Materials Handling
Manual material handling
After packaging, next subject in logistics we have to consider is
Material Handling.
Moving goods or materials in a storage area is generally known as
Material Handling.
Material handling since within a storage area covers activities like
loading, unloading, palletizing and similar operations.
A pallet is a flat wooden or metal platform on which goods are stored so that they can be lifted and moved using a forklift truck.
Fork-lift trucks are the equipment used most frequently in material handling.
Fork lift truck moves the loads to the required place
Materials can be handled manually or using machines.
Material handling actually covers all phases in material production to
consumption and disposal. The process is
involved from manufacturing to disposal with the intermediary phases of
warehousing, distributing and consumption.
Materials can be manually handled as well as by using machines. The very process of material handling
supports logistics and supply chain process. More importantly, material
handling especially by machines avoids the hazards and accidents involved in
many of the industrial occupations. The
industrial tasks include hazardous activities like driving a truck fully loaded
with heavy cargos like concrete blocks, hoisting huge loads of steel with a
crane, carrying unwieldy bags of
materials and piling them up on specific pallets; needless to emphasis, these
activities have potential threat to the lives of the laborers. The Materials
Handling systems rid the workforce of these professional hazards with effective
material handling equipments.
We will look into
some more aspects of Material Handling in our next session particularly
machines used in Material Handling system.