A Complete Guide to Material Handling

As consumer behaviour keeps shifting further towards online sales, and with material handling being essential for the efficiency of warehouse operations, it is no surprise that the market is expecting to see significant growth during the coming years. In fact, the global material handling equipment market was valued at €24.2B in 2021 and is expected to increase at a 7.4% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) during the forecast period 2021-2028 — reaching an estimated value of €38.4B.

Moreover, with the increased amount of supply chain disruptions as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, efficient management and handling of materials and products has only become more important. With supply shortages and strong demand expected to be higher than ever due to delays at shipping ports, retailers are urged to prepare their facilities and material handling process to prevent delays or other issues in their order fulfilment.

By improving productivity, safety, and overall organisational performance on a regular basis, material handling equipment can help you optimise your warehouse or storage facilities. Therefore, we have created this comprehensive guide to help you understand the benefits and different types of material handling equipment so you can easily narrow down the best options for your business’ specific needs.

What Is Material Handling?

As you may know, material handling refers to the control, movement, and protection of materials and products from the manufacturing process to distribution — in some cases, other in-between processes are included as well, such as transportation and storage. Common material handling equipment includes conveyor belts, robot units, and other automation technologies.

Evidently, material handling is an essential part of supply chain management as it involves both shipping, delivery, packaging, and the movements of goods. It is therefore not surprising that material handling is closely related to processes in warehousing, manufacturing, consumption, disposal, distribution.

The management of material handling is also essential in terms of safety and efficiency. Not only will efficient material handling allow for the proper transferring of materials — thereby preventing wasting any materials — but having proper material handling procedures in place also minimises the risk of accidents or employee injuries when handling hazardous products or raw materials.

Generally, we can distinguish between manual material handling systems and automated material handling systems. Let’s have a closer look at them.

Manual Material Handling Systems

As the name suggests, this first type refers to the use of manual labour in the process of moving or handling materials. In this case, employees are often found pushing, lifting, pulling, carrying, holding, retrieving, or controlling materials across the facility. Note that in manual material handling systems, facilities still make use of certain equipment such as pallet trucks, short-distance conveyors, forklifts, or manual cranes.

Pros and Cons of Manual Material Handling Systems

Since the manual handling of materials does not involve new, advanced technologies, it is not needed to intensely train employees in order for them to be able to handle the equipment. Without the requirement of technical expertise, employees will be able to easily adapt to the work environment.
It goes without saying that by using manual material handling systems, you can avoid investing a high amount of money in machinery and technology. In addition, it is also easier to set up manual material handling systems and thanks to the low initial investment, ROI is achieved more quickly.
In many cases, manual material handling does not involve the use of heavy equipment or machinery, thereby saving up a large amount of usable space.
It is very common for processes that are carried out manually by human workers to consist of several errors — think of manual inventory management or order fulfilment.
Even though it may be easier for employees to learn material handling processes, they will still need regular safety training to avoid injuries. As safety practices are changed and updated constantly, this training will need to take place on a regular basis.

Automated Material Handling Systems

Contrary to the manual material handling systems described above, automated material handling systems use built-in technology to manage and carry out tasks and processes. These pre-programmed systems involve advanced technology that can be used for numerous processes, such as the movement, storage, and location of materials.

Automated systems can still require collaboration with human workers whenever manual interference — such as picking, pushing, or dropping — is needed. Examples of automated material handling equipment include automatic conveyors, pallet positioners, dock levellers, or scissor lifts.

Pros and Cons of Automated Material Handling Systems

As is the case with most automation solutions, automated material handling systems make it easier to adjust your systems and processes as is needed — for example, when scaling or downsizing your business, or when integrating other technologies into your operations.
Even though manual material handling systems generally see a quicker ROI, automated systems can help save a huge amount of money in the long run. The initial investment may be high, but as labour is reduced and tasks are being performed more efficiently, productivity levels will rise significantly.
The adoption of automated systems eliminates the need for employees to lift and carry around heavy materials, reducing the risk of accidents and injuries.
There are many ways in which automation can optimise the space utilisation of a facility. A great example of this is the use of automated forklifts that allow for the storing of products in higher places. Put simply, the space that is already available can now be used in an efficient manner.
Thanks to automation, errors in inventory management or order fulfilment can be minimised. This can be of huge benefit when it comes to shipping and delivery, which are essential for achieving customer satisfaction.

Which material handling system works best for your business depends on a number of factors, such as your initial budget as well as your future plans for your business. If you are thinking about scaling your business, for example, an automated system would be the better option. Automated systems are ideal for businesses that handle large volumes of material handling on a daily basis and deal with a lot of repetitive tasks — for example, manufacturers or warehouses. On the other hand, if your business is relatively small and works with dynamic process handling, a manual system may work just fine.

Material Handling in the Supply Chain

As mentioned before, material handling relates to every stage of the supply chain, moving materials from manufacturing to distribution. Essentially, we can divide this process of material handling into four more detailed stages:

Manufacturing: At this stage, you will need to move and handle inbound shipment as well as finished goods within your manufacturing and storage facilities.
Transportation: Now, the manufacturer will send the products to either an internal warehouse or directly to the wholesaler. To make shipping as smooth as possible, the products will need to be handled as units — perhaps with the use of pallets.
Storage and warehousing: The offloading of the products needs to take place in a safe and effective manner. Once done, the products will need to be moved to and stored in different shelving units or storage racks within the warehouse.
Distribution: Finally, the products will be sent to customers or retailers, meaning they need to be picked, packed into shippable units, and loaded onto trucks for distribution.

Types of Material Handling

In order to build an effective material handling system for your business, it is important to understand which options you have — and which one works best for you. Material handling equipment for warehouses can be commonly divided into four different categories. In the section below, we will describe each type of material handling and provide a number of examples.

Storage & Handling Equipment

This type of equipment is specifically designed for materials storage and handling purposes — this includes holding materials when they are not being used as well as at the beginning or end of the production process. Storage and handling equipment is not automated and can be used for both short and long-term needs.

This type of equipment is also used to optimise warehouse space and increase efficiency on the warehouse floor. It is ideal for keeping warehouses organised, easy to navigate, and accessing and transporting materials of all sizes in a more efficient manner — thereby eliminating bottlenecks in the production process along the way.

Some of the most common types of storage and handling equipment include:

Racks: There are multiple types of racks that can help with storing specific types of materials. Examples include pallet racks, drive-through racks, wire decking, and sliding racks
Stacking frames: These interlocking units prevent heavy loads from weighing down on each other and damaging materials.
Shelves, drawers, and bins: Helping keep the warehouse organised, shelving units, drawers, and bins allow for more accurate and secure placement of materials.
Mezzanines: The ability of these elevated floor systems to be used at different heights provides warehouses with more flexibility and extra storage space.

Bulk Handling Equipment

Bulk material handling equipment is specifically designed for handling and transporting larger volumes of materials, either in bulk forms or loose — with the latter being the most common. They can also be used in combination with conveyor belts to transport loose items horizontally.

Common types of bulk material handling equipment include:

Silos: These are most commonly used for storing grain, but also for wood chips, coal, sawdust, and food products.
Grain elevators: Grain elevators help move grains throughout the facility.
Bucket elevators: Bucket elevators help load bulk materials vertically.
Hoppers: This type of container discharges and tapers stored materials at the bottom.
Reclaimers: This type of machine recovers bulk materials from stockpiles.

Industrial Trucks

Industrial trucks are one of the most well-known and broadest categories of material handling equipment. This type of equipment can be either motorised or operated by hand and is specifically built to transport pallets and material throughout the warehouse.

Some common examples of industrial trucks include:

Pallet jacks: Pallet jacks help move materials around are the most basic type of forklift to use. They come in many varieties to fit the user’s specific needs — there even are electric models available that come with built-in systems for more accurate picking and navigation.
Order pickers: As the name suggests, order pickers refer to electric lift trucks that assist in order fulfilment. These trucks are able to pick smaller pieces of material, rather than whole pallets or loads.
Side-loaders: Similar to forklifts — and as the name suggests here as well — side-loaders load materials from the side instead of the front. When automated, this type of material handling equipment comes with advanced tools to navigate confined areas while handling materials.
Walkie stackers: Designed to have a worker operate the lifting mechanism, this machine helps with lifting and transporting pallets. Much like forklifts, this machine has a fork at the front which can be controlled by the operator.

Automated Systems

Similar to storage and handling equipment, automated systems make the storage, handling, and transportation of materials easier and more efficient — regardless of the size or volume of the materials.

Let’s have a look at some of the most common types of automated systems used in material handling:

Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGVs): An AGV is a type of mobile robot that can move materials around a facility by following fixed wires or markers on the floor.
Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs): An AMR is a type of robot that, as the name suggests, can move materials around a facility autonomously — meaning they do not need to follow any specific or predetermined routes.
Conveyor systems: This type of automated system is one of the most popular ones as it can quickly carry large volumes of heavy materials to predefined locations using live rollers, flexible chains, and belts.
Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems (AS/RS): These large, automated structures contain shelves, aisles, and racks, and they are typically used to retrieve items with the use of a mechanised system. They can also be integrated into the facility’s network to optimise logistics and stock control.
Robotic delivery systems: These automated systems transport materials throughout the facility to move products onto an assembly line.

“If you are interested to read more about the different types of robots and robotic systems that are most commonly used in warehouses or similar facilities, head over to our Robot Guide! Here, we dive into the different technologies that are being used in robotics as well as navigation types, common applications, the pros and cons related to each robot type, and so forth.

Robotics 101: A Guide to Warehouse Robots by Application”

— Editor's Note

How to Optimise Your Material Handling Processes

If you are planning to optimise your material handling equipment and processes, the following four steps can be a useful strategy to follow:

Evaluate the Current State of Your Material Handling Processes
It goes without saying that before making adjustments and changes to your material handling processes and management, you will first need to understand your company’s operations from a data perspective. Relevant data includes the number of orders processed, how many forklifts are used at your facility and their operating costs, and, of course, the overall cost of running your facility per square metre.
Once you have accessed this information, you may be able to make adjustments to avoid unnecessary downtime by, for example, doing regular checkups and maintenance on all of your equipment and monitoring its temperatures. In addition, you need to make sure to have spare parts at hand at all times in case a piece of equipment has a defect — thereby ensuring that your order fulfilment keeps moving.
Automate Your Material Handling Processes
As is the case with many operational processes, automation can be the key to optimising the efficiency and profitability of your facility. Not only does it minimise the need for manual work and save a lot of time, but it also plays a huge role in reducing your operational costs.
Automated systems are able to respond and predict order fulfilment and the flow of materials, allowing you to be more consistent and efficient in your material handling. Most automated types of material handling machinery come with their own control panel that lets you manage your operations more smoothly and with full control of your material handling processes.

“Are you curious to know more about warehouse automation? Have a look at our Warehouse Automation Guide, where we dive deeper into how automation can help optimise your warehouse operations.

Here, we also take you through 5 main steps to follow when you want to start automating your warehouse:

Define your goals and objectives

Set up collaborations with stakeholders

Prepare your labour model

Implement a Warehouse Management System (WMS) / Integrate with your existing WMS

Use data analytics

Follow the link below for more details:
Robotics 102: A Complete Guide to Warehouse Automation”

— Editor's Note

3. Analyse Your Storage and Flow

One of the most essential parts of material handling management is the storage and flow of materials. In order to really understand your processes, you need to analyse the movement of material from and to different locations in your facility and how much time each movement takes.

A storage and flow analysis helps to determine the storage space that is needed for your facility. Once you have access to this information, you can decide which solutions would work best for your storage needs, material flow, and the inspection and transportation processes — in other words, your warehouse design.

This analysis will also tell you how many employees are needed to handle both the manual and automated equipment. Keep in mind that storage and the flow of materials go hand in hand, so you need to plan for both of these to work efficiently together as a unit. This will be of great benefit to the quality, cost, and safety of your order fulfilment.

4. Implement an Intelligent Storage System

As the name suggests, intelligent storage systems use Artificial Intelligence to continuously learn and adapt to their environment and ensure that the desired resources are available when needed. This cost-effective system allows businesses to accurately predict and respond to the flow of materials, thereby optimising the management and handling of materials throughout the facility.

The Importance of Navigation & Task Management

As we have seen throughout this guide, automated material handling systems can be very beneficial for the management of your storage and flow of materials. If you were to add a fleet of mobile robots with, for example, AMRs and AGVs, to your facility — or if you already have one — you need to consider the importance of the fleet’s efficiency in terms of navigation and task management.

For mobile robot fleets to work together effectively and efficiently, it is essential to have a universal fleet management system in place, such as Meili FMS. This will allow you to optimise your operations by enabling your equipment — in this case, the mobile robots — to automatically and autonomously respond and adjust to changes in order fulfilment.

“As robotic fleets are becoming more diverse — with more and more businesses adopting different types of robots — there is an increased need for an interoperable solution in terms of fleet management. In our Interoperability Report, we discuss this huge market challenge and what is needed to tackle this issue — or, even better, stay ahead of it!

If you are thinking of adding (more) robots to your facility, I would highly recommend giving this report a thorough read:
Empowering Interoperability in the Robotics Industry”

— Editor's Note

Remember that each and every facility is different and has different needs — and, therefore, different solutions. To ensure that you make the correct decision or changes to your operations, it is important to conduct a proper analysis of your current material handling processes and, perhaps, consult with a specialist who can help you explore your options.

About Meili Robots

Meili Robots is developing the next-generation of mobile robots fleet management, called Meili FMS. A universal digital solution, an all-in-one platform that is capable of handling different kinds of Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) and Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs). Enable traffic control, empower interoperability and facilitate automated task allocation — all via intuitive UI. Check our website meilirobots.com/product to learn about our products. Contact us to find out more: info@meilirobots.com.

A Complete Guide to Material Handling