The term used for handling goods and materials within the warehouse, facility, or storage are is “Material Handling”. It can be broken down into the movement, protection, storage, and control of materials and products within the facility. It is made easier using Material Handling Equipment such as forklifts and order pickers and includes activities such as loading/unloading trucks, palletizing goods, retrieving goods from storage to be shipped out, and more.
An important component of any successful warehouse is Material handling, it can improve customer service by making products easy to find, move, and ship out; cut costs by reducing the amount of time spent moving products, and reduce product damages by properly transporting your products. Whether it’s maximizing the efficiency of your loading dock or preventing workplace accidents, a proper material handling protocol is key.
Types of Equipment involved in Material Handling?
Order Pickers:
- The useful equipment employees use to navigate warehouses and pick goods for orders is known as order pickers. It includes equipment like order picker platforms and stock pickers that can be custom sized for your warehouse’s isle size.
Safety Baskets:
- It is a metal basket that lifts products or employees into the air in a facility or on a job site. It includes equipment like rescue baskets, material baskets, and man baskets for construction, cranes, and forklifts built.
Dock Equipment:
- It is equipment that helps the facility load or unloads trucks that back up to the warehouse’s loading dock. It includes equipment like dock bumpers, dock boards or dock plates, and dock levelers, etc.
Forklift Attachments:
- It refers to accessories that attach to the forklift to assist with moving the product which includes attachments such as carpet poles, drum handles forklift handles.
Safety Products:
- It refers to safety equipment that aims to prevent property damage and employee injury from occurring.
Choose wisely:
Not all material handling equipment manufacturers are made equal. So select a good material handling equipment manufacturers to make sure your material handling procedures are correct for your business.