CHAPTER 2

UNIT LOAD
 1. Product Characteristics
• Physical Characteristics
– Density of bulk materials
– Ability to withstand exposure to elements
– Respiration
• Chemical Characteristics
– Incompatible products
– Products requiring chemicals
• Characteristics must be made known to
consumers
• Hazardous Cargo: Explosives, Compressed gases,
Flammable liquids, Oxidizers, Poisons, Radioactive materials,
Corrosive materials
• Environmental Protection
– Reduce packing materials used
– Use packaging materials that are more
environmentally friendly with recycled content
– Use reusable containers
– Retain or support services that collect used
packaging and recycle it.
• Packaging Scrap Disposal
– Pallet shredder
• Metric System usage
 2. Packaging
• Building-blocks concept
– Smallest unit is consumer package
– Each unit is stocked within the next larger one to
protect the product
• Promotional functions of boxes
• Protective functions of packaging
– Enclose materials
– Restrain materials from undesired movement
– Separate contents to prevent undesired contact
– Cushion contents from outside vibrations and shocks
– Support the weight of identical containers stacked
above
 – Position the contents to provide maximum protection
– Provide for uniform weight distribution
– Provide exterior surface for labeling
– Be tamperproof
– Be safe for consumers or others
• Package testing
– Vibrations
– Dropping
– Horizontal impacts
– Compression
– Overexposure to extreme temperatures or moisture
– Rough handling
• A package system requires 3 types of information
to design
– Severity of the distribution environment
– Fragility of the product
– Performance characteristics of various cushion materials
Labeling
Batch numbers
Weight
Specific contents
Instructions for use
Information to allow
passage through
customs
Compliance labeling
One- or two-
dimensional bar
codes
Smart labels or RFID
labels

Shipping labels
• A Handheld Laser Scanner Scanning Labels on a Pallet Load of Product Sitting in a
Warehouse Rack
 3. Unit Loads in Materials Handling
• Unit load – amount of material that can be moved as
a single mass between two locations
• A unit load is one or more boxes secured to a pallet
or skid so that boxes can be handled by mechanical
means
• Primary advantage of using unit loads is the
capability of handling more items at a time and
reducing the number of trips, handling cost, loading
and unloading times, and product damage.
• Basic unit is a pallet or skid
Advantages of unit loads:
• It permits handling of larger loads at a time and
thereby reduces handling and transportation costs.
• Loading and unloading time of unit load is
substantially less than when handled as
loose/individual material.
• Unitized loads are less susceptible to damage and
loss during movement from one place to another.
• It offers safer handling and transportation compared
to those of loose materials.
• Unitized load, even made of irregular shaped items,
generally become stable and well shaped. This offers a
number of advantages like stable storage, uniform
stacking to greater heights and increased storage space
utilization.
• For unitized load, individual item labeling may be
avoided.
• The process of unitization often protects loads from
foreign elements.
• Unitization generally provides a basis for
standardization of handling system and equipment
• within the plant as well as at the receiving and shipping
points for transportation
Disadvantages of unit loads:
• Time spent forming and breaking down the unit load.
• Cost of containers/pallets and other load restraining
materials used in the unit load
• Empty containers/pallets may need to be returned to their
point of origin.
• These unitization medium increase the weight of the final
load to be handled.
• Unitization essentially means deployment of equipment,
which necessitates capital investment.
• There is possibility of damage due to mishandling of large
amount of load.
• Movement of unitized materials may get hampered due to
absence of transfer equipment
 4. Unit Load Principle (unitizing)

In general, the unit load should be as large as practical

for the material handling system that will move and
store it
– A unit load is the mass that is to be moved or otherwise
handled at one time
• Reasons for using unit loads in material handling:
– Multiple items handled simultaneously
– Required number of trips is reduced
– Loading/unloading times are reduced
– Product damage is decreased
1. Planning Principle: All handling activities should
be planned
All material handling should be the result of a deliberate
plan where the needs, performance objectives and
functional specification of the proposed methods are
completely defined at the outset.
• A plan is a prescribed course of action that is defined
in advance of implementation. In its simplest form a
material handing plan defines the material (what)
and the moves (when and where); together they
define the method (how and who).
2. Standardization principle: Standardize method,
types, size of material handling equipment
Material handling methods, equipment, controls and
software should be standardized within the limits of
achieving overall performance objectives and without
sacrificing needed flexibility , modularity and through
put anticipation of changing future requirements.
• Standardization means less variety and customization
in the methods and equipment employed.
3. Work principle: Material handling work should be
minimized without sacrificing productivity or the level
of service required of the operation.
• The measure of work is material handling flow
(volume, weight or count per unit of time) multiplied
by the distance moved.
4. Ergonomic principle: Human capabilities and
limitations must be recognized and respected in the design
of material handling tasks and equipment to ensure safe and
effective operations.
• Ergonomics is the science that seeks to adapt work or
working conditions to suit the abilities of the worker.
5. Unit load principle: Unit loads shall be appropriately
sized and configured in a way which achieves the material
flow and inventory objectives at each stage in the supply
chain.
• A unit load is one that can be stored or moved as a single
entity at one time, such as a pallet, container or tote,
regardless of the number of individual items that make up
the load
6. Space utilization principle: Make optimum use of
cubic space: Effective and efficient use must be made of
all available space.
• Space in material handling is three dimensional and
therefore is counted as cubic space
7. System principle: Material movement and storage
activities should be fully integrated to form a
coordinated, operational system which spans receiving,
inspection, storage, production, assembly, packaging,
unitizing, order selection, shipping, transportation and
the handling of returns.
• A system is a collection of interacting and/or
interdependent entities that form a unified whole
8. Automation principle: Material handling operations
should be mechanized and/or automated where feasible
to improve operational efficiency, increase
responsiveness, improve consistency and predictability.
9. Environmental principle: Environmental impact and
energy consumption should be considered as criteria
when designing or selecting alternative equipment and
material handling systems.
• Environmental consciousness stems from a desire not
to waste natural resources and to predict and
eliminate the possible negative effects of our daily
actions on the environment
10. Life cycle cost principle: A thorough economic analysis
should account for the entire life cycle of all material
handling equipment and resulting systems.
• Life cycle costs include all cash flows that will occur
between the time the first dollar is spent to plan or procure
a new piece of equipment, or to put in place a new method,
until that method and/or equipment is totally replaced.
11. Material flow principle: Plan an operation sequence and
equipment arrangement to optimize material flow.
12. Simplification principle: Reduce combine or eliminate
unnecessary movement and/or equipment.
13. Gravity principle: Utilize gravity to move a material
wherever practicable.
14. Safety principle
Provide for safe handling methods and equipment
15. Flexibility principle: Use methods and equipment that can
perform a variety of task and applications.
16. Idle time principle: Reduce idle time/unproductive time of
both MH equipment and manpower.
17. Maintenance principle: Plan for preventive maintenance or
scheduled repair of all handling equipment.
18. Obsolescence principle: Replace obsolete handling
methods / equipment when more efficient method/equipment will
improve operation.
19. Capacity principle: Use handling equipment to help achieve
its full capacity
20. Control principle: Use material handling equipment to
improve production control, inventory control and other handling
21. Performance principle: Determine efficiency of handling
performance in terms of cost per unit handled which is the
primary criterion
 5. Unit load design
7 steps to design a unit load:
- Unit load concept applicable?
- Select the unit load type
- Identify most remote source of load
- Determine farthest practicable destination for load
- Establish unit load size
- Determine unit load configuration
- Determine how to build unit load
Unit load design involves determining
1. Type, size, weight, and configuration of the load
2. Equipment and method used to handle the load
3. Methods of forming (or building) and breaking
down the load.
Determination of the load size
• Size (volume and weight) of the unit load has
major impact on the specification and operation
of the material handling
• The Optimal Unit Load is the quantity where the
system idle time, WIP and transportation cost are
minimized.
“picked up and moved between two locations as a single mass”
• Example:
1.A single item picked up and moved manually between two
locations
2.Two tote pans with identical components picked up moved by
a dolly from one machine to another
3.One pallet load of nonuniform-size cartons with different
products picked up and moved by a lift truck from the
packaging area to the shipping dock
4.One full load of products delivered by a trucktrailer from a
warehouse to a customer store If the trailer is half full, it is
still one unit load.
Larger unit load:
+ fewer moves
- bigger and heavier equipment
- wider aisles
- higher floor load capacities
- increased work-in-process inventory
Smaller unit load:
+ reduced work-in-process inventory
+ simple material handling methods (i.e., push carts)
+ reduced completion time (How??)
- more moves
- increased material handling time
•“Achieving single unit production requires the materail
handling time to be shorter than the unit processing time.”
 6. Load unitization processes and
handling methods
As unitized load is generally of fairly large weight and
volume, the method of handling them, i.e. how to hold, lift
and carry them is an important issue. The basic methods of
handling a unit load are:
• Putting a lifting device under the load like pallet, skid, tray,
rack etc., and then handling this device along with the load
• Inserting a lifting element into the body of the unit load.
This method is particularly suitable for lifting circular
shaped loads, with a hole in it, like coils, wheels, pipes etc.
The lifting element may be a ram type attachment of a
forklift truck, or may be simply a rod or log inserted
through the hole of the object
• Squeezing the load between two adjustable surfaces.
This is equivalent to carrying an object by squeezing
it between two fingers, between fingers and palm or
between palms of two hands by a man. This action
is simulated by carton-clamp or grabbing attachment
of a lift truck or self-closing tong of a lifting
equipment.
• Suspending the load. This can be done by hooking
the object, looping slings around the load, gripping
the load with a clamp, using a magnet for magnetic
load, using vacuum cups for handling large flat
fragile/delicate object made from glass, plastics etc.
Moving of the unit load:
a) Lifting under the mass
b) Inserting the lifting element into the body of the unit
load
c) Squeezing the load between two lifting surfaces
d) Suspending the load
Based on the process of unitizing and methods employed
for handling, unitized loads are generally grouped into
following five basic types:
• Unit load on a platform: When the load is arranged on
a platform which can be lifted and carried as unit load.
Generally two types of platform are used in industry -
pallet and skid.
• Unit load in a container: When small sized articles are
put inside a box like container, which can be carried
easily by trucks, cranes etc. This is a type of unitized
load which is very popularly practiced in manufacturing
industries. Different sizes and designs of containers are
used like box, bin, crate, carton, sack / balloon etc.
• Unit load on a rack: Specially designed racks are used to hold
different types of parts in desired orientation or relationship to
each other. The racks may be provided with inserts, pegs, or
holes to orient parts or to form dividers between layers for easy
handling, counting, inspection etc. Long products like pipes,
bars etc. are essentially stored in racks. Racks may be provided
with wheels for movement in planes or may be provided with
hooks for lifting.
• Unit load on a sheet: Unitization is possible on a sheet
material and the shape of the load depends on the
character and way the sheet material is used. Flat sheets
like cardboard, chipboard or plywood may be used for
unitization of load on it. Specially formed molded sheets
are used for unitization of bulk materials. In these formed
sheets, provisions are kept for fork entry of lift trucks. A
flexible sheet may be used as sling particularly for odd
shaped unit loads, bulk materials or materials packed in
bags.
• Self contained unit load (not requiring major auxiliary
aids): Different kinds of self - contained unitized loads
are practiced in industry and in everyday use. There are:
(a) Bundle: Long pieces of unequal shapes tied together by
a rope, wire, elastic band etc. for ease of handling.
(b) Bale: Materials like scrap paper, sheet metal trimmings
etc. are compressed in a bailing press to make the loose
materials into a single compact load of reduced size.
(c) Fastened unit load: Loose items fixed in position by
materials like wrapper, tape, glue etc. Shrink-wrapping and
Stretch-wrapping are two very popular processes which are
used more for packaging than unitization
(d) Interlocked unit load: Load which consists of individual
pieces so shaped by design that they can be arranged in a
fashion to make the assembly interlocked and self restrained.
For example cast aluminum pigs interlocked to build a stack.
(e) Unrestrained Load: Items stacked on a lifting device
without any restraining member, such that it can be stored as
an unit, but requires extra care for lifting or moving. Stack of
bricks or cartons on a pallet are examples of unrestrained load
 Unit Load Containers

(a) Wooden pallet, (b) pallet box, (c) tote box

Two-way and four-way
Common methods of unitizing a unit load
• Containers
• Platforms: Skids; Pallets
• Sheets: Cardboard; Plywood; Polyethylene slip-sheets
• Racks
• Strapping
• Wrapping: Stretch wrapping; Shrink wrapping
• Pallet: It is essentially a platform used for assembling,
storing and handling of materials as a unit load. Essential
feature of a pallet is that the forks of a lift truck can be
inserted at the bottom side of the platform, while the
pallet is resting on floor and thus can raise the pallet with
load and move it to desired place. Pallets, when not in
use, can be stacked one above the other.
• Skid: It is essentially a platform provided with legs so
that a platform truck may get inside it and raise it from
ground. Skids are thus single-faced and non-stackable.
 Pallet loading problem
The objectives:
to maximize the
use of space, to
maximize load
stability
• Different types of tongs are used in
conjunction with crane for lifting and moving
many types of unit loads
 6. Selecting unit load size for
in-process handling
• Unit loads should not be larger than the production
batch size of parts in process - Because of a delay
would occur if the load is forced to wait until the next
batch of the part is scheduled to start before it can be
transported.
• Large production batches can be split into smaller
transfer batches for handling purposes, where each
transfer batches contains one or more-unit loads, and
small unit loads can be combined into a larger transfer
batch to allow more efficient transport
• When parts are transferred between adjacent
operations, the unit load may be a single part
• When operations are not adjacent, short distance
moves ⇒ smaller unit load sizes, and long distance
moves ⇒ larger unit load sizes.
• The practical size of a unit load may be limited by
the equipment and aisle space available and the
need for safe material handling (in accord with the
Safety Principle).
 Selecting unit load size for distribution

• Containers/pallets are usually available only in

standard sizes and configurations.
• Truck trailers, rail boxcars, and airplane cargo bays are
limited in width, length, and height.
• The existing warehouse layout and storage rack
configuration may limit the number of feasible
container: kha thi/pallet sizes for a load.
• Customer package/carton sizes and retail store shelf
restrictions can limit the number of feasible
container/pallet sizes for a load.
 7. Efficiency of containers
• Containers with good stacking and nesting features can
provide significant reduction in material handling costs
• Stack-ability: A full container can be stacked on top of
another full container in the same spatial orientation.
• Nest-ability: Shape of the containers permits an empty
container to be inserted into another empty container of
the same type.
Container Space Utilization:
* Usable space (interior) of the container divided by
exterior envelope. Example:
inside dimensions 18” x 11” x 11” (w x d x h)
outside dimensions 20” x 12” x 12”
Container Space Utilization= (18x11x11)/(20x12x12) =
76%
Container Nesting Ratio:
*Exterior height divided by the nested height.
outside dimensions 20” x 12” x 12”
Each nested container 20” x 12” x 2”
Container nesting ratio = 12/2 = 6:1
 Manual Palletizing
• Operators arrange items into
the desired pattern used to
form the unit load.
• Since the ergonomics of
loading and unloading are
important, lift and turn tables
are often used
• Semi-mechanized palletizes
use operators to arrange items
into the desired pattern for
each layer of the unit load and
a powered device is used to
transfer layers onto a pallet
and then lower the load for the
next layer
 Robotic Pick and Place Palletizers
• Fully automated device
to build unit loads
• Used when flexibility is
required. Greatest
limitation is capacity,
typically 6 cycles per
minute; capacity is
determined by the
number of items
handled with each pick
operation
Conventional Stripper Plate Palletizers
• Capacity is typically greater (30–180 items per minute)
than pick and place because an entire layer is placed on
the load at one time; not as flexible as pick and place
• Preformed layer of items (cases) are indexed onto the
stripper plate (or apron); when properly positioned over
the pallet, the apron is pulled out from underneath the
layer to deposit the layer onto the pallet
• "In-line" pattern formation (top picture)—flexible patterns
are not possible; ideal for high speed operation (up to 180
items per minute); takes up more room (larger machine)
than right angle
• "Right angle" pattern formation (bottom picture)—very
flexible patterns are possible; can handle a wide variety of
case sizes and types; limited capacity (up to 80 items per
minute); compact design
• 1. Infeed: Conveyor on a palletizer where product is oriented as
required to make the patterns
• 2. Row Former: A conveyor on a palletizer used for
accumulating oriented product in a row as part of the process of
forming a layer
• 3. Layer Forming Area: A section of the palletizer where rows
are combined to form a layer.
• 4. Discharge Conveyor: A conveyor capable of receiving and
transporting a palletized or unitized load of product from the
palletizer or unitizer
• 5. Pallet Dispenser: A mechanism that can accept a stack of
pallets and discharge a single pallet upon demand
• 6. Robotic Arm: An automatically controlled manipulator
programmable in three or more axes
• 7. Pallet Station: The area where the pallet is placed.
• 8. Sheet Dispenser: A mechanism that contains a stack of sheets
and automatically moves a sheet from the stack for placement
under the load or between layers
 8. Major Equipment Categories
• Transport Equipment. Equipment used to move material from one
location to another (e.g., between workplaces, between a loading dock
and a storage area, etc.)..
• Positioning Equipment. Equipment used to handle material at a single
location (e.g., to feed and/or manipulate materials so that are in the
correct position for subsequent handling, machining, transport, or
storage). Positioning equipment is usually used for handling at a single
workplace. Material can also be positioned manually using no equipment.
• Unit Load Formation Equipment. Equipment used to restrict materials
so that they maintain their integrity when handled a single load during
transport and for storage.
• Storage Equipment. Equipment used for holding or buffering materials
over a period of time. Some storage equipment may include the transport
of materials (e.g., the S/R machines of an AS/RS, or storage carousels)
• Identification and Control Equipment. Equipment used to collect and
communicate the information that is used to coordinate the flow of
materials within a facility and between a facility and its suppliers and
customers
The following general equipment characteristics can be used to describe the
functional differences between conveyors, cranes, and industrial trucks
• Path: - Fixed—move between two specific points
- Variable—move between a large variety of points
• Area: - Restricted—move restricted to a limited area
- Unrestricted—unlimited area of movement
• Move frequency: - Low—low number of moves per period, or intermittent
moves
- High—high number of moves per period
• Adjacent move: - Yes—move is between adjacent activities
- No—move is between activities that are not adjacent number of moves
per period