PART II | LESSON 6: THE MTBH AND THE DESIGN ENVELOPE MATERIAL HANDLING ACADEMY
DRIVING QUESTION Which products should this system actually be built around?
A product mix drawn as a volume distribution: a tall band in the middle is the design driver and the bulk of daily volume, bracketed as the design envelope handled automatically. Thin tails on the left and right, the minimum and maximum packages, are flagged as exception paths.

The envelope is the fat middle the volume actually lives in. The thin tails get an exception path, not a wider conveyor.

The MTBH Table: Six Data Points

Min, Max, Average: What Each Drives

Minimum

A gap problem, not just a small one. Sets the smallest gap the sort has to act on.

Maximum

Sets belt width, curve radius, and clearance at transfers and merges.

Average

Drives speed and throughput. Tells you whether the system hits the rate.

DESIGN PRINCIPLE A system designed to handle everything can be blamed for anything.