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Material Handling Automation: What Is It?

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Jennie Miller
Material handling automation referrers to the phenomena of moving heavy products into and out to the different domains in a supply chain management workflow atmosphere. In other words, we can say that reducing the requirement of manpower and human workers in the manufacturing and moving of the products is termed as material handling automation.

Various types of material handling methods and techniques have been used worldwide by different companies and organizations to fulfill their supply chain needs. Most of the large-scale businesses and companies have switched to the material handling automation system in the recent past and many more are shifting every passing day.

This dramatic shift in the material handling approach is due to the benefits of material handling automation and various advantages of material handling automation over the regular orthodox approaches used in the past. The three common types of material handling system approach used all around the globe include the following:
  • Manual Material Handling
The manual material handling approach includes all the heavy working and lifting either it is in the manufacturing department or shipment phase, everything is done and controlled by the human laborers working in shifts. Still, most of the small-scale industries completely rely on manual material handling systems as in such industries there is no heavy product lifting and movement is involved and everything can be easily catered by the human workers on their own. Many companies and industry does not want to leave the material handling just due to lack of establishment of the trust factor on the machines developed for such purpose and moreover being old school. The other major reason and constraint that why many industries do not want to get rid of manual material handling, is the cost-effectiveness of the system as compared to the other system deployed in the market. Manual material handling is way cheaper than the material handling automation system currently in trend.
  • Material Handling Automation
Automated material handling in the form of material handling system in supply chain management work flow in which mechanical machines do almost all kind of groundwork including heavy lifting in manufacturing, production, delivery, shipment, etc. It is the fastest-growing material handling system all around the globe. It was already popular among the giants of the industries for quite a while but now many other mid-sized and even small industries are switching for it. The biggest flex being adopting the material handling automation system is that it smoothens all the workflow processes from manufacturing to shipment handling etc. This congestion at the warehouse facility is avoided by replacing all the human laborers and workers with machines and other mechanical equipment including lifters etc.
 
  • Hybrid Material Handling
The hybrid Material handling method is the mixture of both manual and automated material handling systems working in a collateral formation.  In this particular formation, the human workers operate the mechanical machinery and all the automation is closely monitored under the supervision of industry experts. This by far now is the most accepted and most widely used material handling system in all domains of product development. All kinds of industry no matter the size and scale, do rely on the hybrid system because of its efficiency and reliability. Being the combination the hybrid material handling does provide the smooth machine working along with the reliability of human labors and other experts working together to achieve the common goal. 
 
 
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Jennie Miller
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