Importance of Total Solutions in Material Handling
today:
It is clear and
everyone is aware that business has grown very competitive.
Twice clear is that the intensity of competition would grow
fiercer than retard. Free trade is in and government protection
is out. As more and more countries fall by WTO guidelines,
international businesses head for a level playing field. Entities
built on strong fundamentals may survive and the rest fade
failing to meet the demand. Organizations now sail across
boundaries and explore for business, as their erstwhile markets
show signs of opening up for more players. To remain in fray
- today's managers need to seriously look at areas, which
influence major dimensions of competitiveness - Cost, Quality
and Delivery.
One such area,
which addresses all the above and is found to contribute to
a large extent is Material Handling. Arguably, this area for
long has been ignored and accorded low priority when budgets
and business plans are scripted. In spite of the general awareness
that a planned and optimized material handling system is a
fundamental necessity to be competitive, the area has been
on the backburner for sometime now. Optimized material handling
systems not just benefit in controlling spiraling costs but
also help in substantial reduction of space required to store,
inventory, improvements in productivity and efficiency, improvements
in quality and reduction in injuries all increasing the overall
productivity.
In the domestic
scene, Material handling generally remains a low priority
activity and it is rare that this important subject receives
attention in a holistic manner. Material handling systems
are unplanned, rigid and mostly work as fire fighting tools.
This trend has evolved over the years primarily due to factors
like
Lack of awareness
Abundance of cheap
labour.
Capital intensive
Misnomer that material
handling adds no value in the value chain.
Looking over the
vast variety and range of equipments available today, one
might wonder if its humanly possible to select just the right
equipment to best meet a specific set of requirements. Equipments
or solutions are easily bought in bits and pieces and from
time to time to meet requirements as and when they crop up.
And decisions taken in hurry may prove wrong and costly, Returns
for investment are low, payback periods extended and eventually
the end consumer forced to pay for the mistake, Therefore
a more rational and logical approach would be to find answers
for at least some of the following
Are you acquainted
with the principles of material handling and do you apply
them in practice in day today work?
In your operation
have you ever checked the material handling labour to the
total labour? Is the ratio static or is it improving as a
result of your efforts?
In the stores in
your plant have you ever checked the ratio of the cubic capacity
of the area occupied by materials in relation to the total
useable capacity? Is the ratio static or has it improved as
a result of your efforts?
Can you walk around
your plant and find materials being placed on the floor only
to be picked up again later on?
How much is the
cost of damaged material and finished goods due to handling?
How many man-hours
are being lost as a result of back strains, damaged hands
and feet due to poor handling methods?
Can you still find
instances of heavy loads being lifted pushed or pulled by
more than one person that could be moved by one man with suitable
mechanical aid?
Naturally an experienced
hand could draw upon his experience to answer these questions.
But unique and dynamic situations require a far fetching and
a farsighted solution to above questions. The answer may probably
lie in the concept of TOTAL SOLUTIONS IN MATERIAL HANDLING
(TSMH). There have been many attempts in recent past to define
TSMH. But all basically converge to - TSMH is an integrated
solution encompassing all the areas of material handling taking
into consideration the available infrastructure required application
and ensuring compatibility between various equipment, solutions
and services thereby enabling a smooth and efficient flow.
Simply to put it,
TSMH aims at a complete and a holistic treatment of material
handling at any given location. The focus is more on understanding
the system requirements for today and for a specified period
in the future. .
The benefits of
using TSMH approach would be many in common and many unique.
The major ones are
Overall decrease
in costs
Optimized investments
in material handling.
Good returns on
investment
Shorter payback
periods
Maintenance of
only required inventory.
Maximum utilization
of space & resources
Efficient utilization
of man power.
Sharp decrease
in cost of recruitment and training
Increased uptime
of equipments
Higher safety and
improvement in quality
One point sourcing.
Flexibility for
future expansions
Above all TSMH
enables the user to focus on their core competencies. The
TSMH should ultimately aim at outsourcing of all activities
related to flow and handling of materials to a service provider
who is competent in it.
In practice, very
few service providers are actually competent and conversant
to offer TSMH. The scope of service should however include
Infrastructure
and resource audits
Expansion and diversification
assessments
Physical, qualitative
and quantitative assessment of materials
Material flow maps.
Bottle neck analysis.
Priority areas
definition and determination
Pilot area identification
for implementation and analysis.
Techno-commercial
analysis of required Material handling equipment & solutions
Recommendations
and Implementation
Changed situation
analysis feedback
Phase wise transition
management
Orientation and
training
Outsourcing the
complete material handling function
In a recently reported
TSMH feat, the user claims to have achieved
A 400% increase
in storage capacity from 1.5 lakh units to 6 lakh units now.
Mechanized warehouse
requiring only 15 people to earlier 40.
Vastly improvised
throughput of the warehouse
Flexibility for
interchanging amongst the stored units
Summing it up,
TSMH is exhaustive, comprehensive and resourceful. However
it is a must and quintessential that focus of the activity
should remain on competence barometers - cost, quality and
delivery models. The results should be convincing and clear.
The customer should be rest assured of no surprises for years
to come. After all, material handling accounts for over 25%
of all employees, 55% of all factory space and 87% of all
production lines. A vast and an interesting potential to build
your business competency.
