Material Handling Resources
Material Handling Industry of America is the largest U.S. material handling & logistics association representing the leading providers of material handling & logistics solutions.
http://www.mhia.org/
Modern Material Handling magazine’s website.
http://www.mmh.com/
Material Handling Equipment Distributors Association Trade association dedicated solely to improving the proficiency of the independent material handling equipment distributor.
http://www.mheda.org
NC State University’s material handling equipment taxonomy definitions.
http://www.ise.ncsu.edu/kay/mhetax/index.htm
Material Handling Glossary
Automatic Warehouse - A warehouse in which a substantial part of the receipt, storage and dispatch functions are performed without manual handling of the goods involved.
Belt Conveyor - consists of two or more pulleys, with a continuous loop of material - the conveyor belt - that rotates about them.
Belweigher - or belt weigher is a piece of industrial control equipment used to gauge the mass or flow rate of material traveling over a conveyor belt.
Control System - A hardware/software system that has as it's primary function the collection and analysis of feedback from a given set of functions for the purpose of controlling these functions. Control may be implemented by monitoring and/or systematically modifying parameters or policies used in those functions, or by preparing control reports that initiate useful action with respect to significant deviations and expectations.
Forklift Truck - is a powered industrial truck used to lift and transport materials (also called a lift truck, a high/Low, a forklift, a stacker-truck, or a sideloader).
Loading Dock - is an architectural fixture where trucks may be loaded and unloaded. They are commonly found on commercial and industrial buildings.
Logistics - The science of planning and carrying out the movement and maintenance of operations. Deals with the design and development, acquisition, storage, movement, distribution, maintenance and disposition of material.
Pallet - A horizontal platform device used as a base for assembling, storing, and handling materials and/or products in a unit load. Usually made of wood, this platform supports the load when it is picked up by a forklift or pallet jack (also referred to as pallet racking).
Receiving - The function of accepting, recording, and reporting material into a facility.
System Configuration - An iterative design process consisting of the evaluation of the factors affecting products and production tasks, selection of a design concept based on these factors, and evaluation of the performance of the selected concept. Following the results of the evaluation, a system can be refined and reevaluated, or discarded.
Warehouse - A commercial building for storage of goods.
Warehouse Management System - or a WMS, is a key part of the supply chain and primarily aims to control the movement and storage of materials within a warehouse and process the associated transactions, including shipping, receiving, putaway and picking. The systems also direct and optimize stock putaway based on real-time information about the status of bin utilization.
