Material handling system and its usefulness

A material handling system is the planned set of methods, equipment and labour used to move, store, protect and control construction materials from the point of delivery to the point of use on site, with minimum cost, delay, damage and wastage.

Typical elements: manual carrying, wheelbarrows and trolleys, forklifts, cranes and hoists, tower cranes, conveyors, concrete pumps and transit mixers, chutes, and storage yards or stores.

Usefulness in construction

• Saves cost: moving materials takes a large share of site labour time and cost; a good system reduces labour and double handling.
• Saves time: materials reach the work front when needed, so activities are not delayed and the schedule is kept.
• Reduces wastage and damage: bricks, cement, glass, tiles and steel are less often broken, spoiled or lost.
• Improves safety: less manual lifting reduces back injuries and accidents.
• Better productivity: workers and equipment spend more time on productive work than on searching for or carrying materials.
• Better site use: controlled stacking and short haul routes keep the site tidy and access roads free.
• Better quality: materials stored and moved correctly (cement off the floor, aggregates kept separate) keep their quality.
• Easier control: with fixed routes and stores, quantities received and issued are easy to record.

Example: a tower crane lifting rebar bundles and concrete buckets to the upper floors of a multistorey building saves many labour-hours compared with carrying them by hand up the staircase.