The Material Handling Blog

Automated guided vehicle (AGV) technology has been used in materials handling for decades, but with more recent developments in technology it's becoming a more affordable and flexible solution than it used to be.

However, in some operations full automation may not be appropriate. This is especially true if the materials handling work that needs to be done is different from day to day, if it needs some level of human decision making or if order picking of many varied items makes up a big part of the work.

Warehouse automation is a hot topic in the materials handling industry at the moment. Stories about companies like Amazon's financial successes are often accompanied by videos showing swarms of robots shuttling goods to human workers who carry out fewer and fewer manual tasks. 

However, introducing automation to a materials handling operation doesn't necessarily mean getting rid of staff entirely. Instead, fully or partly-automated equipment and human workers can work together, with automation focusing on improving efficiency, safety and sometimes eliminating the need for humans to carry out the most repetitive tasks.

The wide world of materials handling-specific terms can be difficult at the best of times, especially for someone who may be new to or not so familiar with the industry. One of the more misleading terms is turnover – for most people, a fairly common word which refers to the amount of money taken in by a business during a certain period.

Turnover can also refer to the rate at which employees leave and join a business. In the materials handling industry, there’s a third meaning – here, it’s the rate at which goods are shipped out and replenished from a warehouse or a goods store.

"The representation of the behaviour or characteristics of one system through the use of another system, especially a computer program designed for the purpose."

That's the dictionary defintion of simulation, but how does it relate to logistics and materials handling? Since modern logistics began, managers have been looking for ways to accurately predict the effects of changes to a materials handling operation. Will moving a certain type of item to a different rack produce more efficient results, or just create new problems? With experience it's possible to make good predictions, but the complexity of a materials handling operation means it's very difficult to have a lot of confidence in them.

When planning a new warehouse, or thinking about making changes to an existing one, it's possible to use some basic figures about the operation to make an analysis of how effective the solution will be.

Figures like the trucks' speed, the rack heights in the warehouse and rough travel distances can give you an estimation of how the operation will look. However, this result will only ever be a fairly approximate estimation - and there's a good chance it could be missing crucial details that lead you to the wrong conclusions.

Building a solid and efficient materials handling operation doesn't start with buying a truck — instead, the process should always begin with a careful analysis of your needs and current operation, so you can see what is being done right, and what needs to change. 

Logistics simulation can help you achieve this, whether you're planning an entirely new warehouse, or just want to improve your current one. In this guide, we've collected some of the main benefits of simulation.

The ‘dead man’s switch’, or ‘dead man’s pedal’ is a standard safety feature on many forklifts, but it hasn’t seen much innovation over the years.

These switches appear on lots of different vehicles and machines, and are designed to stop the machine from operating if the driver isn’t in full control. In the case of a forklift, the dead man’s switch must be held down (usually with the foot) in order for the truck to operate. This makes sure that if the driver becomes incapacitated, isn’t in control of the truck, or even isn’t in it at all, it won’t be able to move.

It’s a smart and simple solution that has prevented countless accidents. But on trucks where the operator is standing, like some order pickers, it’s far from the perfect solution and can even introduce some new safety issues itself. Here’s why:

As we know, one small part of a logistics operation can have knock-on effects in other areas - and by improving and optimising these areas, you can increase productivity and efficiency with relatively little effort.