Hindawi Publishing Corporation
Journal of Industrial Engineering
Volume 2013, Article ID 268708, 9 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/268708
Research Article
Material Handling Equipment Selection Using Weighted Utility
Additive Theory
Prasad Karande
1
and Shankar Chakraborty
2
1
Mechanical Engineering Department, Government Polytechnic Mumbai, Maharashtra 400 051, India
2
Department of Production Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, West Bengal 700 032, India
Correspondence should be addressed to Shankar Chakraborty; s_chakraborty00@yahoo.co.in
Received 13 August 2012; Revised 26 November 2012; Accepted 2 December 2012
Academic Editor: Xueqing Zhang
Copyright © 2013 P. Karande and S. Chakraborty. is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons
Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is
properly cited.
�etter utilization of manpower, providing product �exibility, increasing productivity, decreasing lead time, reduction in handling
cost, increased efficiency of material �ow, and enhancement of production process are some of the most important issues in�uencing
material handling (MH) equipment selection decision. As a wide variety of MH equipment is available today, selection of the proper
equipment for a designed manufacturing system is a complicated task. Selection of suitable MH equipment for a typical handling
environment is found to be a multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) problem. As the selection process is found to be unstructured,
characterized by domain dependent knowledge, there is a need to apply an efficient MCDM tool to select the most suitable MH
equipment for the given application. is paper applies weighted utility additive (WUTA) method to solve an MH equipment
selection problem. e ranking obtained using the WUTA method is compared with that derived by the past researchers which
proves its potentiality, applicability, and accuracy to solve complex decision-making problems.
1. Introduction
Material handling (MH) is an activity that uses the right
method to provide the right amount of the right material at
the right place, at the right time, in the right sequence, in
the right position, and at the right cost [1]. An MH system is
responsible for transporting materials between workstations
with minimum obstruction and joins all the workstations
and workshops in a manufacturing system by acting as a
basic integrator. e MH task accounts for 30–75% of the
total cost of a product, and efficient MH can be responsible
for reducing the manufacturing system operations cost by
15–30% [2]. ese �gures justify the importance of MH cost
as an element in improving the cost structure of a manufac-
turing organization. An efficient MH system greatly improves
the competitiveness of a product through the reduction of
handling cost, enhances the production process, increases
production and system �exibility, increases efficiency of
material �ow, improves facility utilization, provides effective
utilization of manpower, and decreases lead time [3].
e functions performed by MH equipment can be
classi�ed into four broad categories, that is, (a) transport, (b)
positioning, (c) unit formation, and (d) storage. Usually, all
the MH functions are composed of one or more combinations
of these four primary functions. Equipment in transport
category simply moves materials from one point to another,
which includes conveyors, industrial trucks, cranes, and so
forth. Unlike transport equipment, positioning equipment is
usually employed at workstations to aid machining opera-
tions. Robots, index tables, rotary tables, and so forth are
the examples of this type of equipment. Unit formation
equipment is used for holding or carrying materials in
standardized unit load forms for transport and storage and
generally includes bins, pallets, skids, and containers. Storage
equipment is used for holding or buffering materials over a
period of time. Typical examples that perform this function
are AS/RS, pallet racks, and shelves.
e MH equipment selection is an important function
in the design of an MH system and, thus, a crucial step
for facility planning. e determination of an MH system