In terms of technology, automated material handling equipment is crucial to manufacturing and distributing FMCG products today. The right equipment installed and kept in good working order can boost output while lowering operating expenses.
Here are some helpful starting points if you’re thinking about automating the material handling equipment in your facilities:
- Create an Annual Maintenance Schedule
Although it may seem apparent, making sure your automated material handling equipment is set up correctly and that you have a maintenance plan in place will help you avoid equipment breakdown and minimize production downtime.
For example, preventative actions in a production area can include maintaining AGVs in good working order, adhering to machine load limitations, and keeping all access routes free of trash. Equipment will last longer if management software apps are used to run diagnostic reports and perform routine maintenance.
- Safeguard the Workplace
Automated facilities demand less physical labor, but human oversight of production and chances for productivity improvement is still necessary. According to studies, significant dependence on automated systems has been linked to complicity in human behavior.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration and other regulatory authorities have developed rules to help assure workplace safety in light of the “new” risks that technology has brought about.
- Select the Correct Transit Packaging
It’s important to choose transit packaging that is sturdy, uniform, and free of nails or fasteners to go along with your automated material handling equipment. Plastic pallets and boxes, in contrast, are the perfect complement to automated handling systems, whereas wooden pallets struggle with consistency difficulties because they are not uniform in size and shape.
Plastic pallets’ uniform weight and deck can carry loads over the entire product stretch due to their 100% consistency in size and strength, which lowers the possibility of product shifting and stalling machinery. Their longevity is unmatched as they are molded under intense pressure to form a sturdy loading platform.
In simple language, materials handling is simply the loading, transferring, and unloading of materials. The term “material handling system” refers to all machinery used to move, store, control, and protect materials, goods, and products during production, distribution, consumption, and disposal. Storage and handling equipment, engineered systems, industrial trucks, and bulk material handling are the four primary divisions of automated food industry material handling equipment.
Different Components of A Material Handling System
Industry Vehicles/ Trucks
These are manually or electrically propelled vehicles that can move a mixed or unitized load sporadically while their main purpose is transportation or maneuver. A level or slightly inclining road is used to physically transport the vehicle/truck along with the load from one location to another. Not-Powered: Wheelbarrow, 2-wheel hand truck, hand lift (jack), lift table. Powered: Forklifts, front-end trucks, etc.
Conveyors
These gravity or powered conveyance devices frequently transport bulk or unit loads constantly or sporadically, in a single direction, along a fixed path. Their main purpose is to convey the material with the assistance of the equipment’s moving sections or components. The entire piece of equipment does not move.
Hoisting Utilities
These tools are typically used to move units and other loads between areas within the equipment’s reach, where the main task is the transfer by lifting, lowering, and moving them intermittently.
When the mobility of the lifted cargo is not restricted within a set region of operation, hoisting equipment may also be mounted on a powered vehicle.
Bulk Handling System/ Equipment
Major bulk solids are handled and stored using various heavy equipment in large process industries and building projects. These are known as bulk-handling devices.
Restrictions and Supports
Most secondary tools and assistance used for material storage, unitization, and mobility fall under this classification.
FMCG Sector Automated Materials Handling System
A set of tools and controls known as an automatic materials handling system work together to handle, store, and retrieve items quickly, accurately, and precisely as needed.
Systems can be very big, computer-controlled storage/retrieval systems fully integrated into a manufacturing and distribution process. They can also be very simple, manually controlled order-picking machines functioning in tiny storage structures.
System for Automated Storage and Retrieval (AS/RS)
A variety of computer-controlled techniques for autonomously depositing and recovering loads from particular storage sites make up an Automated Storage and Retrieval System (ASRS or AS/RS). Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems (AS/RS) are frequently used in applications where: a large number of loads are being moved into and out of storage; storage density is crucial due to space limitations; there is no value-adding content present in this process; accuracy is crucial due to the possibility of costly damage to the load.
Automatic Guided Vehicles
AGVs typically use one of two guidance strategies. The simplest and most traditional way entails creating a defined path on the facility floor using wire, tape, or paint. The AGV detects the path’s position and follows it under the guidance of a centralized traffic controller.
Typically, the traffic controller issues orders to the vehicle through radio communication. Some methods actually broadcast the signal over the wire; in some circumstances, Infrared communication access points are employed for this.
The most widely used kind of control is currently free-ranging AGV guidance technology since physical path-based designs are difficult to install, maintain, and change. To regulate direction, speed, and placement, this method either uses inertial navigation technology along with an odometer or—the more popular option—employs a system of mirrors and lasers that continuously triangulate the vehicle’s position.
Wrapping Up
The fact that the vehicle may now decide how to route itself based on real-time feedback of traffic and obstruction information is one of the advantages of this so-called “autonomous” guidance system.
However, the main advantage of this strategy is how simple it is to set up a path and then modify it as the needs of the process change. The majority of systems employ a CAD-based application to specify the routes that can be taken throughout the process, as well as the locations where an AGV can pick up or drop off cargo.
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