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When developing a material handling system (MHS) it is crucial to master the various aspects for each developing step to increase the efficiency of the MHS. This Master’s thesis is aimed to identify conceptual solutions of a MHS and analyse the advantages and challenges for each of the developed concepts. Automation and implementation into a factory setting has taken into great consideration for this study. Two research questions (RQ) and three goals were formulated:

RQ1: Which conceptual solutions of a material handling system for a high-pressure processing machine can be developed?

RQ2: What are the challenges and advantages of each designed concept in terms of automation and implementation?

Goal1: Develop three conceptual solutions of a material handling system.

Goal2: Identify target specifications and determine their margin and ideal values for evaluation of the three conceptual solutions.

Goal3: Analyse each developed material handling system and determine which concept is best out of the three in relation to the target specifications

Automation has proven to be a key cause for achieving an effective MHS on the market and the two main reasons for this are, one: the elimination of ongoing labour cost and second; an increase of the overall safety factor for the system. The thesis, using the design research methodology (DRM) type two, consisting of an in-depth literature review and case study that contributed to evaluation and comparison of developed concepts. The literature review contributed to identifying the necessary steps of the structure of the MHS and required tools for the development phase. For the case study, the projects developing phase were taken from Ulrich, Eppinger and Yang (2020) ´s developing method. Identified tools and knowledge from the literature was used throughout the entire case study such as multi criteria decision making (MCDM), computer aided design (CAD), material flow patterns, automation and high-pressure processing (HPP).

The findings of the case study showed that there are multiple concepts that can be developed. However, fully automated MHS are preferred when analysing the advantages and challenges for each fully developed MHS concept. The study resulted in three MHS concepts. Two fully automated ones and one semi-automated. The two fully automated MHS concepts showed more promising results than the semi-automated one. This was based on the MCDM-matrix which evaluated every MHS concept in relation to multiple criteria and failure mode effect analysis (FMEA) which investigated safety factors such as human safety and risk of MHS failure. Calculations such as capital cost and operational cost was also considered when analysing the differences between the MHS concepts. A fully automated MHS is not necessarily more costly in capital investment compared to semi-automated systems for the same HPP machine. Human labourers are, in semi-automated systems however, more precise in packaging operations, but also raises the operational costs substantially.