Problems and Challenges related to Material Handling Systems

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Problems related to Buffer Levels

Baudin (2004) mentions material handling’s dilemma between delivery performance to production lines and buffer levels on the shop floor, and states that it is challenging to attain an optimal system that balances these two criteria. Domingo et al. (2007) point out that in production facilities, sometimes parts are not delivered fast enough, while at other times they are accumulated for hours near to workstations or on temporary shelves. The analysis has been conducted on the case company showed that apart from its negative effect on delivery performance, push material delivery schedule increases buffer levels next to assembly lines on the shop floor as well, and also between warehouses and assembly. Because of the space suffering on the shop floor, wrong/early delivered orders are taken back to shelves —between assembly and warehouses— where they will wait to be re-delivered to the lines. Through observations and measurements, it has been found that pallet-size products can wait up to a week on the shelves to be re-delivered to assembly lines while on the other hand, waiting time to assembly for small and medium size parts can be even more.

Problems related to Operation Costs

Material handling system is the first place to reduce manufacturing costs and increase production efficiency. Therefore, minimizing handling costs is the core aim of most MHS design project (Chittratanawat & Noble, 1999; Hassan, 2010). In BRJP, material dispatching is done by forklifts, which increase operation costs drastically. Like Baudin (2004) pointed out before, to operate forklifts well trained, skilled operators are necessary. This issue was the biggest burden on BRJP’s material handling system in terms of cost, since in Japan employee salaries are extremely high. Another factor related to forklift cost was the travel distance of materials. When materials are dispatched to workstations by forklifts similar to taxis, instead of getting transported in a ring system with regular frequency, travel distances; and thereby, handling costs are increasing (Baudin, 2004). In the case company, two different warehouse sections and washing section are sending materials to assembly lines by forklifts and manual transportation, which is another cost contributor regarding to employee salaries. Apart from manual transportation and forklift running cost, forklift maintenance costs are observed as another cost contributor.
However, their effect on the system can be taken into lessconsideration or even completely neglected in this project, since other material handling dispatchers such as AGVs also have maintenance costs.

Problems related to Delivery Quality

As already argued by Tompkins et al. (1996), quality on the shop floor can be achieved by receiving right material, in right conditions and with right methods. Correspondingly, enhancing material delivery quality and performance is depending on using right methods with standardized steps. Therefore, in order to observe material handling steps and measure process times, time-motion studies along with value stream mapping have been carried out for order-picking and material delivery processes (Figure 5.2).
Studies were conducted and repeated several times in seven different warehouse sections for pallet load, carton, and small size products. During the observations, the biggest problem that had been identified was lack of standardization in material handling processes which prevents to attain stable throughput time of material supply and creates waste; and thereby; makes material delivery schedule inefficient. Figure 5.2 Average Process Times for Order-Picking and Material Dispatching In the Figure above average process times for order-picking and material dispatching to lines can be seen. As easily can be realized, process times show significant variations in different warehouses which is an indicator of lack of standardization.
For further investigations and tracking down the waste in different process steps, customer orders have been followed, and analyzed according to value adding and non-value adding activities. Process steps were observed by process mapping and value-stream mapping techniques, and finally categorized for small-size, carton, and pallet-load products. In the Figure below, non-value adding activities represent waiting times; specifically after order-picking while waiting to be delivered to following processes or next to workstations as temporary buffers. Besides creating waste indirectly, when combined with other factors such as push material delivery schedule and lack of real-time information on the shop floor, lack of standardization increases buffer levels also.

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1. Introduction .
1.1 Background
1.2 Problem Formulation
1.3 Company and Case Description
1.4 Purpose and Research Questions
1.4 Delimitations
1.5 Outline Theoretical Framework
2.1 Components of the Theoretical Framework
2.2 Problems and Challenges related to Material Handling Systems
2.3 Material Handling System Concepts
3. Methodology
3.1 Research Process
3.2 Research Approach
3.3 Research Method
3.4 Data collection
3.5 Data Analysis
3.6 Research Quality
4. Case Description and Design Process .
4.1 Material Handling System in BRJP
4.2 Planning Phase
4.3 Preparation Phase
4.4 Design Phase
5. Results and Analysis
5.1 Problems in the Current System
5.2 Material Handling System Design Features and Concepts
5.3 New System Design
5.3.1 Design Principles and Physical Elements
5.3.2 Information and Software
5.3.3 Human and Management
6. Discussion
6.1 Discussion of Analysis and Result .
6.2 Limitations of the Research .
6.3 Discussion of the Methods
6.3.1 Case Study
6.3.2 Validity and Reliability of the Research
6.4 Implications of the Research
7. Conclusion and Further Research
7.1 Conclusion
7.1.1 Generalization of the Findings and Suggestions
7.2 Further Research
References