Material handling is a term that refers to practices and equipment (MHE) that facilitate the movement, storage and protection of products within the supply chain.
As a 3PL provider, our guide to these key practices pertains specifically to warehousing and transport, and will offer insight into our approach to moving, storing, picking and transporting goods, and the important role it plays.
The Importance of Effective Material Handling Practices
For 3PL providers like Delamode, material handling is key to supporting our operational excellence, which in turn, positively impacts our clients. These essential handling practices help to:
Increase Productivity & Efficiency
MHE and effective handling practices enable our team to move, locate, pick, and ship goods more efficiently and accurately.
These efficient processes maximise our productivity, helping to increase our output, minimise operational timeframes, and meet higher client demand without compromising accuracy. These benefits are passed onto our clients, and felt across their supply chains.
Minimise Errors, Accidents & Product Damage
Our material handling practices and equipment help to support the physical health of our staff and reduce workplace accidents by providing a safe alternative to manual handling.
They also help to protect goods both in storage and transit, and identify compromised goods, to help minimise waste, reduce financial losses for the party responsible for breakages, and ensure that defective items are not moved down the supply chain to retailers and customers.
Create Happy Clients & End Customers
As a result of our effective handling practices and MHE, our clients enjoy shorter waiting times, infrequent breakages and less customer complaints, while retailers and end customers receive quality products in excellent condition, and experience quicker order processing and delivery times.
Delamode’s Material Handling Practises & Equipment
Material handling is more than a buzzword at Delamode. MHE and effective handling practices are an intrinsic part of our day-to-day work, and are used across every area of our warehouse and transport operations, from the moment goods arrive at our facility until they leave for their destination.
1. Receiving & Unloading
- Goods are received at the warehouse using dock levellers and telescopic conveyors to offload goods.
- Barcode scanning used for inventory verification.
2. Storage
- Products are categorised and stored based on SKU, size, and demand frequency.
- FIFO (First In, First Out) and FEFO (First Expired, First Out) methods are applied for inventory management, as well as any batch/lot tracking required.
- We use VNA and wide aisle racking to maximise storage space, and identify which is right for your goods depending on how they are consolidated, with VNA racking used for palletised goods, and wide aisle racking for cartons.
3. Order Picking & Packing
- Manual picking.
- Packing stations help to ensure that goods have the correct packaging, labelling, and documentation before dispatch.
- Forklifts, counterbalance trucks, trolleys and cages support smooth, accurate picking.
4. Internal Transport & Cross-Docking
- Cross-docking solutions help in moving products directly from inbound to outbound without long-term storage.
- ABC movements in the warehouse, to identify the fastest moving products as close to pack locations.
- Pump trucks and ERE pallet trucks used to support the quick movement of goods across the facility.
5. Loading & Dispatch
- Goods are staged in outbound zones before loading onto vehicles.
- Load optimisation techniques are used to ensure safe and efficient vehicle filling (mainly used for B2B movements).
- Telescopic belt conveyors used to safely load goods into inbound and outbound vehicles.
Handling Practises & Equipment Via Product Type
At Delamode, one size does not fit all. We work with a wide variety of products (from toys, to furniture, Hi-Fi equipment, sporting goods and beyond), and create dedicated material handling practices to support the safe and efficient movement, storage, picking and transportation of specific kinds of goods.
For example:
Toys & Small Consumer Goods: Usually stored and shipped in high-volume and often require mixed SKU storage. We utilise VNA racking to maximise storage space, pump trucks and ERE pallet trucks for quick movement across the facility, and a combination of semi-automated VNA trucks and manual picking for accuracy.
Electronics: High value fragile electronics are sensitive to vibrations. We store these products in low-traffic zones, on protective racking, utilise ERE electric pedestrian pallet trucks for smooth handling, and both manual picking and cushioned trolleys/cages to prevent product damage during the picking process. Protective packaging and telescopic belt conveyors help us to safely load goods into outbound vehicles.
Furniture & Large Sporting Goods: These products are bulky, heavy, and made in a variety of shapes that make them tricky to manoeuvre and require very specific material handling solutions. We store these products at floor-level or in bulk racking and avoid overstacking, utilise forklifts and pump trucks to efficiently pick and move these goods, and use telescopic belt conveyors for streamlined, careful loading into vehicles.
Tailoring Our MH Practises to Your Products
We tailor our material handling approach to the unique handling requirements of your products, and optimise our practises, and identify the most suitable MHE, to best support your supply chain.
We follow a simple 5-step process to implement MH practises tailored to you:
1. Consultation & Product Assessment
Delamode begins by working closely with you to establish the dimensions, weight, fragility, and storage needs of your product, and understand your order volume, peak periods and expected handling speeds.
2. Warehouse Strategy & MHE Selection
We then define the optimal material handling practises our team will use to move, store, pick, and load/transport your goods, and assign MHE to the appropriate tasks.
3. Storage & Picking Optimisation
Our warehouse team then identifies specific storage zones for your goods, and whether your goods need to be placed in our fragile or high-value zones. We implement FIFO/FEFO strategies where applicable, and select the MHE required to optimise picking efficiency.
4. Testing & Refinement
We conduct trial runs to ensure a seamless workflow integration before we begin processing your products, and adjust handling practices based on real-time performance data.
5. Continuous Improvement & Client Feedback
We continually monitor performance, identify opportunities to further enhance efficiency and reduce damage risk, and can adapt our established material handling practises to support product line expansions etc.
If your organisation is seeking a 3PL provider, contact our team today to learn how Delamode can support you.
