Material Handling Equipment Research Articles

Managing construction logistics management: Findings from construction contractors and industrialized building system (IBS) manufacturers

Inability of contractors to foresee materials demand at the right time and material-handling at the right place are identified as one of the most common problems in the construction industry. Therefore, this paper attempts to determine the attitude and pattern of the industrialized building system (IBS) manufacturers and contractors towards logistics management system followed by evaluation of logistics management effectiveness. This research is carried out by way of questionnaire and followed by an in-depth interview with IBS manufacturers and contractors. From the findings of this research, it is revealed that the respondents agree that logistics management is important for production efficiency. Price, quality, and capacity of suppliers are three (3) critical factors that should be considered when purchasing materials. However, contractors tend to be more concerned with profit margin, while the IBS manufacturers are concerned with productivity when they make decision for material-handling equipments. Additionally, there are other problems identified in logistics management, including non-punctuality in materials and components deliveries, inability to foresee the period of activities with accuracy, etc. Majority of the respondents agreed that flow chart is one tool that can improve production efficiency in order to solve the problems in logistics management. Key words: Construction, logistics management, supply chain, industrialized building system (IBS), manufacturers, contractors.

Improving the Durability of the E.O.T. Crane Structure by Finite Element Analysis, and Optimize the Hook Material for Improving its Solidity

Modern technological period can‘t be imagined without various material handling equipments. Cranes are amongst one of the material handling equipment which finds wide applications in different fields of engineering. Due to incredible all around economic development, the operation rate of cranes has astonishingly increased year by year, and many cranes are often used beyond their capacity in India. So Analysis of the main structure is very important and essential. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the stresses and strains condition in the power structure of overhead crane, presenting a fast and evaluated computer aided solving method for complex static indeterminate structures. The analysis of the stresses and strains state of the power structure of overhead crane bridge for increasing its toughness is made using the NX NASTRAN. The research performed allows the evaluation of the stresses state, pointing out the critical areas and measures which are imposed in order to increase the toughness of the power structure for the overhead crane. The results obtained allowed us to make up a study about the dimension optimization of the power structure in order to design the crane hook. Thus, the material use could be reduced without more than the limits of the most suitable conflict.

Finite Element Model Based Warning Device to Prevent Electrical Hazard

Construction workers suffer the most electrocutions among all industries. Major reasons for electrocution in the construction industries are workers contact with the power line or material handling equipment contact with the power line. To prevent the electrical accidents, in the construction or any other industry there is a need for warning devices. Since, there is no electrical contact warning devices available in the market, two different types of warning devices are proposed in the present work for the safety of human workers and equipments. Computer modeling is done in ANSYS to simulate human wrist in electrical proximity and electrical contact conditions. For the prevention of equipment related accidents, a low cost warning device has been developed using IC CD 4033. Warning device for the worker is envisaged by using elastic conductive cuffs around the wrist of the worker. Since, human wrist is analogous to hog leg, several experiments were conducted using hog leg specimen. To amplify the voltage across the pair of cuff fixed in the hog leg specimen an instrumentation amplifier is designed and developed.

Materials Handling Vehicles; Policy Framework for an Emerging Fuel Cell Market

There are several challenges to wide-spread commercialisation of the technology hydrogen fuel-cell technology; including reliability and cost implications, infrastructure requirements, and safety aspects of the upcoming technology.Targeted policy initiatives are required to address two significant bottlenecks; reliability and cost constraints. Such policy measures and financial mechanisms providing incentives for manufacturers and end-users of the novel technology create an initial impetus for the introduction of the forthcoming technology into the market place.The current approach, policy mechanisms and their impacts are reviewed in the context of demonstration projects, deploying material handling equipment, involving public-private initiatives.

A Cutting Device for Improving the Low-Fluidity Bulk Handling Performance of Belt Conveyor-Type Continuous Unloaders

As material-handling equipment for unloading bulk materials such as iron ore and grain from vessels at harbor piers, continuous unloaders play an important role from the viewpoint of handling performance and environmental protection. Among the various types, belt conveyor-type unloaders are required to provide highly versatile handling performance covering low- to high-fluidity bulk materials. When low-fluidity bulk materials are handled, handling performance decreases and electric energy consumption increases because they do not flow easily into a scraping device. For a scraping device consisting of a horizontal screw and a rotary feeder, this paper proposes a cutting device in which multiple rotatable blades are arranged outside the scraping device. It also describes the basic structure and design guideline of the newly proposed cutting device to improve its low-fluidity bulk handling performance. Furthermore, the driving conditions of the cutting device are optimized, and the improvement of the handling performance is verified by experimental analyses using a model manufactured based on the design guideline. Cement, which is a typical low-fluidity bulk with a large angle of repose, is used for experiments. Low-fluidity bulk materials such as coal, converter slag and soybean meal having some different physical properties from those of cement, such as larger particle size, higher bulk density or higher moisture content, are also examined and discussed as materials for digging. The effect of each physical property on the handling performance, as well as the effect of the proposed device and its effectiveness toward stabilization, are also be clarified, including the basic design and method of optimization.

Development of a simulation-based optimisation for controlling operation allocation and material handling equipment selection in FMS

Flexible manufacturing system (FMS) is described as a set of computerised numerical controlled machines, input–output buffers interconnected by automated material handling devices. This paper develops a bi-objective operation allocation and material handling equipment selection problem in FMS with the aim of minimising the machine operation, material handling and machine setup costs and maximising the machine utilisation. The proposed model is solved by a modified chaotic ant swarm simulation based optimisation (CAS2O) while applying pre-selection and discrete recombination operators is surveyed a capable method to simulate different experiments of FMS problems. A test problem is selected from the literature to evaluate the performance of the proposed approach. The results validate the effectiveness of the proposed method to solve the FMS scheduling problem.

Facility layout using weighted association rule-based data mining algorithms: Evaluation with simulation

Facility layout has considerable effects on the operational productivity and efficiency of a facility because of its direct effect on material handling costs. The objective of this study is to propose new weighted association rule-based data mining approaches for facility layout problem. Classic association rule-based approaches assume that each item has the same level of significance. On the other hand, in weighted association rule-based approaches, each item is assigned a weight according to its significance with respect to some user defined criteria. In this study, different weighted association rule-based data mining approaches, namely MINWAL(O), MINWAL(W), WARM and BWARM, are applied to facility layout problem. To confirm the viability of the proposed approaches, two case studies are presented. The approaches are compared in terms of general performance criteria for the facility layout problems using simulation. This is the first study that applies weighted association rule-based data mining approaches to facility layout problem. To address the needs in practice, “demand”, “part handling factor” and “efficiency of material handling equipment” are used as the weighting criteria. Then, this study differs from the previous works in that it considers the three key location factors together.

Management of Bio-Engineering Equipment - Take Ventilation and Mechanical Agitation Fermenter for Example

Bio-engineering equipment are including biological reactor, the product of biological reactions and purification of material handling equipment and auxiliary systems equipment. Ventilation and mechanical agitation fermenter is a bioreactor that is widely used in plant biotechnology, according to incomplete statistics, it accounts for 70% -80% of the total fermenters, and shows the advantages of high production and high economic efficiency. the key to improve the existing equipment management system is to strengthen equipment management system, office automation and information technology capabilities, particularly in the management of large fermentation tanks, should take advantage of new technologies, new methods and new approach to management. In this paper, there are introducing seven aspect contents, and the purpose is to strengthen management of ventilation and mechanical agitation fermenter.

Effective selection and allocation of material handling equipment for stochastic production material demand problems using genetic algorithm

This paper addresses the stochastic production demand problem in a manufacturing company. The objective of this research is to minimize the waiting time of production workstations and reduce stochastic production material problems through coordinating pickup and delivery orders in a warehouse. RFID technology is adopted to visualize the actual status of operations in production and warehouse environments. A mathematical model is developed to address this problem and a meta-heuristic algorithm using genetic algorithm (GA) is also developed to improve performance. Computational experiments are undertaken to examine the performance of the algorithm when dealing with congestion in cases of heavy and normal demand for production material. The overall result shows that the algorithm efficiently minimizes the total makespan of the production shop floor.

The material handling trade-off when lot splitting with RFID in a job shop

Lot splitting is the practice of splitting a production order into smaller sub-lots that are free to move independently through the manufacturing process. Traceability issues and increased material handling may discourage high levels of lot splitting and thus limit improved flow times and tardiness that are associated with increased lot splitting. In order to enable the shop floor control necessary for high levels of lot splitting, radio frequency identification (RFID) can be used to improve material tracking. This is the first paper to quantitatively analyse the trade-off between improved flow and tardiness metrics versus the undesirable increase in material handling when lot splitting in a job shop. Flexible automated material handling equipment may be necessary with some operating conditions and policies because of a dramatic increase in material movements between work centres. This is also the first paper to quantitatively study the impact of imperfect RFID read reliability on the shop floor. The findings are analysed in the theoretical context of the complementary relationships between mix flexibility, material handling flexibility, and lot splitting enabled by RFID. Those relationships have important managerial implications about the fit of RFID technology with operating policies, conditions, and capabilities.

A framework for selection of material handling equipment in manufacturing and logistics facilities

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to assist facility design practitioners, industrial managers, and expert systems (ES) developers identify important issues to consider and actions to follow in the selection of material handling (MH) equipment, overcome limitations of existing equipment selection approaches, and design complete MH systems.Design/methodology/approachA framework that specifies the steps that have to be taken in the selection of MH equipment is suggested. It identifies categories of equipment based on all handling‐related functions performed in a facility, which allows consideration of various categories of equipment, and selects equipment classes and types from among candidates based on user requirements and objectives.FindingsThe suggested framework is capable of producing a wide range of equipment that performs various functions in a facility, and satisfies requirements and objectives without the need for using large data bases. Applying it requires cooperation of facility managers and designers.Research limitations/implicationsSome of the steps of the suggested framework require further investigation and research.Practical implicationsFacility design practitioners, industrial managers, and developers of ES can make better selection among a large number of MH equipment and design complete systems by relying on functions performed in a facility, requirements, and objectives.Originality/valueA framework for selection of MH equipment is lacking in the literature. This paper fills a gap by presenting design issues and organized steps that practitioners, managers, and expert system developers working on selection of MH equipment have to address and follow in order to design complete MH systems.

2302 実機稼働下のねじ締結体ゆるみの絶対的評価に関する実験的研究 : 静的および動的荷重のかかるねじゆるみの評価(ねじの特性,一般講演)

Many papers have been published on the self loosening of bolted joints, making estimations of the locking effect from laboratory tests using a loosening test machine. However this kind of test method is only effective for the comparison of locking devices. In this paper we propose a method for estimating the absolute lock effect during actual machine operation ,that is construction machinery and material handling equipment. The authors found that there is a linear relation between axial tension and the time after the tightening on a log-log scale, in both static and dynamic loosening. Based on this relation, the authors propose a method for estimating the decrease of axial tension accurately after long hours of tightening by measuring the initial behavior as the bolt loosening evaluation chart.

Using bees algorithm for material handling equipment planning in manufacturing systems

In this paper, bees algorithm (BA) has been used for determine the optimal number of material handling equipment (MHE) used on the production centers. The unmet demands become zero at the end of the planning horizon, i.e., the part demands are totally satisfied through the horizon. The newly developed model provides network information, such as unmet demands and number of loaded and empty of MHE at any given time and centers. Consequently, the model provides a tool for helping managers with planning and decision-making in manufacturing systems. Computational tests showed that small-sized instances can be solved by the exact approach in a fair amount of central processing unit time, but it is not feasible for medium and large-sized instances. To tackle this problem, a bees algorithm is proposed to solve the model. The algorithm is a search procedure inspired by the way honeybees forage for food. The results obtained show the robust performance of the bees algorithm.

An integrated fuzzy multi-criteria decision making methodology for material handling equipment selection problem and an application

Material handling equipment selection problem (MHESP) is an important decision making area for the companies, since it has a direct effect on manufacturing and service productivity. In this study, an integrated fuzzy multi-criteria decision making methodology for MHESP is proposed. The proposed approach is utilized from fuzzy sets, Analytic Network Process (ANP) and Preference Ranking Organization METHod for Enrichment Evaluations (PROMETHEE) approaches. Evaluation criteria for the MHESP is weighted by fuzzy-ANP (F-ANP) approach, then, alternative material handling equipments are evaluated by fuzzy-PROMETHEE (F-PROMETHEE) approach. The methodology is applied for a manufacturing company to prove its effectiveness. Finally, some sensitivity analyses are conducted to show the results’ sensitiveness to the changes of the weights of the evaluation criteria.

A genetic algorithm and queuing theory based methodology for facilities layout problem

Facilities layout, being a significant contributor to manufacturing performance, has been studied many times over the past few decades. Existing studies are mainly based on material handling cost and have neglected several critical variations inherent in a manufacturing system. The static nature of available models has reduced the quality of the estimates of performance and led to not achieving an optimal layout. Using a queuing network model, an established tool to quantify the variations of a system and operational performance factors including work-in-process (WIP) and utilisation, can significantly help decision makers in solving a facilities layout problem. The queuing model utilised in this paper is our extension to the existing models through incorporating concurrently several operational features: availability of raw material, alternate routing of parts, effectiveness of a maintenance facility, quality of products, availability of processing tools and material handling equipment. On the other hand, a queuing model is not an optimisation tool in itself. A genetic algorithm, an effective search process for exploring a large search space, has been selected and implemented to solve the layout problem modelled with queuing theory. This combination provides a unique opportunity to consider the stochastic variations while achieving a good layout. A layout problem with unequal area facilities is considered in this paper. A good layout solution is the one which minimises the following four parameters: WIP cost, material handling cost, deviation cost, and relocation cost. Observations from experimental analysis are also reported in this paper. Our proposed methodology demonstrates that it has a potential to integrate several related decision-making problems in a unified framework.

A constructive heuristic for the integrated scheduling of machines and multiple-load material handling equipment in job shops

This paper extends the traditional job shop scheduling problem (JSP) by incorporating the routing and scheduling decisions of the material handling equipment. It provides a generic definition and a mixed integer linear programming model for the problem considering the case of heterogeneous multiple-load material handling equipment. A constructive heuristic is developed for solving the problem. This heuristic is based on the well-known Giffler and Thompson’s algorithm for the JSP with modifications that account for the routing decisions of the material handling equipment and their effect on the start times of the manufacturing operations. Different dispatching rules are integrated into the heuristic, and experiments are conducted to study their effect on the makespan along with the determination of the computational time requirements of the developed heuristic.

A Hybrid Fuzzy Knowledge-Based Expert System and Genetic Algorithm for efficient selection and assignment of Material Handling Equipment

Material Handling (MH) is one of the key issues for every production site and has a great impact on manufacturing costs. The core concern in the design of a MH system is selecting the most suitable equipment for every MH operation and optimising them totally in order to attain an optimum solution. This paper presents a hybrid method for the selection and assignment of the most appropriate Material Handling Equipment (MHE). In the first phase, the system selects the most appropriate MHE types for every MH operation in a given application using a Fuzzy Knowledge-Based Expert System consisting of two sets of rules: Crisp Rules and Fuzzy Rules. In the second phase, a Genetic Algorithm (GA) searches throughout the feasible solution space, constituting of all possible combinations of the feasible equipment specified in the previous phase, in order to discover optimum solutions. The validity of the methodology developed in this paper is proved through the use of a real problem. Finally a comparison of the method with the other available publicised methods reveals the effectiveness of this hybrid approach.

Modeling of Workflow Congestion and Optimization of Flow Routing in a Manufacturing/Warehouse Facility

This paper discusses the notion of workflow congestion in the context of material handling equipment interruptions in a manufacturing or warehousing facility. Development of a combination of probabilistic and physics-based models for workflow interruptions permits evaluation of the expected link travel time. The problem is then of routing in a way that minimizes total expected travel time. The rerouting problem is modeled as a multicommodity flow problem with link capacity design. A greedy upper bounding and Lagrangean relaxation algorithm are developed to solve this efficiently. To calibrate our modeling process we develop an object-oriented simulation model that explicitly considers various workflow interruptions. Our major finding is that rerouting traffic in a congested facility can significantly alleviate congestion delays and improve the efficiency of material movement. A managerial insight derived from this work is that rerouting is most effective in medium traffic-intensity situations.

Selecting the suitable material handling equipment in the presence of vagueness

Selection of the suitable material handling equipment (MHE) is a very difficult task for the manufacturing companies because of the considerable capital investment required. There are many tangible and intangible factors for choosing the suitable MHE. Multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) has been found to be a useful approach to analyze these conflicting factors. The evaluation of MHE alternatives within the frame of various subjective criteria and the weights of the criteria are usually expressed in linguistic terms. This makes fuzzy logic a more natural approach to this kind of problems. This paper proposes a combined MCDM methodology for evaluation and selection of MHE types for a company in the steel construction industry in Istanbul, Turkey. Fuzzy analytic network process (FANP) is utilized for assigning weights of the criteria for MHE selection and fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) is used to determine the most proper system alternative using the criteria weights attained by FANP. The selection is based on the compatibility between MHE and production characteristics. Objective is to select the most efficient MHE considering also the cost efficiency. The study was followed by the sensitivity analyses of the results.

Economic Life of Capital Equipments in a Cellular Manufacturing System

This paper is aimed to investigate the economic life of the capital equipment in a cellular manufacturing system (CMS). The capital equipment is prone to degradation during the usage and this degradation can be measured by increase in the operation and maintenance (O&M) costs. Economic life refers to the optimal replacement age of the equipment in which the total discounted costs is at its minimum value. To our best knowledge, the traditional cell formation methods are built on the principle of economy of scale without considering the economic life and discounted costs of the capital equipment. On the other hand, due to a known drawback of the CMSs of imbalance cell utilization (Rheault, 1995), resulting from the unbalance workload distributed between machines within the cells, the machines within different cells have various degradation rates and consequently different economic lives. A mathematical programming-based approach is used to form the cells considering the life cycle costs of the machines and material handling equipment over a long horizon. The performance of the proposed model is verified by a comprehensive numerical example.