Transporting bulk material requires a lot of moving parts, which you can optimize for the specific materials you’re transporting. Read this list to learn five tips for improving your material flow. This way, you can make your facility more productive and reliable.
Assess Your Process
To improve material flow, you’ll have to determine which components are holding you back. This could result from a mistake during the equipment design process or an underestimation of eventual expansion. For example, maybe you designed your system to move a very specific number of materials, but you now find yourself needing to move more materials. This is only one of the many issues companies run into when it comes to material flow. To find what’s wrong with your facility, take some time to inspect your employees’ practices, machine performance, and the various workplace data collected throughout the day.
Know Your Machines
Loss-in-weight and gain-in-weight are two types of material batching systems. If your batching process requires moving small quantities of materials, frequent sanitation, and immense batching precision, gain-in-weight systems will prove useful for your workplace. That said, if you’re moving large quantities of materials and you don’t require precision or frequent sanitation, then a loss-in-weight system is likely more efficient for your workplace. Installing the wrong system can lead to an inefficient workplace.
Keep Flow Consistent
Anyone in charge of a material handling facility should understand the materials on a scientific level. A slight misunderstanding of concepts like friction can lead to an inadequate system design. When moving bulk solids through your system, make sure the sloping walls within the system won’t causing an issue. The wrong hopper angle can result in inconsistent flow patterns, which result in issues like material degradation. To prevent this issue and more from occurring, pay special attention to hopper angles.
Optimize Workplace Layout
When looking at material flow, consider the flow of materials from their storage units to your machinery. An unproductive facility will store materials unnecessarily far away from their batching systems, which tacks on time to the material transportation process. To eliminate that extra time, simply store materials closer to the point of operation. Changes like this can make a big impact on workplace productivity.
Help Your Humans
To ensure employees work at peak productivity, employers must supply them with the proper equipment. If your workplace utilizes pallet jackets for moving loads, consider the benefits of using forklifts instead. If the material handling equipment in your workplace is insufficient in any way, find a solution. Even if your employees are willing to do their best work, poor or inefficient equipment can hinder their performance.
Thanks to these five tips for improving your material flow, you can make any necessary upgrades to your facility, from transportation to optimal flow patterns. Reach out to DoverMEI if you need bulk solids handling equipment, whether you need gear for moving bulk plastic pellets or something else entirely.