility application is really a solution, it must reliably meet or preferably reduce the target process cycle time.
(4) Load capacity
Loading irregular objects through the processing system is a potentially expensive and time-consuming problem, especially when the size of the object increases or the configuration changes during the manufacturing process. Specific problems: extra workload and extra cost caused by this operation.
To understand this challenge, imagine a hypothetical manufacturing business that manufactures air compressors in ten locations. The air compressor must be handled carefully during the assembly process, because they will change the size and shape. What should be the procedure for moving the air compressor into or out of the transportation equipment? It may be necessary to suspend auxiliary equipment such as slideways, pallets or other types of frames or bases on cranes or load them onto wheeled vehicles. These additional considerations will increase the logistics complexity of processing 名媛直播 and the scope of operating costs.
(5) Processing options
In this regard, the company should greatly reduce the scope of potential material handling solutions and eliminate any system that cannot provide the required load capacity or does not meet the logistics constraints of the manufacturing or processing process. Here, the workplace itself may bring another challenge, because it may bring significant difficulties that affect the choice of cargo transportation system.
The shape, layout and configuration of the manufacturing process and the equipment it contains will make some material handling systems more feasible than others. For example, the path of the load may need to be changed or may be reconfigured, while fixed devices such as rails and cranes will limit the change of configuration. On the other hand, if the load always travels along the same path, permanent devices such as the transmission system may operate more effectively, with faster production time and lower cost throughout the life cycle of the equipment.
If the situation changes and the management decides to reconfigure the entire assembly line to increase the number of stations, produce other 名媛直播 or increase the overall output, then the permanent solution is impossible. The product may also need to be shelved. For example, the vehicle under development needs an additional part that cannot be immediately obtained and needs to be temporarily removed from the production line.
Another challenge for the operation hall is the lack of available space. This is a common problem with forklifts. Forklifts need considerable clearance to adapt to their size and turning radius. They may not be suitable for narrow spaces in narrow corridors.
(6) Operating facilities
The operating conditions of the object will also affect the selection of the load moving system. Is the floor surface able to withstand the corresponding system? The elevated floor may collapse under the weight of a simple wheeled trolley, leaving only a few options. Can the building accommodate the crane structure? Do floor surfaces need to be prepared or rebuilt with substitutes, such as pneumatic walking devices? All of these problems will limit the fact that the cargo transportation system is applicable to specific situations, or they mean additional technical requirements, logistics complexity and additional costs.
(7) Expenses
It seems strange that cost is at the end of the challenge list, because for many organizations, it may be the first. Why put it last? Because it is more meaningful to evaluate the price only after excluding most options.
Nevertheless, in most cases, cost is always a major challenge, whether it is purchase price or long-term operating cost. Worse, the improper selection of the system will lead to the so-called huge cost of lost opportunities. This is the main problem for some operators to select the material handling system, only to find that it is not suitable for their specific environment. The wrong choice may lead to limited flexibility and capacity selection.
First, consider the capital expenditure or direct acquisition cost of equipment. These costs may vary greatly and are not always associated with specific weights. It is easy to spend $1 million or more on a crane that can move many tons of heavy objects, but this does not mean that all feasible options will cost so much. Pneumatic handcart can move objects of similar size at a much lower cost.
Next is the installation cost, which should include the costs related to possible production losses. For example, if the installation of the railway system requires three days of production time, it is necessary to assess the damage to the production environment based on the short-term and long-term impact. In addition, continuous operation and labor costs must be increased, especially if the solution requires certified services and training. Now is the maintenance cost. Every mechanical equipment needs maintenance, so it is necessary to have a thorough understanding of these costs throughout the life cycle of the equipment.
Also look at the potential cost of lost opportunities, especially if the load transfer system causes unacceptable downtime and production losses. Investments that open the door to future opportunities should be placed on the table to avoid potential problems in terms of flexibility, efficiency or capacity.
