PART VI | CHECKPOINT MATERIAL HANDLING ACADEMY

Four questions, one for each lesson in Part VI, plus a Riverside review. Work them without your notes. These are judgment questions: there's a right way to think about each one, not a sentence to memorize.

CHECKPOINT
  1. L24 The Perfect World ProblemA decline passes the static tumble check, and a gap calc lands right at the minimum required gap at the design speed. Name what real-world condition eats each margin first, where you'd add buffer and why, and what would tell you the engineer used solutioning tolerance where final engineering was called for.
  2. L25 The Gap Check and Capacity ProofA sorter's gap check fails: the gap produced at sorter speed falls below both the model-minimum gap and the geometric gap requirement. Walk the three levers you could pull, say what each one changes downstream, and name which one you can't pull without the customer. Then the twist: the WMS response latency you designed to just got confirmed at double your estimate. Name everything downstream of the scan point that has to be rechecked.
  3. L26 Reliability EngineeringA customer's maintenance is one reactive technician with no PM program, and your most reliable design needs weekly proactive maintenance to hit its targets. What do you change about the design, how do you decide which components get a spare on the shelf, and what do you tell the customer before they sign?
  4. L27 Validate for PeopleA 480V conveyor runs well overhead above an active work area, and there's a staircase beside part of the run. Separately, a cell uses a robot the integrator markets as collaborative, running at full reach outside a fixed footprint. What's the actual test for whether the overhead run needs underside guarding, and why isn't it a floor-measured height? And what do you need before you decide the cell can run without full perimeter guarding, and what makes a gate interlock a safety device rather than just a switch?
YOUR RIVERSIDE WORK SO FAR
DeliverableQuality Criteria
Validation package
  • Worst-case carton identified for every output, not the average
  • Margin stated and justified for slippage, inertia, and load shift
  • The mezzanine decline re-checked for the Tall Case at belt stop, thirds method applied to a shifted load
  • Peer-review triggers named
  • The full 16-step Product Spec Calc sequence run in dependency order with both gap checks passed, required rate confirmed in writing before the sorter section
  • The sorter gap checked against both the model-minimum gap and the geometric requirement
  • Every 90-degree transfer's trunk-line gap checked
  • The scan-to-divert distance redone at the confirmed 1-second WMS latency
  • Merge dead-time accounted for in the capacity number
  • The setpoints package assembled: belt speeds by section, VFD ramp rates, PLC delays, release modes
  • FMEA with the two prior on-site failures captured as observed failure modes
  • Criticality ranked: sorter and merge whole-line, spurs local
  • Spares held by criticality for a team of one
  • MTBF/MTTR targets set with the customer
Guarding audit
  • Pull-cord coverage on every accessible run: slack-cable switch, reach and access distances met, height and spacing cited as field practice per the switch manual, not as codified numbers
  • Underside exposure evaluated by exposure, not by a floor-height figure, with the mezzanine decline over the work area and the stairway both addressed
  • The forklift crossing guarded and signaled, with the near-miss history noted as urgency
  • Bearing and shaft guards specified at drive locations as factory options
  • Any robot cell evaluated by its application and a documented risk assessment, not a "cobot" label, with safety-rated interlocks on every gate
  • Every LOTO isolation point reachable by one person without a ladder or a second person
  • The governing authorities named correctly: ASME B20.1, OSHA general-industry-vs-construction, NFPA 70
Continue to Part VII: Communicate the Design