Supply Chain vs Material Handling

Supply Chains and Material Handling: Is There a Difference?

If you’ve ever taken an economics class, read Forbes magazine, ordered something online, or simply watched five minutes of television during the COVID shutdown, then you’ve heard of “the supply chain” and material handling.

These terms are frequently tossed around quite a bit when talking about industry, production, and retail, and more often than not, they’re used interchangeably.

However, supply chain and material handling are not the same, and a clearer understanding of each is useful when business owners and management discuss how to address and fix pain points in their operations and workflow.

What Is a Supply Chain?

In layman’s terms, a supply chain is a network (a system of processes and people) which bring products to an end user. The supply chain is a basic and necessary component to just about every business because it integrates and links together the many steps of production that are taken to meet the needs of both the business and the consumer.

Supply chains include every stage from the origin and resourcing of raw materials to the transportation of those raw materials to the manufacturing stage and so forth—all the way to the doorstep of the purchaser.

As complex systems of movement and transition, supply chains require several diverse entities including distribution centers, warehouses, laboratories, industrial facilities, retailers, and workshops, and delivery services—each which has a valuable role in getting a finished product to the end user.

Furthermore, it’s common for a supply chain to feature many intertwining steps. This should not be a surprise in light of how the supply chain begins with sourcing raw materials and ends with providing customer service support. Considering all that takes place in between these stages like parts assembly, product testing, packaging, sorting, storing inventory, and more, some supply chains are massive in their scope and reach.  

Because of the involvement of these many distinct points of entry and exit, supply chains are constantly being reevaluated by companies to reduce inefficiencies and unnecessary costs in order to stay competitive in their respective market.

One integral link in a supply chain frequently adjusted and redesigned for improvement due to its impact on the flow of production is…you guessed it: material handling.

What Is Material Handling?

Although it’s often used synonymously with “supply chain,” material handling can be better understood as the supply chain’s younger, er…smaller cousin.

Maybe that analogy isn’t clear. Let’s try another:

If the supply chain is a vehicle, material handling is the engine. Wait…maybe it’s the gasoline?

If the supply chain is an air conditioner, material handling is the fan. Or the freon?

Finding the perfect metaphor is difficult. Perhaps we should just agree that the supply chain would be entirely dysfunctional and useless without an excellent plan in place for material handling.

Material handling is a core component of the supply chain’s complicated process, and its importance is highlighted by the fact that it’s often implemented at several different stages of the transition from origin to end user.  

It seems reductive (or obvious), but what object exists in our world that’s not constructed of some sort of material? Moreover, if you’re moving some “thing” from one point to another—whether that point is 200 yards or three feet away—you’re handling material.

Material handling, then, is the moving, controlling, storing, shifting, sorting, packaging, loading, etc… of materials with special attention to prevent pauses, delays, errors, or breaks in the chain so you can keep workers safe while meeting ambitious production and delivery deadlines.

Additionally, material handling is assigned several crucial tasks beyond just moving an item from one spot to another. For example, materials handling includes systems and controls that monitor inventory levels, plan for the replenishment of stock, examination material quality, and track deliveries, among other vital functions.

Another way to think about this is that material handling is an optimization process that’s responsible for ensuring the right materials are used in the right place, in the right amount, at the right time, by and for the right people.

So, What Is the Biggest Difference Between Supply Chain and Material Handling?

Because of their similarities and interconnectedness, supply chains and material management services can be difficult to differentiate and will often be used interchangeably by those outside of the industry. However, it’s important that businesses or companies (and maybe those rabid consumers prone to writing bad reviews when they’re purchases are delayed) to recognize that these are two different processes.

Intertwined? Sure.

Identical? No.

In Conclusion…

Supply chains and material handling are two concepts that have some of the same functions, but material management specializes in material operations while supply chains deal with the entire picture.

Either way, though, from procurement to distribution, each is constantly at play to guarantee consumer satisfaction, which is why Quintec’s expertise in material handling solutions and logistics is vital to your supply chain needs.

If you have any questions or wishes, or if you’re facing some challenges regarding material handling strategies, equipment, or integration that you can’t rectify on your own, please contact us here.