Help with system selection
As early as this year, the Web may help you spec materials handling systems.
By Staff -- Modern Materials Handling, 2/1/2000
Spec'ing out a materials handling system can be tough. But that may soon change, with the help of the Internet.Bob Graves, a researcher at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY, says educational institutions and materials handling vendors are developing programs to help you choose equipment and systems via the Web. In fact, prototypes already exist, though they're not yet available to the public.
Here's how it would work: You'd be able to visit a Web site, choose a series of system requirements, and the software would return a list of specific equipment that would meet your needs. There would be systems for choosing a simple piece of equipment-say, a bar code scanner-or a complex, integrated system comprising several subsystems, Graves predicts.
Similar systems already exist in the consumer sector. Visitors to Wal-Mart's Web site can configure and order personal computers online. When applied to materials handling systems, though, these tools require much greater sophistication. As Graves points out, planning materials handling systems involves engineering decisions, such as making sure material flow rates are matched. For complex systems, he says, these spec'ing tools might not tell the user exactly what model to choose for each component. Instead, they'd narrow down the choices.
Much like early word processing software, these programs won't be broadly applicable at first, says Graves. Instead there will be modules for specific niches like AS/RS. Many will be vendor-specific; others may be offered by consultants or startup companies and allow the user to put together systems with equipment from multiple vendors. At least at first, the various systems won't plug and play with each other. But Graves thinks that eventually, trade associations may get involved in developing such technologies and helping to standardize them.
When will we see these systems? Graves thinks some may debut this year. But many tools now being developed won't see the light of day for several years. Between now and then, says Graves, "we'll see them released in fits and starts."
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