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.

Read More >>

Before I accepted my position as a research and development engineer at Bastian Material Handling, I only knew of a peripheral definition for material handling. This was due to my focus as an undergrad in automotive engineering, with some topical interest in aerospace and biomechanics.

I had the impression that between these three fields, the most important and exciting engineering work was being done. After beginning my career at Bastian, I was pleased to find out that material handling is chock full of challenging engineering problems and the possible solutions were as varied and unique as the products they handle.

Read More >>

I had the privilege last week, along with my friend and colleague Mark Gaskill, to speak at the Annual Warehouse Education Research Council Conference in Anaheim California. Our topic was “Breakthrough Material Handling Technologies”. This is the 3rd year that I have put together this presentation, highlighting new technologies and exciting uses for existing technologies. With Mark’s help, this was – in my humble opinion – our best presentation of the latest and greatest distribution technologies available on the market. Although the session was a multi-media presentation and lasted about 90 minutes, I will summarize some of the highlights and what I found to be the most interesting topics…

Click the title above to read more.

Our industry-leading HMIs have made yet another leap forward. Their intuitive 3-D rendered view screens now have the addition of animated product. The animations not only depict flowing product, but also are representative of the actual product located at those positions. This actual representation allows for real-time identification of the product and the ability to query for additional, related information. For example, as a pallet moves across the screen (depicted in the same location as it actually is on the conveyor system), the user can simply click on the pallet to retrieve the pallet ID and any additional information (order number, customer number, etc.)…