PART IV | LESSON 17: THE AUTOMATION LANDSCAPE MATERIAL HANDLING ACADEMY

Lesson 17 Worksheet: The Automation Landscape

Recall first. Then match each operation to the tool that fits it. Then the two scenarios, then your Riverside deliverable. Let the operation choose, not the catalog.

Recall

Short answers. Pull them from the lesson.

1. Name the alternative categories to conveyor from the landscape, and one operation each is the right answer for.

2. A specialty product is in the mix. What single question decides whether you build an exception path beside the main system or a different system entirely?

3. Name the three environment drivers, and say what each one rules out or punishes.

Match the Operation to the Tool

Read each operation and write the category that fits its real problem best. Choices: conveyor and sortation, AS/RS, goods-to-person, AMR/AGV, robotics, garment-on-hanger.

1. Floor space is tight but the building is tall, and the real problem is storage density.
Tool
2. SKUs are dense and slow-moving, and pickers spend the whole shift walking to the shelf.
Tool
3. The layout has to reconfigure often, and a forklift aisle can't be blocked by a permanent line of steel.
Tool
4. Outbound cartons need reading and routing to three dock doors at rate.
Tool
5. The mix is hanging garments that a flat bed would crush or mistrack.
Tool

Scenarios

Read each one and write your answer, then defend it.

SCENARIO 1

A customer with low volume, dense slow-moving SKUs, and a tight-but-tall building asks for a long conveyor-and-sortation system. Name what should make you pause before designing conveyor, and what categories of alternative you'd put on the table. Then say how you'd decide between them without running a single conveyor calculation.

SCENARIO 2

A food-packaging line gets sprayed down every shift, the maintenance team is small and reactive, and part of the product mix is bagged apparel for a sister operation. Explain how the environment and the specialty product each change the equipment you'd consider, and why the majority carton product doesn't get to make the whole decision.

RIVERSIDE PROJECT DELIVERABLE, AUTOMATION-LANDSCAPE REVIEW