Design of components and layout of machines for material handling

Efficient material handling can reduce the amount of work in manufacturing operations. This paper discusses the design of components and the layout of machines from a material handling perspective. A way to reduce the material handling cost without compromising the component functionality is to choose satisfactory design options. The relationships between the design of the components and material handling are analysed to I educe the flow Of material in a manufacturing system. In Model I, component routes are selected for a potential manufacturing system when only limited information regarding the layout of the machines is available. The selection of component routes is integrated with the determination of machine locations, the layout of single-row machines, and the layout of multi-row machines with equal areas, respectively, in Model II. Each problem is mathematically formulated and two algorithms are presented with illustrative examples.