// Self-driven
A smart, self-paced course
Work at your own pace. Progress saves in your browser, comprehension gates keep you honest, and every lesson ships with slides, a worksheet, and a hands-on TRY IT calculator. Free to read, start to finish.
// The Academy
Material Handling
Academy
Educate. Elevate. Engineer Excellence.
A self-driven smart course that teaches you to design material handling systems the way a working solutions professional thinks. Eight parts, thirty-five lessons, with full instructor content. Built from 27 years of doing the job at every level.
// What it is
A course that teaches the way the job works
A self-paced program that remembers where you are, checks you understood before it moves on, and hands you two AI partners trained on the material.
// AI partners
An instructor and a study partner
Two conversational partners trained on the course. The AI Instructor walks you through each lesson and checks your reasoning. The Study Partner drills the flashcards on your own time.
// Instructor + certificate
Ready to teach, ready to prove
Every lesson carries a full instructor guide, so a team can pick it up and deliver it. Finish all thirty-five and the certificate unlocks as your proof of completion.
// The philosophy
Three ideas that run through everything
Framework 01
Imagine you are the carton
Before you select any technology or draw any layout, you should be able to close your eyes and trace the journey of a package through the system you are designing. Where does it enter. Where does it exit. What does it experience at every transition. If you cannot narrate that journey, you are not ready to commit to the design.
Framework 02
Forest through the trees
The ability to zoom out from the component in front of you and see the full system, the full customer operation, and the full problem being solved. Engineers who struggle in the field almost always struggle because they are in the weeds. This is the most important competency the program develops. It is also the hardest.
Framework 03
Solutioning vs. final engineering
Solutioning confirms the approach is correct and the technology is capable. Final engineering is where precision matters and specifications are locked. Knowing which phase you are in is a professional judgment this program trains.
// What's inside
Eight parts. Thirty-five lessons.
The parts build in sequence: read the floor, understand the product and the flow, design the conveyance, make it intelligent, prove it works, and hand it off. One project, Riverside, threads through the whole course.
01
Think Like a Solutions Professional
Lessons 1-4Read the floor first. Build the judgment and the language a working solutions professional leads with.
02
Understand the Product
Lessons 5-7Know exactly what you are moving. Build a design envelope from real data and find the outliers that drive the design.
03
Understand Flow
Lessons 8-10Tell the process story before any equipment is placed. Separate flow types as distinct design problems.
04
Design the Conveyance
Lessons 11-17Select the technology, size the rate, and lay out curves, inclines, transfers, merges, and sortation.
05
Make the System Intelligent
Lessons 18-23Zone control, the controls topology, and the data handshake at every smart decision point.
06
Validate the Design
Lessons 24-27Prove it works. Rate and gap checks, safety walkthroughs, and stress tests before anything is committed.
07
Communicate the Design
Lessons 28-31Scope accurately, disclose limitations, and present to technical buyers and business buyers differently.
08
Deliver the Solution
Lessons 32-35Support the project through installation, keep the drawing current, and close it out correctly.
// The capstone
Riverside Distribution Co.
A complete outbound sortation project for a real fictional customer. You discover the problem through character conversations, design the system through structured deliverables, and present a proposal that has to work for the engineer, the finance lead, and the maintenance team. This is not a test. It is a simulation of your first real project.
// Get started
Free. Self-paced. Yours to keep going.
The whole academy runs in your browser. Nothing to install, no account required. Eight parts, thirty-five lessons, two AI partners, and a certificate at the end.
// For teams & instructors
Bringing this to a team?
Every lesson ships with a full instructor guide, facilitation notes, and answer keys. If you want to deliver the academy to a group, reach out and I will get you set up.
// Support it
The student content is free. Always.
If it helped you, a donation keeps it growing.