Design contest winners announced

By Staff -- Modern Materials Handling, 10/1/2004

It's a situation any company would like to be in. Vital Vitamins is enjoying tremendous growth, and needs to build a new, bigger warehouse. And it's got to be big enough to manage 20% annual growth for the next five years.

To find the right design, the fictitious company turned to the next generation of materials handling experts, current college students, as part of a national design contest. The team that came up with the best design is from Virginia Tech. Will Chen, Rohith Kori, Andres Marquez and Janet Wolf are the team members who split the $1,500 prize. Dr. Russell Meller, their advisor, accepted a $500 award on behalf of Virginia Tech.

This is the ninth year of the student design contest, which is sponsored by the College-Industry Council on Material Handling Education (CICMHE) and Modern Materials Handling. The Vital Vitamins case study was developed by consultant Gross & Associates.

As the CICMHE representative coordinating the event, Dr. Bryan Norman of the University of Pittsburgh, said the Virginia Tech team stood out for several reasons. To begin, it used a combination of automated and mechanized materials handling equipment. Simulation and other tools verified the effectiveness of the design. In addition, this solution was the most cost-effective of the entries.

Second place went to a team from North Carolina State, and third place to students from Rochester Institute of Technology. Honorable mentions included the next generation of materials handling experts from Cal Poly and Texas A&M.