Material Handling & Logistics
Published on : Sunday 01-11-2020
As the world waits for the vaccine to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, there are issues of supply chain and logistics that have got policy makers into a huddle.
According to the World Economic Forum, there are over 250 potential vaccines under various phases of development and trials. A few of these could be available as early as by the end of the year, though most reasonable estimates say not before mid-2021. The WEF also estimates that 15,000 flights and 15 million cooling boxes could be needed to transport billions of doses of Covid-19 vaccine around the world. This presents several challenges for effective distribution of the vaccine, as in the absence of credible data, more stringent temperature requirements need to be factored in. Some vaccines need to be stored at temperatures as low as -80 degrees Celsius, while conventionally vaccines are distributed at +2-8°C. The world has experienced several supply chain woes right through the pandemic, and with the lessons learned in the process, is now hopefully much better prepared for the vaccine distribution.
The Cover Story of this edition of Industrial Automation is on this very topic – Material Handling, Warehousing & Logistics, with Supply Chain being the logical extension. For industry, it is an important cog in the wheel, connecting the pre- and post-production processes with effective movement of raw materials on one end, and distribution of finished goods at the other. The entire process also needs to consider facilities for storage, protection and retrieval. In the US, material handling represents more than 20 per cent of its economy, and with the rapid strides made by ecommerce business, this could only grow in the future.
The world of material handling spans thousands of different products ranging from the manually operated trolley on the shop floor to conveyors running for endless distances in the mining industry, with all the myriad varieties of pallet trucks, lift trucks, forklifts, cranes, etc., filling up the middle. Effective material handling equipment boosts productivity, with wrong choice and inadequate equipment adding to the inefficiencies. Like most other sectors of the economy and aspects of life, automation is making rapid inroads in the material handling and warehousing sector, with emerging technologies like IoT and artificial intelligence playing a role in enhancing the overall effectiveness while also increasing the safety aspect.
As a growing economy, India in general, the manufacturing industry in particular, needs to adopt the latest in material handling equipment and technologies, as the country is positioning itself as a manufacturing destination. The Cover Story and the articles complementing the topic address some of these issues, and offer possible solutions.
