Material Handling Equipment - Industrial and Systems Engineering

MATERIAL HANDLING EQUIPMENTinventory)10. Bin shelvingAlternative to racks to store small, loose, nonpalletized items. Pieces placed either directly onshelves or in bins or cartons.Adv: Low cost.Disadv: Can result in excessive travel for picker. Difficult to pick from top shelf depending onthe height of the picker and the weight of the unit. Replenishment can interfere with picking.Several levels of shelves (and storage drawers) on a mezzanine can be used to allow multi-levelpicking (max 4 levels). A lift truck or vertical reciprocating conveyor, e.g., can be used to helpwith removing units from the top level.11. Storage drawersDrawers provide an alternative to bin shelving to store small,loose itemsAdv: Drawers can provide increased security compared tobin shelving and is most important when the demand for aspecific item is low and infrequent. Easy to install at pointof use.Disadv: Space is frequently underutilized unless there is anongoing disciplined approach to managing the locationand usage of the units being stored. Replenishment caninterfere with picking. Cannot see inside the drawers,making labeling an important issue.12. Storage carouselCarousel consists of a set of horizontally (pictured) orvertically revolving storage baskets or bins.Adv: Allows a large number of items to be picked at ahigh rate.Disadv: Replenishment cannot occur during pickingoperations (typically, replenishment takes placeduring a separate shift or is interleaved between peakpicking periods).60