A Systems Approach to Material Handling Integration

Material handling equipment doesn’t operate in a vacuum. A forklift is only useful to the degree that it interacts with the things and people around it: operators, loads, other material handling equipment, the physical layout of your facility, and more. To get the most value out of material handling costs, then, it may not be enough to simply buy a new machine. You also need a plan for integrating new solutions into your overarching material flow.

If you’re in charge of purchasing decisions for a manufacturing, warehousing, distribution, or other industrial facility, a systems approach can help you maximize the value of every material handling dollar. But what is a material handling system, and how does it relate to individual material handling equipment? More importantly, what does the systems approach to material handling equipment look like in real-world terms?

Here’s a brief introduction to material handling integration, along with a few examples of how a single tool can improve a material handling system as a whole. First, though, let’s take a quick look at what not to do when planning a new equipment purchase. 

The Status Quo: Ad Hoc Material Handling Purchases

How do you know when you need new material handling equipment? At most established manufacturing, warehousing, and distribution facilities, these decisions are made on an individual basis, one machine at a time. Here are just a few of the events that often spark a hunt for new material handling solutions: 

• Existing material handling equipment fails. In this case, most managers simply look for a replacement.
• The operation fails to meet business goals—throughput, safety, ergonomics, space utilization, etc. Managers look for solutions that address a key performance indicator (KPI) or group of KPIs.
• Materials change. Maybe you retool a manufacturing line for a new product, or get a warehousing client with unusually shaped unit loads. Existing equipment isn’t sufficient to handle these new materials, so you go searching for a new solution.
• The facility fails a safety inspection from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) or other regulatory body. Sometimes you need new material handling equipment to comply with OSHA standards and similar safety rules (such as OSHA standard 1910.176, on general material handling and storage). You may discover this need during an inspection, or, worse, following an accident.
• A continuous improvement strategy reveals potential upgrades. Manufacturing business strategies from Six Sigma to Lean Methodology encourage some form of continuous improvement. Sometimes, a dedicated investigation uncovers inefficiencies in the existing material handling system—and leads to a decision to make changes.

Any of these events can be a great indicator that your material handling system could use some attention. But too often, the response is simply to add or replace a single element of the system. For example, many distribution operations struggle with unpacking pallet loads. Imagine employees lodge complaints about fatigue and ergonomic risk during this manual task.

You can fix the direct problem with a self-leveling turntable like the Pallet Carousel & Skid Positioner. This device keeps pallet work at a stable height and brings the work to the worker, preventing bending, reaching, and traveling around the stack. It could be all you need to fix the ergonomic issue.

But workers may still face strain and stress as they carry parcels to a distant conveyor. Rather than simply installing Pallet Carousel & Skid Positioners at the site of the old depalletizing stations, you could integrate them into conveyor lines. You may even pair them with Lift Tables featuring easy-transfer tabletops (Ball Transfer or Roller Conveyor surfaces).

With this sort of system redesign, workers could slide each layer of the pallet load onto the Lift Table, then transfer contents directly onto conveyor lines—no strain required. By rethinking the entire depalletizing station—and planning for how self-leveling pallet tables work with the rest of the system—you’ll improve ergonomics and productivity across the entire material handling pathway. That’s the power of systems approach.

But what exactly do we mean by a systems approach to material handling equipment?

Understanding the Systems Approach to Material Handling

The roots of “systems theory” lie in mid-century biological science—particularly the work of Ludwig von Bertalanffy, who formalized his theory in 1968’s General System Theory: Foundations, Development, Applications. In the years since then, however, the theory has turned up in just about every discipline—including (maybe especially) business management. 

There are articles describing the systems approach to business strategy and to project management, for example. But every article seems to mean something different when they discuss their systems theory, and advice from one field doesn’t often apply to questions about material handling.

When we recommend a systems approach to material-handling purchases, we mean something quite simple: A plan for integration. Each piece of material handling equipment must work with the next. The trick is to keep your focus on end-to-end processes. That leads naturally to a systems approach.   

The dictionary definition of a “system” is “a regularly interacting or interdependent group of items forming a unified whole.” So, a material handling system comprises all the machinery, traffic lanes, processes, and employees who manage material flow from beginning to end. The systems approach to material handling involves considering how each element within the material handling system relates to the overall system goal. It means, essentially, that you don’t just think of one problem or solution at a time: You investigate the interaction between everything that moves materials, at every step of the flow journey.

What does that mean for the purchaser of material handling equipment?

First off, it encourages you to keep system goals in mind, rather than zeroing in on one small problem at a time. When you buy material handling equipment, your goal is to create a more efficient, more effective end-to-end process for getting materials from point A to point B. Equipment is a means to that end, not the end itself—and it’s important to focus on that goal as you work through the details of any particular decision.      

Secondly, it leads you to seek out custom material handling solutions. Every material handling system is a little bit different, and off-the-floor equipment may not integrate well (or at all). If you really want to apply the systems approach to material handling purchases, you’ll probably need a manufacturer who can customize equipment for perfect integration.

Custom Equipment for Material Handling Systems

As an original equipment manufacturer with decades of experience in the material handling industry, BHS, Inc. is uniquely suited to customize equipment for your unique use case. And while we manufacture a wide and growing collection of specialized equipment, one product is sufficient to illustrate the capability: Lift Tables. 

Scissor Lift Tables are available with a variety of tabletop attachments, from Roller Conveyors to Turntables to Ball Transfer surfaces. They come in many sizes, weight capacities, and lift heights. With these custom options alone, BHS makes it easy to find the Lift Table that integrates into your broader material handling system. But we don’t stop there.

We can also accommodate virtually any custom request, building a Lift Table (or anything else) that fits your material handling system perfectly. We’ll work with you to define specifications. Our engineering team will custom-design an all-new product. Once you sign off on the plans, we’ll build the solution in our state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in the Midwestern United States.

That’s what we did for a utility OEM manufacturer called Connector Manufacturing. The company’s line-feeding infrastructure required workers to hand-pick components, limiting overall throughput. The BHS engineering team worked with company leadership to design a new Assembly Work Station—one that comprised multiple individual pieces of material handling equipment, all fitted together into a total system. The Work Station features two Tilt Tables in a cutaway steel desk. With the integrated Tilt Tables, employees can keep components close at hand, bringing them closer as stocks deplete. That eliminated trips to a distant box of components, and improved ergonomics during work.

The overall Work Station was designed to fit into the facility’s broader manufacturing line, with an easy-to-reach opening leading to the central conveyor. The ergonomic and productivity benefits of this solution led Connector Manufacturing to return for more integration/design services from BHS, this one for the packing room: An integrated Packing Solution system.

Both projects illustrate the strength of a systems approach to material handling. Rather than providing a single, separate piece of material handling equipment, the BHS team provided broad-based solutions, made of multiple pieces of integrated equipment. If you’re encountering inefficiencies in your material handling system, BHS can do the same for you.

Contact the BHS sales team at 1.800.BHS.9500 to discuss your challenges, and start figuring out solutions with the help of material handling experts.