The Department of Conveying and Handling Technology, Logistics and Material Flow Technology deals with aspects of internal and external material flow and the associated logistical problems in teaching and applied development / research.
The conveying technology deals with the movement of goods or people between locations of limited distance. The aids that trigger the movement are called material handling aids. Common material handling aids include, for example, cranes, forklifts, belt conveyors, escalators and lifts. Less common material handling aids are, for example, fully automatic storage and retrieval machines (SRM), automated guided vehicles (AGV) or electric monorail systems (EMS).
The handling technology describes devices and machines (automats) that are supposed to relieve humans of heavy physical work and enable defined changes in position and direction of the transported goods with minimal transport distances. Typical devices are e.g. manipulators (assembly of doors in the automotive industry) and robots/linear systems as well as their feeding systems.
Logistics considers the entire material flow as a process. Thus, in companies, not only the internal transport is examined, but also the material procurement, the production and the goods distribution (distribution) are included. Logistics plans and controls the entire process with the constant aim of minimising total costs. In this context, Anglo-Saxon terms such as ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) for internal logistics and SCM (Supply Chain Management) for the entire chain of value creation, including customers and suppliers, have become established.
Due to the ongoing compulsion to exhaust all possibilities for savings in production and service companies, the optimal use of all existing material handling systems is of lasting importance. The term material flow technology is characteristic for this purpose. It is associated with the interlinking of all processes in a company, e.g. in order to minimise the costs arising from transport and storage through systematic material flow design. System means are e.g. automatic storage systems, picking systems, automated guided vehicles (AGVs), electric monorail systems (EMS) or handling techniques and many more.
The teaching attempts to prepare students for these extensive fields of work in several different lectures and laboratory exercises, so that a career start is easy.
