Material Handling and Packaging

In the engineering and scientific industry, Material Handling and Packaging equipments comprise of all those devices that are used to move, store and package any type of material. They can include forklift trucks, cranes, winches, hoists or hoisting equipment, conveyors, packaging, and labeling and various marking equipment as well. While material handling equipments are categorized as those instruments that are involved in the displacement of various materials, packaging devices are widely installed in packaging of any type of material or goods.

Types of Material Handling and Packaging

Some of the most commonly used equipments in the material handling and packaging industry are -

Conveyor and Conveyor Components – Used in a wide variety of material application, Conveyor and Conveyor components are the parts that are related to and compose a conveyor system. The main areas where they are used are manufacturing, food processing, and heavy industry.

Industrial Cranes – All those equipments, within the material handling and packaging industry, that are used for activities like raising, shifting, and lowering loads with a projected, swinging arm or a hoisting apparatus supported on an overhead track fall under this category.

Industrial Hoists – Devices that are known for performing functions like vertical lifting with the aid of hook or trolley mount are called industrial hoists. Examples include – cable, rope, or chain to move or lift a load.

Packaging Labeling – The instruments that installs the science, art and technology of enclosing or protecting products for distribution, storage, sale, and use are packaging, while labeling is any written, electronic, or graphic communications on the packaging or on a separate but associated label.

Web Handling Processing Equipments – Web handling processing equipments are used in the conjunction with continuous webs of textiles, paper, plastic films, metal sheet or other materials.

Besides them the various other members in the material handling and packaging equipments family are – Bollards, Cable Reels, Casters, Dock Equipments, Dock Lifts, Door Operators, Ends Trucks, Forklifts, Gas Cylinders, Hose Reels, Industrial Carts, Industrial Compactors, Industrial Containers, Industrial Partitioner, Industrial Shelving, Industrial Trailers, Industrial Trucks, Industrial Vehicles, Industrial Winches, Ladders, Lift Tables, Lifting Jacks, Lifting Slings, Lifts, Manipulators, Material Handling Automation, Palletizers, Pallets, Parts Feeders, Pick Place Systems, Plastic Bags, Plastic Pallets, Reels, Security Seals, Sweepers, Tilt Tables, Turn tables, Vacuum Lifters and Vacuum Pads.

Industry Growth

With the world becoming a global village, the growth of material handling and packaging industry is unstoppable. This is one of the largest industry wherein the manufacturers and suppliers of these material handling and packaging devices are hoping to gain a massive 3% growth in packaging machinery sales in the United States to reach an estimated $5.854 billion. While the US rigid bulk packaging demand is being predicted to reach $6.5 billion in 2011 various other advancements in the segment of higher value containers offering enhanced performance and cost effectiveness over smaller, shorter-life alternatives are also being eyed upon.

Application

Material handling and packaging equipments find a great deal of application in logistics. Since these instruments require to perform tasks like protecting, preserving, transporting, informing, and selling various products, it becomes mandatory for them to involve a lot of capital. Today their role have not only remained confined to shifting of houses but they are also being integrated for various government, business, institutional, industry, and personal use.

Major Market Players

US in this sector too is the major player with profits crossing a margin of $424 billion in the year 2004. The world market for material handling equipment and systems is projected to increase more than five percent per year through 2012 and exceed $120 billion. While North America, Australia, Western Europe and Japan are regarded as major markets of material and handling products, China is soon becoming a major producer, by drawing its benefits from a low cost wage pool and export opportunities in developing Asian economies.

Material Handling and Packaging Publications

MHEDA Journal – The Material Handling Equipment Distributors Association comes out with their quarterly publication which contains information related to the industry and news information items. Through this magazine they have an opportunity to promote their company and the MHEDA President who is known to always enlightens the members with his Perspective and outlook.

Material Handling Network Magazine – This journal claims to be industry’s most effective means to reach businesses focused on the material handling industry. With a circulation among 9,549 professionals, this magazine has been in existence for the past 26 years. Network has grown to be the publication that owners and managers in this industry rely on most for industry coverage.

Material Handling and Packaging Associations

Material Handling Equipment Distributors Association – The Material Handling Equipment Distributors Association is the only national trade association dedicated solely to improving the proficiency of the independent material handling equipment distributor. They represent all the segments of material handling and packaging industry and offers resources such as education, networking opportunities, industry specific information, statistical and trend analysis and all other information specific to the material handling industry.

ASM Materials Information Society - Established in 1913 by a few steel heat treaters, ASM Materials Information Society has come a long way. Located in downtown of Cleveland, this trade association has been an innovator and leader in providing high-quality information for the materials community. The members of ASM International continue to share information and ideas that advance the study, development and application of materials and processes. The members drive the organization at all levels from local chapters to our Affiliate Societies to the national committees and councils of ASM itself.

Material Handling Industry of America – Material Handling Industry of America or MHIA, is the largest U.S. material handling & logistics association representing the leading providers of material handling & logistics solutions. They try to incorporate the solutions that make the supply chain work. Their member list includes logistics equipment, systems and software manufacturers, consultants, systems integrators and simulators, third party logistics providers and publishers from all over the world.

Source : http://www.industrymart.com/articles/2009/03/material-handling-packaging.html

WILDAN ACHZANI (115060707111068)

Efficiency and Effectiveness = Productivity

Productivity, Efficiency, and Effectiveness. What is the difference?

Have you ever wondered why some business organisations, countries or people are very successful, some only moderately, or even marginally so, while still others fail altogether?



The answer lies in an organisational equivalent of the biological concept of the “survival of the fittest,” which could be stated as follows: “Over the long run, only those countries, organisations or people survive that serve the needs of their societies, and the world in general, ‘effectively’ and ‘efficiently’, that is, that provide the benefits demanded by their customers or clients at prices sufficient to cover the costs incurred in producing them." Economic institutions, and especially business organisations, reflect this concept very clearly.





Businesses survive only so long as they produce goods and supply services that generate revenues exceeding costs incurred in producing them, that is, only so long as the provide a surplus (i.e. profit).



Unlike living things, however, organisations, including businesses, can plan and implement changes in their fundamental character and structure, although clearly not all do so. Such changes can be of two types, namely:



• those that affect the relationship between the organisation and its environment, and



• those that affect the internal structure and operating activities of the organisation.



Typically, environmentally related changes affect the organisation’s effectiveness to a greater degree than internally oriented changes, which usually have greater influence on its efficiency. Peter Drucker stated this eloquently when he suggested that it is more important to do the right things (improve effectiveness) than to do things right (improve efficiency).


In General Systems Theory, effectiveness is defined as the degree to which the actual outputs of the system corresponds to its desired or planned outputs, while efficiency is defined as the ratio of actual outputs to actual inputs, that is: 



• Effectiveness = Actual Outputs (U) / Desired Outputs (U*), and 



• Efficiency = Actual Outputs (U) / Actual Inputs (I). 



Productivity then is a combination of Effectiveness and Efficiency. 



Productivity, in the economic sciences, is measured by the ratio of what was produced (or sold) to what was required to produce (or sell) it measured in physical units, or at constant prices (this is an efficiency ratio, i.e. productive efficiency!). Usually this ratio is in the form of an average and is expressed as a percentage (i.e. average productivity).

The total output of some category of goods and/or services is divided by the total input of, say labour, capital and/or materials. In principle any input, or combination of inputs, can be used in the denominator of the productivity ratio. 



Thus, one can speak of the productivity of land, labour, capital, any sub-categories, or combination of any of these factors of production, i.e. one may speak of the productivity of a certain type of fuel or raw material or may combine inputs to determine the productivity of labour, capital, materials, or total productivity. 



Productivity can also be expressed as the change in output divided by the change in input (i.e. marginal productivity). 



The term output includes all goods and services (products) that meet human needs. In other words, not only the yield of industrial and agricultural products, but also the rendering of services by medical practitioners, teachers, retailers, office workers, government departments, transport, etc. 



Output may be expressed either in physical units or in money terms, depending on circumstances, i.e.: V(Utt) = Q(Ut) X P(Ut), or value equals quantity times price per unit. Where, V = value in monetary terms, Q = quantity in physical terms, P = price per unit, U = Output, and t = the time period. 



Input involves the use and application of materials, labour, land, energy, and capital goods (assets-machinery, tools, facilities, equipment), etc. Input may also be expressed either in physical units or in money terms, depending on circumstances, i.e.: V(itt) = Q(it) X P(it), or value equals quantity times price per unit. Where, i = an individual input. I = a combination of inputs. 



And productivity can now be expressed as V(Utt) / V(itt) = Q(Ut) / O(it) X P(Ut) / P(it), or Productivity = Efficiency x Price Recovery, for a certain time period (t). 



Productivity is often expressed in physical units such as m^2 of a product produced per man-hour, tonnes of casting per production-hour, standard units produced per machine-hour, etc. But productivity can also be expressed in real money terms, i.e. at constant prices: 



V(in0) = Q(in) x P(i0) … where n = the review period, and 0 = the reference period. The value in the period ‘n’ is now expressed in terms of the price in period ‘0’. 



It is important two remember two facts, namely:



• Productivity is not production. The former is the quotient of output over input quantities, while the latter expresses the quantity of output only.



• Productivity does not refer to labour only. Labour is only one of the resources that are used in the production process. Where production does not only mean manufacturing, but any process where a product or service is produced. 



In practice it is customary to indicate the relationship between the output and the input of a single factor of production – whether it be labour, materials or capital. This relationship is simpler to determine than total or multi-input productivity measures and is termed partial productivity measurement. 



The partial output-input ratio is applicable to both the values of outputs and inputs (preferably at constant prices), and physical outputs and inputs, that is four possible configurations.



Multi-input productivity index numbers are also known as total-factor productivity or net output measures. These measures are based upon net output (value added, profit, etc.) rather than the more common gross output (production/sales).



Value added can be defined as gross output minus the cost of such brought-out production goods as materials (raw materials, packaging, consumables, energy, etc.), components, and so on.



If the relationship between total output and individual input is used as a yardstick for productivity, the result may be biased. 



Comparisons of input and sales figures can also be misleading, since the selling price has to be sufficient to recover the cost of the raw materials and indirect materials purchased, as well as services rendered by third parties. 



The purchase price, on the other hand, includes the profits of the suppliers. To obviate this type of inaccuracy in measuring productivity — especially in firms where the materials consumed and the services rendered by third parties are a major component of the output — the value added (net output) of a firm is compared with the input. 



The value added represents only the value added to raw materials by the production and marketing processes of an organisation. 



This should give a better indication why certain businesses are more successful than other, and how a business can become even more competitive.

Source : http://www.authorsden.com/visit/viewArticle.asp?id=31506

WILDAN ACHZANI (115060707111068)

Ergonomics Industrial Ergonomics

Ergonomics Industrial. Industrial ergonomic specialists increasingly enforce the education of industrial workers and employers to safely design safe work practices and enviroments. An introduction to the science of ergonomics in an industrial setting. What is Industrial Ergonomics? Industrial Ergonomics is a branch of the science of ergonomics. In short, Ergonomics Industrial, is the study of adapting job tasks to human abilities and natural body movements. See Definition of Ergonomics. Industrial ergonomic specialists analyzes information about the working conditions which industrial workers work under, their specific job tasks and use of equipment. They then design the workplace and work environment to help them work safely. Ergonomics Industrial, typically means the study of manufacturing, engineering and construction type of workplace and job tasks. You can read more about the history of ergonomics to see how the study of Ergonomics has evolved. Why the need for Industrial Ergonomics? Aside from its obvious reasons for health and safety, research shows that an ergonomic work environment and ergonomic equipment reduces work related musculoskeletal disorders, greater comfort and higher productivity. This results in happier workers which reduces the turnover. Healthier workers reduces health claims expenses for the company too. View some Examples of Ergonomics Industrial. What are some examples of industrial ergonomics? A large percentage of industrial work involves the use of hand and power tools. These tools not only requires fingers, hands and arms - they also involve standing or sitting in one position for long periods of time. This is known as static posture which stresses the spine and cause neck and back problems. However, there is also harm in the complete opposite - excessive movement which also causes similar harms. The key to industrial ergonomics is good design, a variety of tasks on rotation and balance. There is also the problem of tools. An industrial worker may have to use hundreds of different tools for work. They vary in different shapes, sizes and weight and not all of them have been designed ergonomically. Even if they are ergonomic tools, the worker may not use these tools in the right hand posture, thus diminishing ergonomic benefits. Some power tools can't help but 'vibrate' when in use and the results on the human body are numbness, aching, stiffness, headache and blurred vision. Some of these effects are not instantaneous and slow develops without you knowing. The worst happens when one realizes they have become handicapped when their condition begins to interfere in their everyday life. What Industrial Workers Should Look Out For I believe in education of ergonomics and I hope every company, whether in an office or an industrial workplace should have access to some ergonomics help. Perhaps a routine class where one can get reminded of ergonomic principles or to have an in-house ergonomics specialists who walks around to supervise if equipment are using ergonomically. Industrial Ergonomics Tips •  Pay attention to your posture. Learn what is correct posture. Good posture maintains the natural curve of your spine, holds your head inline with your relaxed shoulders and your hips are aligned with your ankles. •  Do not twist and bend as much as you can. Refrain putting your body in awkward postures. Try to maintain a firm posture. •  Remember not to over-reach. Keep what you need close to you. •  Avoid mess and clutter. This will cause you to be exasperated and flustered if you can't find something when you need it. It may also cause costly mistakes. •  Take breaks. •  Stop if you are feeling discomfort or pain. •  Alternate your tasks so that your body gets a variety of movement. •  If you have to stand a lot, get 'standing mats' which cushions the pressure on your heels.

Source : http://www.ergonomics-info.com/ergonomics-industrial.html

WILDAN ACHZANI (115060707111068)

The Service Side of Supply Chain Management

Service traditionally has been viewed as part of the market offering. However, by thinking of supply chain management services in this way, we are focusing on service as a noun. I want you to think of service as a verb.

How does supply chain management “service”? Notice I did not use the phrase “provide services,” which reflect the noun form of the word. The verb “to service” means basically to help or to assist. Products and services assist. Consumers purchase products because they assist them in solving problems. These problems may be to repair a deck (so he buys hammers, saws, wood), to enjoy a night on the town (so she buys a dress), to ease the suffering of a sick child (so she buys cough medicine), or to entertain others (so they buy fresh groceries and wild salmon). Obviously, that notion of assisting or helping holds true for “services” (the noun form) when we think about haircuts, banking or printing services. And it holds true to business buying from ball bearings, to semiconductors, to transportation and financial services.

All of this is obvious, you say. What’s not so obvious to many managers is that every product and service (noun form) that is “purchased” is servicing a customer. In helping to solve a consumer problem, even a manufactured product is servicing that consumer. In fact, in the act of consuming or using that product, the consumer is taking part in the servicing aspect of the product. That’s how the value is derived from the product or service. Thus, every product and service (nouns) should always be seen as servicing value creation for the customer or consumer. This concept is part of what has become known as a service dominant logic.

In thinking about service dominant logic, consider that supply chain managers design processes for and manage the operations of resource flows—the movement of products, people, information, and finances. And in so doing, they facilitate the integration of various resources across multiple organizations. Every one of these “things”—products, people, information and finances—is a resource that gets integrated with other resources as firms build and sell their offerings. In connecting all of these resources, SCM is always about servicing resource integration by managing flows on both the demand and supply side.

So why should supply chain managers care about service dominant logic? Because thinking this way may fundamentally change the way in which you perform the supply chain job and, in fact, conduct your business. Begin by asking some important questions. In what ways do we service our customers—both immediate and downstream?  In what ways do we service our suppliers?

Well let’s see. With regard to customers, getting the right product, in the right condition, to the right place, at the right time, at the right price seems to be a well entrenched principle of SCM professionals. One of our core competencies is providing time and place utility of goods we move through supply chains. Customers evaluate how well logistics operations deliver these services. Research on logistics service quality indicates that customers care about things like product availability and condition; timeliness; and quality of order-related information, interpersonal communication, and the discrepancy-handling process. Customers (whether a retailer or end-user consumer) care about these things because having the right products available when needed not only satisfies their own needs but also is a pre-condition to servicing their customers further downstream.

In managing flows up and down supply chains, supply chain managers become involved in far more than just the movement of products. They are immersed in relationship management, IT, finance, operational processes, forecasting, and activities very close to customers such as front line customer service, packaging (primary, secondary and tertiary), and on-shelf presentation/assortment. Here is where I want to focus for a minute.

Focusing on the Front Line

The retailer environment for consumer goods is changing dramatically and in ways that today’s supply chain managers don’t even realize.

I urge every supply chain manager to go online and carefully study the concept of “shopper marketing.” The implications for supply chain management are significant.

One reality of today’s environment stands out: servicing retailer locations is getting exponentially more complex as a result of more customized programs being designed within collaborative vendor and retailer partnerships. This requires stores to be serviced very differently even if they are right across the street and especially (this is the hard part) if they are the same type of retailer. Let me emphasize that. The more alike competing retailers are and the closer they are geographically, the greater will be the differences in servicing requirements. The reason: retailers are in an all-out war to differentiate their brands—as unique store identities—from their competitors and they are demanding help from specific vendors.

This means that in helping customers resolve problems in servicing them, we must understand that retailers’ problem is brand differentiation now. Not differentiation of their private label brands (although that may part of the problem), but differentiating their store as a brand—a shopper destination if you will. Doing so is their path to higher returns on net assets.

But the retailers can’t do it alone. This means that supply chains will look different in a few years as leaders focus on creating highly agile partnerships across many firms and find ways to service accounts with more (not fewer) SKUs but at a lower cost than before. Partner organizations will collectively create many shorter term, in-store, solution centers, unique to each major retailer. They will develop unique packaging to better engage and satisfy consumers. And they will create unique assortments and bundling combinations for specific retail locations. But all of this must be done at a cost savings to today. This is a strategic and daunting task.

We are no longer simply tracking store-level data. We also are tracking shopping basket-specific data for each and every trip for each and every shopper over time. We are analyzing correlations between in-store initiatives and specific shopping baskets, which enables retailers like Kroger to customize promotions by shopper. We are driving traffic through digital and mobile media to specific stores and are able to change demand quickly to take advantage of opportunities.

The implication is that if you thought servicing customers already requires agility and visibility, it’s only going to get far more complex as we move forward. For one thing, as more and more consumers and firms become concerned with sustainability and social responsibility, more attention will need to be pain to servicing returns and/or redistribution as well as alternative product and energy consumption. Much of this will ripple to other non-retailing sectors.

Next Stage: Anticipation

We have long known that transportation is a service and vendor managed inventory is a service—as in nouns. Think about how many different ways can you service (a verb) your immediate and downstream customers in ways that uniquely help your key customers and your customers’ customers solve any of the problems they have? This is not about efficiency. This is about effectiveness. We always balance the two in supply chain management. But in today’s world, the bar for effectiveness is rising more rapidly than ever before. The standard is now driven by consumers and shoppers who are incredibly fragmented and have nearly perfect access to price, availability, and service performance information—globally.

If you can get a handle on this reality, the next big opportunity is to anticipate changes in what individual business customers—and ideally shoppers—will want. The goal: To retain their loyalty even as what they value changes. Serving customers at the highest level of effectiveness means far more than being responsive, it means being anticipatory. This is called proactive customer orientation, a topic for another conversation!

Source : http://www.scmr.com/article/the_service_side_of_supply_chain_management/

WILDAN ACHZANI (115060707111068)

Introduction to Engineering Economics

Engineers must decide if the benefits of a project exceed its costs, and must make this comparison in a unified framework. The framework within which to make this comparison is the field of engineering economics, which strives to answer exactly these questions, and perhaps more.

WHY DO ENGINEERS NEED TO LEARN ABOUT ECONOMICS?

Ages ago, the most significant barriers to engineers were technological. The things that engineers wanted to do, they simply did not yet know how to do, or hadn't yet developed the tools to do. There are certainly many more challenges like this which face present-day engineers.

But now, natural resources (from which we must build things) are becoming more scarce and more expensive. We are much more aware of negative side-effects of engineering innovations (such as air pollution from automobiles) than ever before.

For these reasons, engineers are asked more and more to place their project ideas within the larger framework of the environment within a specific planet, country, or region. Engineers must ask themselves if a particular project will offer some net benefit to the people who will be affected by the project, after considering its inherent benefits, plus any negative side-effects (externalities), plus the cost of consuming natural resources, both in the price that must be paid for them and the realization that once they are used for that project, they will no longer be available for any other project(s).

Simply put, engineers must decide if the benefits of a project exceed its costs, and must make this comparison in a unified framework. The framework within which to make this comparison is the field of engineering economics, which strives to answer exactly these questions, and perhaps more. 

The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) states that engineering "is the profession in which a knowledge of the mathematical and natural sciences gained by study, experience, and practice is applied with judgment to develop ways to utilize, economically, the materials and forces of nature for the benefit of mankind".

Wildan Achzani (115060707111068)

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