Dr. Thomas Lacksonen
Dept. of Industrial Management
University of Wisconsin-Stout
Abstract
In today’s global manufacturing environment, companies typically design products and manufacturing processes in one country. Then they replicate the manufacturing facilities in several countries, selling the products regionally from each manufacturing facility. Global issues in material handling systems design and installation are critical for handling equipment vendors, handling system integrators, and facility designers. This paper provides ideas and checklists to improve global material handling systems design and installation.
First, this paper lists key technical design issues which are impacted by global customer requirements. The technical issues are broken down into equipment design, delivery, and operations issues. Equipment design issues include building systems, mechanical design, electrical design, and safety standards. Equipment delivery issues include packaging, shipping, and installation processes. Equipment operation issues include manuals preparation, spare parts, training, and customer service. Analysis of these issues will enable faster and better design of material handling systems by vendors and integrators and selection of equipment vendors by facility designers.
Second, this paper identifies business strategies used by material handling equipment vendors to support global facilities design. Costs and benefits of the strategies to both vendor and customer are evaluated. Recommendations and future research in global material handling systems design are also discussed.
Material Handling Research Colloquium, Portland, ME, 2002.