Comparative Analysis of Material Handling Equipment Cost Between Conveyor Belt and Manual Labor in Rice Storage Warehouse

Abstract

The Center for Indonesian Policy Studies (CIPS) recommends that there be a rejuvenation of facilities or the construction of new facilities in rice storage warehouses in Indonesia which refers to current technological developments. This also reflects on the fact that there are still many rice storage warehouses in Indonesia, where the entire process still utilizes traditional technology with human labor (manual labor) in the process of moving rice sacks from trucks to warehouses or vice versa without any tools (Tambunan, 2015). Based on this, the purpose of this study is to see the efficiency in terms of material handling costs if the handling process of rice sacks in storage warehouses is replaced by using conveyor belt technology and its impact on moving rice sacks in rice storage warehouses. In this study, material handling costs (OMH) will take into account depreciation costs based on straight-line depreciation and operating costs consisting of fuel costs, operator costs, and maintenance costs. Based on these calculations the conveyor belt is feasible in terms of cost to be applied in rice storage warehouses to move 29.067 bags of rice per day. Apart from the smaller difference in OMH costs of Rp. 26.251 compared to manual labor, the use of conveyor belts can streamline the total material handling costs by up to 74% compared to the costs of using manual labor. Although manual labor is 96% more efficient than the total frequency of movement, in terms of the number of workers used, the use of conveyor belts is 94% more efficient than manual labor. Meanwhile, the number of workers greatly affects the OMH per frequency. So that in moving rice sacks faster and more efficiently, both in terms of costs and the number of workers to move large quantities, the use of conveyor belts is suitable for use in rice storage warehouses.