Handling with Care

March 29, 2016 3:43 pm

Bipin Shinde, Assistant General Manager – Sales, Cascade India Material Handling Pvt Ltd gives an overview on advanced material handling solutions for automotive industry
  In the hyper-competitive automotive industry, material handling is emerging as an indispensable tool for driving down supply chain costs. Sub-optimal usage of supply chain management practises pose challenge to automakers in their quest for achieving competitive advantage. Agile, flexible and efficient are the most important characteristics of automotive supply chain. To achieve these material handling equipment are expected to perform better and automotive industry expects multi-tasking from their material handling equipment.
“Multi-tasking of material handling equipment is one of the most powerful weapon the industry has in the battle against cost, and capital equipment budgets may be able to support new projects. There is a need for every organisation to understand the new technology that can save huge amount of cost and to highlight on the current state of technology and for those who decide to move ahead,” states Bipin Shinde, Assistant General Manager – Sales, Cascade India Material Handling Pvt Ltd.
Following are the few advanced material handling solutions:
Layer Pickers Layer pickers finds its application majorly in beverage, warehousing and distriution facility. The speed and versatility of layer picker offers huge benefits. When building mixed-load pallets, layer picker handles single layer or multiple layers of a variety of products, including both canned and bottled product. Replace costly manual labor with versatile layer picker. Layer picker streamlines the picking process and increase speed of pallet production without adding labour. And because all the 4 sides are clamping, loads are more secure than when using a standard clamp so it minimises loss.
Multiple load handler Multiple load handler allows the driver to use same lift truck to handler either single or double or triple load. Spreading the forks allows handling of multiple pallets side by side. Forks are hydraulically positioned for fast and efficient material handling and is well suited for truck trailer loading and unloading. Push or pull Push or pull allows palletless handling of unitised goods through use of slipsheets and can save money and reduce damage. “Push or pull is a popular attachment for manufacturers who handle product on slipsheet within the operations. Products typically handled with a push or pull include bagged product such as seeds, agricultural products and cement; cased food, electronics, cosmetics, powdered dairy products and bottled beverages. Slipsheets require a dramatically lower amount of natural resource to be produced than pallets and are easily recycled. Handling unitised loads without pallets reduce the energy needed to transport, manufacture and store pallets. Push or pull eliminates manual handling cost,” explains Shinde.
Traditional wooden pallets are expensive, enviromentally-unfriendly, space consuming, and relatively awkward way of supporting goods for transportation and storage. Magnetic Fork Covers – DAGS Magnetic fork covers – DAGS are mainly for handling a wide variety of loads. Designed for use in any industrial sector where product could be damanged  from contact of bare forks. DAGS protect surgace which are subject to scratching or wear, including powder-coated metal surfaces, anodised aluminium or wood products. “When confronted with awkward or slippery loads like barrels, racks, metal boxes or cages, the lift truck driver can install the covers on the forks in matter of seconds, improving stability and decreasing the chance of the load slipping of the forks,” informs Shinde. 
Ravas’ iForks Pro Ravas’ iForks pro are designed to save money by combining transport and weighing into one easy and effient step. View and track weight of individual load or multiple loads using interrgrated bluetooth technology. “Being wireless, Ravas’ iForks pro system can be installed onto any lift truck in few minutes. The applications are practically limitless, but most commonly used for incoming good control, overload prevention, dosing, filling, waste management, order picking and inventory control,” says Shinde.