STUDENTS' CORNER - 90

Material Handling Equipments

Industrial occupations often lead to overexertion for the workers which may lead to accidents or at least exhausting the workers making the job more and more difficult. But delay in carrying out the works in warehouses such as moving goods from one place to another or loading or stacking will be unproductive; it will cost more at all levels of commercial transactions. To free the workforce of hazardous exposure in work and to make the entire process cost effective, material handling equipments have been found an effective solution.

In this session, we shall see some of the material handling equipments and their uses in warehousing process.

Let us begin with the storage and handling equipments.

Storage equipments hold materials before they are transported to their final destination, say a wholesaler. Right storage equipments increase efficiency on the production floor and also utilize space at a maximum. Wasting space, meaning keeping the products in a space which is larger compared to the product volume to be stored, finally proves uneconomical and less cost effective.

Some of the storage and handling equipments are racks, stacking frames, shelves, bins and drawers and mezzanines.

Racks

Racks are frameworks with nails, bars, hooks or pegs and they hold or store things. There are different kinds of racks like selective racks, Drive-in and Drive thru racks, flow racks and push back racking systems, to mention some of the more popular varieties.

Racks, warehouse racks are kept inside warehouses to store different products of different sizes. Depending on the size and the weight of the materials to be stored, the quality of shelving is decided.

Some of the warehousing racks are Single-deep selective rack; Double-deep selective rack; Pushback; Structural racking and Teardrop racking.

Learning about the racking system requires enormous time since it is vast and complex. In fact, business people who need warehousing are advised to consult experts as to the kind of equipments they may need depending on the kind of business they are in.

For our purpose which is to introduce the basics of logistics in all its complexities and great scope, this is enough.