MATERIAL HANDLING / PLANT LAYOUT Flashcards
Define material handling?
Moving, storing, protecting and controlling material. ‘Providing the right material at the right place at the right time, with the right amount, in sequence and in the right condition.’
What are the goals in material handling?
- Minimise production costs; best handling is NO handling at all
- Enhance safety and working conditions
What are some important material characteristics to consider when thinking about material handling?
- Physical state (solid, liquid gas)
- Size (dimensions, volume)
- Weight
- Shape
- Condition (i.e hot, cold, wet, pressurised etc)
- Safety risk ( e.g explosive, flammable, toxic etc)
3 ways the effectiveness of a material handling solution can be analysed?
Total material flow: material mass * distance moved. Simplest measure. Can be used to compare various routes when using the same transportation equipment
Material handling labour ratio: How much work is needed to handle the material. Workers handling material divided by total workers.
Equipment utilisation: Actual output / theoretical output. Think efficiency.
What are the different categories of material handling equipment?
Transport: equipment used to move material between locations, eg trucks, conveyors, cranes.
Storage systems: systems that allow for safe and accessible storage of materials. Eg bulk storage or automated storage systems
Unitising equipment: allows number of components to be unitised (stored together) for transportation / storage. e.g pallets / skid boxes
Identification / tracking systems: enables location of material to be tracked throughout the plant. eg barcodes.
How would one select material transportation equipment (i.e with reference to volume and distance?)
HIGH QUANTITY:
Short distance - conveyors
Long distance - AGV train
LOW QUANTITY
Short distance - manual (carrying), hand truck (trolley)
Long distance - Powered truck, Unit load AGV
Define plant layout and its goals?
- Plant layout is the design of an arrangement of the physical elements of the manufacturing activities
- Goal is to achieve the most efficient layout to perform its tasks with minimal waste of resources in transportation of materials
- Often equivalent to minimising total material flow, but there are other factors to consider.
What are the 4 types of plant layout?
Functional: resources are grouped according to the process they perform; parts are moved between groups so that all operations can be carried out. Ideal for high variety low volume (job shop)
Fixed position: moving resources brought to stationary part as required. Ideal for very large parts i.e a ship
Product: resources are grouped according to the sequence of operations required by the part. Effective for mass production
Cellular: parts are grouped together into part families and resources are grouped according to process requirements of part families.
What are some techniques to design / compare plant layouts?
- Visualising flow: process flow diagrams (PFDs) can be drawn
- Grouping operations: group operations that are closely related, thus closely related machines will be placed in close proximity to one another.
- Ranking flow: Flow between departments is calculated and sorted in a descending manner. Assigned into categories : A = absolutely necessary (4), E = especially important (3), I = important (2), O = ordinary (1), U = unimportant (0).
-Non-flow relationships should also be considered. Add X = undesirable (-1).
- Relationship charts combine the previous steps and produce a chart that shows which departments should be located close to one another. Relationship diagrams show this spatially (with different line styles corresponding to importance)
What is systematic layout planning (SLP)?
Combines the ranking flow / non-flow relationships, grouping, relationship chart etc to construct a systematic planning approach with minimising material flow as the overall aim. Ends with constructing a block layout of the different departments showing their respective sizes and locations relative to one another.
This can now be done with computer programs (eg Simio) that also allows layouts to be virtually tested before big decisions are made.
What are some principles of material handling?
Environmental principle: Environmental impact should be considered when designing material handling systems
Ergonomic principle: Human capabilities and limitations must be considered and respected to ensure safe operations
Space Utilisation principle: Space must be used as efficiently and effectively as possible.
Planning principle: All material handling should be the result of deliberate planning where objectives and functionality are specified
Automation principle: Where possible, processes should be mechanised and/or automated to improve operational efficiency and consistency.
