I often joke with my wife about what it would look like if I took my two passions in life–designing and building warehouse automation systems and cooking–and combined them into one enterprise, an automation café. All the food would be delivered automatically, and the wait staff would be in the form of some fun type of HMI (Human Machine Interface) screen.

Over the years, I have had fun dreaming of how something like this might look and function. Would the conveyors used to deliver the food be placed over top of the tables or come up from under the floor? I like to envision the waiter on the HMI screen being a Max Headroom-like character, but perhaps the entire restaurant would be run by robots delivering food like Rosie in the Jetsons.

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Imagine a warehouse in which rows of full pallets could be stacked up to 165 feet in the air, one on top of another, on top of another. Then, with the ease and grace of a high quality machine, one of those pallets–weighing as much as 6,600 lbs–is gently lifted from its storage space and quickly brought to a worker at ground level.

This is the amazing world of automated storage and retrieval systems (ASRS). These automated systems have been perfected through the use of Swisslog stacker cranes. These cranes swiftly transfer pallets, containers, and even cars from storage slots within the ASRS to a pickup station outside the system…

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When I first read through the sales coordinator job description at Bastian Solutions, a material handling system integrator, I didn’t fully understand what this company did. Someone on the outside might ask what exactly a material handling system (MHS) is. While the CAD drawings (computer aided design drawings) look like they were drawn by a rocket scientist, an MHS very simply moves (handles) something (material) from point A to point B; an item is going from here to there.

As I learned more about material handling systems, I thought–a silly thought I admit–that even Santa Claus would be more efficient with a conveyor system…

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During the design process of any system, it is desirable to know how the possible range of input values will affect the system output. One back-of-the-envelope method is to assume the amount of resources the system will use, err on the high side, and protect yourself against failure.

However, what if you are designing a race car component? Would it be necessary to always be conservative? If you are, your competitor will be faster, more nimble, and will speed right by your driver. Understanding your risks–or the range of inputs that will play a role in your system design–is the first step in creating a mitigation strategy.

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Technology in today’s material handling world is changing at a record pace and will only continue that same trend. As I see this pattern, it reminds me of how history really has so many lessons for us today.

My dad was a farmer. When I think about all the changes that he saw over the years, I can’t help but admire his ability to keep pace with technology and to raise a large family on even a small operation. He was born on the farm and never had a job off that farm a day in his life. The farm was his life. And yet, there was Old Bob…

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