Bird-doggin the Internet: packaging & material handling equipment.

Packaging and material handling resources on the Internet are similar to those of other machinery niches. Most sites are those of individual design firms and equipment producers, and of the hundreds of sites of this genre which were reviewed, only a handful had content beyond brochureware and rudimentary ordering instructions. Fortunately, industrial trade associations have done a credible job of filling this gap. MHIA Online, the Web home of the Material Handling Industry of America, has a variety of useful information and links at www.mhia.org/. This site highlights trade show activity, product sections, news, professional societies, and industry research. It also has a bookstore offering methods and standards information, as well as education and training information. Free downloads include the SMA Shelving User's Guide and the SMA Mezzanine User's Guide. One telling trend prominently documented on the home page is the warning that players in this traditionally conservative industry need to "be a partner t o your customers [using] new technologies." This thought is amplified by links to a series of articles on how Dell, Motorola, and Daimler-Chrysler implemented e-Commerce solutions.

The Processing & Packaging Machinery Association at www.ppma.co.uk/ is the British association that serves many European firms. In a more traditional approach, they offer a "machinery finder" searchable database, trade news, and trade show information. The educational section consists of reprints from "Machinery Update Journal." Currently two dozen articles are posted ranging from conveyers and aerosol packaging to liquid filling and a series of articles on coding and marking. None are older than August, 2000.

Visiting the American counterpart to PPMA, one ends up at the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute housed at www.pmmi.org. This is a well developed site with an emphasis on regulatory matters and industry programs. I tried to find information in the "major surveys" and "quickie surveys" section, but unfortunately these pages were unpopulated. Information on industry design and market trends would certainly be useful in this age of rapid change. Moving on to what is useful, one can find here a .pdf download of ANSI/PMMI B155.1-2000, a voluntary standard to establish safety requirements with respect to the construction, care, and use of packaging and packaging-related converting machinery. Surfers can also find trade show information, an executive summary of the "4th Annual U.S. Packaging Machinery Purchasing Plans Study" (April, 2001), "PMMI's Guide to Key European Directives," and technical briefs. In a nod to the Internet age, Tech Notes" is now available electronically in either HTML or text format. The tech notes I reviewed concentrate on standards development and adoption.

No article on this market would be complete, of course, without referencing "Packexpo," arguably the premier trade show in this industry. The current site is located at www.packexpo.com/. Here you will find show information, product requests (leads), a news center, and packaging directories. There is also a "Virtual Exhibition Hall" which looked promising, but which turned out to be largely a text list of what various producers make, with links to company information. One interesting feature which I did not find at any other site was a list of packaging company stock prices, including changes in value, open/high/low prices, and volume traded on specific recent dates.

On the design and information side of the coin, we once again find ourselves visiting a number of good sites which are split between companies and universities. The Georgia Tech Engineering Information Systems Lab at eislab.gatech.edu/pubs/ has an impressive annotated bibliography which includes packaging and material handling resources covering design-analysis integration, optimization, manufacturing, design, electronic packaging, and injection molding applications. Another good, Georgia Tech site is that of The Logistics Institute at www.tli.gatech.edu/. This site, formerly Warehouse Management Systems, contains subject material used in the on-campus seminars which are traditionally held for 3 days in the spring and fall of each year.

Continuing on the design theme, eHandling.com has some brief but relevant design and technical tips for those of you developing material handling equipment. Located at www.ehandling.com/html/techtips/menu.html, their series of "HelpGuides" is classified by shelving, pallet, mezzanines, gravity, and lifting. The tips for shelving, for example, include 20 categories ranging from bulk shelving to workstation cranes. In the case of wide span shelving, the tips include recommended travel width, clearance suggestions, and storage options for various types of parts and components.

Another good site--this one with a downloadable 58 page .pdf document-is that of the University of Iowa's Intelligent Systems Lab. Located at www.icaen.uiowa.edu/~coneng/lectures/112000/Chl5-slip.pdf. This particular study, titled "Design of Parts and Systems for a Manufacturi ng Environment," covers designing for the process, for reliability and maintainability, for reconfigurability, for schedulability, and the relationship between design rules. And yes, it does include the math! There are also a number of other good design notes on the University of Iowa site.

While the design and fabrication processes are at the core of every packaging and material handling unit, it is becoming increasingly common to look at other elements of the supply chain. One good read which stresses this point is the paper "Change of Manufacturing Culture from Material Handling to Preventive Logistics." This is an overview, with fundamentals and case examples, of such emerging concepts as total productive maintenance, change over reduction engineering (CORE), and the DFMA procedure and tools for life cycle cost reduction. Find it at www.refa-international.de/articles/schmidt.htm. It is written in English and includes references, figures, and tables to illustrate the various concepts.

Steve O'Neil, Ph.D. is President of N'Fusion, Inc., an editorial and Internet consultancy which aids technology companies in integrating their print and online strategies, improving advertising and branding accountability. and building end-to-end e-commerce solutions. The company is headquartered in the Tampa Bay. FL area with offices and affiliates throughout the US. Europe, and the Pacific Rim. Steve can be reached at [e-mail] or 727-742-9169.