Material Handling Equipment - Industrial and Systems Engineering

MATERIAL HANDLING EQUIPMENT• When operations are not adjacent, short distance moves ⇒ smaller unit load sizes, andlong distance moves ⇒ larger unit load sizes.• The practical size of a unit load (cf. the Unit Load Principle) may be limited by theequipment and aisle space available and the need for safe material handling (in accord withthe Safety Principle).Selecting unit load size for distribution (see Figure 2):• Containers/pallets are usually available only in standard sizes and configurations.• Truck trailers, rail boxcars, and airplane cargo bays are limited in width, length, and height.• The existing warehouse layout and storage rack configuration may limit the number offeasible container/pallet sizes for a load.• Customer package/carton sizes and retail store shelf restrictions can limit the number offeasible container/pallet sizes for a load.Figure 2. Unit load size for distribution. 56