What is Holistic Material Handling?

We hear a lot about subjects like holistic health and holistic medicine, but what is holistic material handling? What does it have to do with forklift accessories or the way you run your business?

Far from being a new age fad, the concept of holistic material handling is taken seriously by logistics experts. A pdf with the lengthy title, Incremental analysis for the performance evaluation of material handling equipment: A holistic approach published in Growing Science online magazine begins with an abstract designed to state the issue clearly:

The present study considers engineering economy as one of the erudite tool for performance evaluation of said equipment in the integrated and synergetic way. Lastly, incremental analysis is used for final ranking of the equipment under inquisition.

Ah! That explains it, doesn’t it? Fortunately, the body of the article gets down to business and explains holistic material handling in words most of us can understand if we keep a dictionary handy.

The article begins by defining material handling as “the movement of material from one place to the other” and goes on to say that material handling accounts for 30% to 75% of production costs. More importantly, efficient material handling can reduce costs by 15 to 30 percent.

Holistic material handling, say the authors, is the key to lowering those costs. Unfortunately, before they get down to the nitty gritty, they give some mathematical models of what they’re talking about. If you can understand this, don’t bother finishing this article. You obviously have a PhD in logistics:

If it is as clear as mud to you, read on, because what the authors are trying to get at is more easily understood. In their summary, they stated that “the benefit-cost ratio or the cut-off ratio is the key factor for the selection of best alternative.” In other words, the point of the paper was to help businesses see the importance of choosing the right equipment for the job. It’s a “holistic” approach because it analyzes the parts and looks at how they fit into the whole.

That’s a point we’re always trying to make here at forkliftaccessories.com. Forklift accessories are designed not just to be lift truck “add-ons” you can use occasionally as needed. They are designed to be an integral part of your operations that can make your facility operate more smoothly, efficiently and economically. We don’t recommend buying a carpet pole, for example, if you’re only going to use it once or twice. With a little care, you can move one or two coils of carpet for less than the cost of a coil ram. There comes a point, though, when the cost of a carpet pole/coil ram becomes far less than the cost of manually moving materials.

You don’t need a PhD to take a holistic approach to material handling. Common sense will do just fine. Have a look through our catalog and choose a product you think you need. Then take a look at its cost. How much time will using it save you? How much money will you save in labor costs if you buy the forklift attachment?

Our forklift accessories are down-to-earth products at down-to-earth prices. They’ve withstood the test of time and have proven themselves to be cost-effective, “holistic” solutions to material handling problems. In many cases, such as our drum attachments, we offer several products, from inexpensive drum grippers for occasional use, to heavy duty automatic drum lifters. Choose the product that gives the greatest benefits to you at the best price and you can’t go wrong.