STUDENTS' CORNER - 89

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.