What is material handling equipment?
Material handling equipment (MHE) is the backbone of facility operations, providing the mechanical power needed to lift, move, and store goods within warehouses, distribution centers, and transportation hubs.
Essential Material Handling Machinery
Modern facilities rely on a specialized mix of MHE to optimize throughput and ensure worker safety:
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Forklifts: The workhorses of the warehouse, utilizing hydraulic power to lift heavy loads to significant heights. They are essential for racking and loading, though they require significant floor space.
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Conveyor Belts: Automated systems of belts and rollers that facilitate the continuous movement of goods. They are ideal for high-volume sorting and minimizing the manual labor involved in long-distance transport within a facility.
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Pallet Jacks: Highly maneuverable, compact tools designed for low-level movement of pallets. They excel in confined spaces or narrow aisles where larger equipment like forklifts cannot safely operate.
The Evolution: Adding Visibility Through Telematics
While MHE improves physical productivity, the addition of GPS and telematics tracking to these assets adds a critical layer of operational intelligence:
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Real-Time Asset Visibility: Managers can track the location of equipment at all times, eliminating the time wasted by staff “searching” for available forklifts or pallet jacks across a large facility.
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Utilization Analytics: Telematics data identifies underused equipment, allowing for a leaner fleet and helping management avoid unnecessary capital expenditures on redundant machinery.
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Maintenance Optimization: By tracking engine hours and usage patterns, maintenance can be performed based on actual work performed rather than arbitrary time intervals, significantly extending equipment life.
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Safety & Accountability: Systems can be configured to ensure only authorized personnel operate specific machines, and impact sensors can flag improper usage or accidents, triggering immediate alerts for safety reviews.
Strategic Impact
The integration of tracking technology into MHE turns “dumb” machinery into data-generating assets. This shift allows logistics companies to move from reactive management to proactive optimization, directly resulting in lower overhead, reduced equipment damage, and improved labor productivity.
