Material Handling Systems Used In Warehouses

When it comes to material handling, warehouse owners are the professionals who require the helps more than any other professional does. There is actually a whole variety of tools, processes, equipments, machines, vehicles that can be used for this and help them. All these variants can help them in various processes like transporting, storing, controlling, enumerating and protecting products at any stage of manufacturing, distribution consumption or disposal. These things and equipments, etc. can be categorized into four different parts -

• Storage
  
• Engineered systems
  
• Industrial trucks
  
• Bulk material handling
  

Let us review these categories one by one.

Equipments used for storage and handling

Those belonging to this category are actually limited to non-automated options, grouped in the engineered systems. This part includes names used to hold or buffer materials during "downtimes" or when they are not in the process of transportation. These two periods are actually termed as temporary pause during long-term transportation or long-term storage. This system is designed to allow the stock build-up and mostly includes pallets, shelves and racks. They can be used to stock the materials in an orderly manner and await transportation.

Companies engaged in using these systems always look for the ways and methods to increase their efficiency and space. For this, they even bring into exercise, different conservative, old-fashioned, modern and ultra modern storage methods.

Examples of storage and handling equipment include:

• Racks, such as pallet racks, drive-through or drive-in racks, push-back racks, and sliding racks
  
• Stacking frames
  
• Shelves, bins and drawers
  
• Mezzanines
  

Engineered systems

These systems cover a vast variety of units designed to work cohesively to facilitate storage and transportation. A fact about them is that most of them are often automated. A good example is an Automated Storage and Retrieval System, often abbreviated AS/RS. It is basically a large automated organizational structure that involves racks, aisles and shelves, warehouse cages, transport cages that are often accessible by a “shuttle” system of retrieval. Other important engineered systems include:

• Conveyor systems
  
• Robotic delivery systems
  
• Automatic guided vehicles (AGV)
  

Industrial trucks

As far as material handling is concerned, different versions of industrial trucks are used in the process. They can be anything ranging from small hand-operated trucks, pallet-jacks, to various kinds of forklifts. They have various characteristics that make them ideal for material handling and the topmost of them is their power. They can be manual or engine driven and used in virtually all the operations taking place in a warehouse. For example – a stack truck can be used to stack items, while a non-stack truck is typically used for transportation and not for loading. There are many types of industrial trucks:

• Hand trucks
  
• Pallet jacks
  
• Pallet trucks
  
• Walkie stackers
  
• Platform trucks
  
• Order picker
  
• Side loader
  
• Many types of AGV
  

Bulk material handling equipments

These equipments are used for storing, transporting and control of materials including food, liquid, or minerals, among others. Some examples include –

• Conveyor belts
  
• Stackers
  
• Reclaimers
  
• Bucket elevators
  
• Grain elevators
  
• Hoppers
  
• Silos