Introduction

Material handling is a vital component of any manufacturing and distribution

system and the material handling industry is consequently active, dynamic, and
competitive. Material handling is an important practical consideration in the design of
new manufacturing and distribution systems, and research into better material handling
systems and practices is important in both academia and industry.

Because of the universal significance of material handling, it is important to

transfer new technologies from conceptual design to practice as quickly as possible. This
task is enhanced annually through two major material handling shows and forums: The
North American Material Handling Show and Forum in even-numbered years, and the
ProMat International Material Handling Show and Conference in odd-numbered years.
The Material Handling Institute (MHI), headquartered in Charlotte, NC, publishes
lengthy proceedings for both of these shows to ensure widespread dissemination of ideas
to the industrial and academic communities. In a typical year, the proceedings from
either show could contain multiple paper volumes or a CD-ROM with well over 1000
pages. The purpose of this book is to provide a compilation of the best papers from those
proceedings in a single volume.

This book contains reprints of those papers from the Proceedings of the 2000
North American Material Handling Show and Forum and the Proceedings of ProMat
2001 selected to be ‘most outstanding’ by the editors. The goal was to select outstanding
papers while providing variety in topical coverage, providing coverage of each of the two
conferences, and maintaining limits on total page count. Hopefully, the reader will agree
that we have been successful in achieving these objectives, will find that this book is a
useful reference in a much more convenient package than the original proceedings, and
will find that the resulting volume is a welcome addition to their professional libraries.

Criteria for Inclusion

The first step in determining which papers would be included in this book was to
rank the papers according to a jointly developed scheme. Each paper from each
proceedings was reviewed and assigned a point value between 0 and 100 with 100 being
the highest possible ranking. Papers were ranked according to readability (35 points),
utility (25 points), contribution and completeness (25 points), and originality (15 points).
A brief description of each category follows.

The possible 35 points assigned to readability relate to the general flow of the
paper and to the quality of writing and illustrations within the paper. The 25 utility points
primarily relate to an assessment of the pragmatism of the paper and relevance to
Material Handling Institute (MHI) membership and product groups. Contribution and
completeness refers to the motivation of the paper beyond a simple statement of
contribution. The editors sought papers that discuss new technology or new applications
of old technology. To score well in this category, the papers should be informed, and
would ideally include a supporting literature review or case study information. A total of
25 points were assigned to contribution and completeness. Finally, a maximum of 15
points was awarded for originality. The editors were looking for especially well prepared
or creative ideas in support of this category.

All papers in the two sets of proceedings were reviewed and assigned a numerical
score based on the above system. Those scoring 73 or more points have been included,
with the exception of those papers that are primarily reprints of presentation materials or
those papers that have been reprinted from previous ProMat or North American
conferences.

Topical Coverage

In past versions of this book, the editors have attempted to maintain a more or less
equal representation of papers from ProMat and North American conferences, but have
opted not to do so in 2001, letting the rankings themselves determine the selections. This
policy has resulted in the inclusion of fifteen papers in this volume, ten from North
American ’00 and five from ProMat ’01.

The papers have been further sub-divided into 10 topical areas that range from
AGVS systems to Web-based tools. Figure 1 provides an overview of the topical
coverage from the two sets of proceedings. Because the topical coverage is already quite
broad, the editors have not included lower ranked papers in an effort to increase
coverage. Once again, the paper rankings have proven an effective means of determining
selection as a 'best paper' and have served as the sole criterion for inclusion.

Three categories (Financial Strategies & Justification, Material Tracking, and

Simulation) are represented by more than one paper. This coverage is not intended to
indicate a bias on the part of the editors in favor of these areas, but is brought about by
the quality of the papers available. The North American proceedings were particularly
strong in papers discussing the various aspects of material tracking technologies.

Observations and Plans

The editors are pleased that the selected papers are diverse in terms of topical
coverage. The papers also represent a fair mix in terms of being written by both
academicians and industrial practitioners. All of the papers are pragmatic and practice
focused. In that regard, this book is an important companion book to the more research
oriented volume entitled, Progress in Material Handling Research, which is also a
CICMHE sponsored edited book published by MHI in even-numbered years.

North American ’02 and ProMat ’03 are just around the corner. We hope to see
you there and we will look forward to seeing your participation in the technical programs
at those conferences.
 Conference
Category NA ‘00 ProMat Totals
‘01

AGVS 1 1
AS/RS 1 1
Ergonomics and Safety 1 1
Financial Strategies & 1 1 2
Justification
Material Flow Control 1 1
Material Tracking 4 4
Palletizing 1 1
Reliability 1 1
Simulation 1 1 2
Web Tools 1 1

Totals 10 5 15

Figure 1. Topical Coverage in Terms of the Number of Papers Represented.