Why Material Handling Systems Integrators Need Custom Manufacturers

When material handling professionals need new equipment, it’s easy to miss the forest for the trees. Challenges tend to show up in specific ways, which encourages us to reach for specific solutions: A new Conveyor here, a replacement Lift Table there.

But when we don’t consider how a single material handling task interacts with the rest of the system, we aren’t really improving operations. We’re just troubleshooting. The ultimate goal of a material handling system is to get everything where it needs to be, when it needs to be there, 100% of the time. Success requires careful system design as well as great equipment.

When you look at material handling as an integrated system, you don’t simply replace a piece of material handling equipment. Instead, you might work with material handling system integrators with access to custom manufacturing capabilities. Better yet, find a manufacturing partner that doubles as a material handling integrator — a partner like BHS, Inc, who you can contact here.

In this article, we’ll explore the relationship between material handling integration and custom manufacturing — including a few real-world examples. Here’s what material handling operators need to know.    

What Is an Integrated Material Handling System?

An integrated material handling system includes equipment, people, and practices that work together to efficiently move materials from the beginning to the end of a process — with the emphasis on process.       

After all, storing, transporting, and controlling materials is always a process. It’s not a series of isolated tasks. Take a distribution center, for instance. A simplified snapshot of material flow for a DC looks something like this:

1. Receiving: In the first step, DCs receive unit loads from suppliers. (Unit loads bundle bulk materials into a single unit for easier handling and storage, such as palletized shipments.) 
2. Depalletizing: Next, staff check shipments and break down unit loads into smaller units or single items.
3. Putaway: Then the team transports individual units into storage systems, like warehouse racking, for later retrieval.
4. Order picking: To fill an order, someone (or something, with automated equipment) must pull the appropriate items from storage.
5. Order packing: The next task is to package orders into shipping parcels, along with record-keeping and verification. 
6. Outbound shipping: The final step is to send orders out the door for delivery.

Between each of these stages — and often during them — material handling tasks are essential. The equipment that helps you complete these tasks should all work together. In other words, an integrated material handling system creates efficient, unbroken flow within and between tasks.

Manufacturing plants have a similar challenge. They start with raw materials, which facilities must store and move onto production lines. Then there’s moving unfinished products from station to station. Finally, manufacturers package and ship final products — often to warehouses and DCs for more material handling! The most effective way to improve throughput, from the manufacturing facility to the end user, is to integrate every step of material flow into a unified system.  

The good news is you’re not alone in confronting this challenge.      

What Is A Material Handling System Integrator?

Manufacturers are experts in their products. Warehouse operators are experts in intralogistics. Neither is necessarily an expert in material handling integration. Specialized service-providers called material handling system integrators step in to fill the knowledge gap.

System integrators are usually consulting firms that help companies build full material handling systems from start to finish. Their engineers design material handling systems in which each element works seamlessly with the next. These consultants may also help companies choose material handling equipment: manual, semi-automated, or totally autonomous. They can also create or recommend Industry 4.0 systems, including the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).   

Sometimes, however, you’ll find expert material handling integration services outside of the consultant industry. Some manufacturers of material handling equipment have the engineering expertise to connect discrete tools into a comprehensive system. They can also design and build products that work perfectly with the rest of the system, and the best of them work closely with customers from planning to implementation. 

If you’re not building a brand-new facility from scratch, you’ll often get the best integration results from a custom equipment manufacturer like BHS, Inc. Here’s what that might look like.  

Designing Equipment for Material Handling Integration: 3 Real-World Examples

When you have to buy new material handling equipment, you have a great opportunity to create a more integrated system. But to pull off the project, you need a manufacturer that offers custom design and fabrication — and has the knowledge to help you with integration. 

Why? Because off-the-shelf material handling tools may not work well with each other. Each piece of the system must be designed to plug into the next. Otherwise, you’ll be stuck with manual material handling between stations.

In addition to limiting throughput, manual material handling creates unnecessary ergonomic risks for workers. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), manual material handling is a risk factor for the development of musculoskeletal disorders — injuries to muscles and soft tissues that are often associated with physical stress in the workplace.

Integrated material handling equipment limits manual work, reducing safety risks and increasing efficiency at once. Here are a few examples of how BHS has worked with partners to design, build, and integrate material handling solutions that improve operations.

1. Custom Assembly Work Stations for Integrated Line Feeding

Not long ago, a manufacturer of utility products began looking for a way to deliver components to assembly stations faster and with less ergonomic risk. They’d been storing components in heavy totes, which meant assembly staff had to leave their stations and manually carry components back.

The company asked BHS to design and build a custom work station that would eliminate the problems. The engineering team at BHS combined Tilt Tables, cutaway steel desks, and roller conveyors into a complete, integrated solution called an Assembly Work Station.

Here’s how it works: Hydraulic Tilt Tables lift and tip totes for ergonomic access to components. Employees assemble the components at the desk, then drop them through a chute onto a roller conveyor. That conveyor integrates with the facility’s central conveyor line, where the assembled components move quickly to the next station.

Not only does this design integrate equipment into an application-specific work station, it ensures that completed parts can go straight to the next station without lifting or carrying. In short, it contributed to a broader integrated material handling system.

Read the full case study.        

2. A Fully Integrated Packing Solution

The utility-product manufacturer we mentioned also faced inefficiencies on the packaging line. Again, productivity and safety were at issue. Thanks to design expertise, manufacturing, and guidance from BHS, the company soon implemented a turnkey system for semi-automated packaging.

This packing solution starts with an automated box machine, which feeds the newly created box onto a BHS Lift Table, complete with a scale. Next, a custom BHS Lift & Tilt Table dispenses product and the scale weighs the shipment. The next stop is a scanner that collects dimensions and seals the box. Then a horseshoe conveyor line takes the package to a label machine, which prints and attaches shipping details. Finally, the conveyor terminates in a final pallet-packing BHS Lift Table, complete with a turntable top for 360-degree access.

This integrated solution was a collaboration between BHS and several other manufacturers, which highlights an essential capability for material handling integrators: They must create strong partnerships. As this project illustrates, BHS does.   

Read the full case study.

3. A Custom Tilt Table for a Fast-Paced, Heavy Duty Production Line

Custom material handling equipment can solve problems off-the-shelf solutions can’t. As a leading manufacturer of truck beds, the company in this example had unique challenges. Steel truck beds are heavy and large, but employees need access to the underside of each unit during the manufacturing process. That requires heavy-duty positioning equipment. 

A custom Tilt Table from BHS, Inc. provided the solution. But this enormous work positioner also had to help move truck beds to the next station on the line — a material handling integration puzzle. Engineers at BHS created an answer by integrating the Tilt Table fully with the central conveyor line. Truck bodies roll onto the Tilt Table, where they’re held in place by an air stop. When the work’s complete, users activate the Tilt Table which tilts the unit into an upright position, flush with the conveyor rollers. Then workers can safely roll it to the next station.

Read the full case study.

This ability to work with existing infrastructure shows why a custom manufacturer like BHS makes an effective material handling systems integrator, too. With full control over the design and construction of equipment, BHS, Inc. can solve any material handling challenge.     

Looking for custom material handling equipment that integrates seamlessly into your operation? Contact BHS, Inc. at 1.800.BHS.9500 to discuss your next project.