December 21, 2022
Seniors in the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering conclude their coursework with a capstone project. The students meet and work with assigned companies to help improve efficiency, quality, cost effectiveness and safety.
Students work together in small groups and with company representatives to develop and justify engineering solutions within the constraints of real problems.
This past semester, one IMSE capstone group worked with Environmental Dynamics International to increase throughput of the company’s disc assembly area by at least 10%. They were also tasked with determining if the disc assembly cell has enough capacity to meet expected 2023 demand.
The group conducted time studies on all three operators and ultimately recommended the company change the current layout by swapping the locations of operator 2 and WIP to maximize efficiency. The change would put all three operator stations next to each other, allowing operator 2 to produce more discs than with the previous set up. Overall, the group estimates an increase in throughput of 17.5%.
Another group worked with the Harry S. Truman Memorial Veteran’s Hospital (VA) to increase the space optimization and optimize the current space while maintaining the functionality of the Pysix system of the operating room supply room to allow nurses to find the supplies they need as quickly as possible.
They recommend a supply lookup station, standardizing labling and visual management and eliminating lesser used products to make room for more frequently used supplies. An alternative solution was to replace the Pyxis machines with a two-bin Kanban system with open shelving and barcode scanning. That method would save space, as the shelves take up less space than the Pyxis machines and save time without requiring nurses to login with their credentials to access supplies.
Below are all capstone projects from the Fall 2022 semester. Take a few moments to learn how IMSE develop solutions to engineering problems.
Group: Rework Station Analysis and Redesign
Team Members: Lino Cruz-Terrones, Landon Henson, Eli Marquart and Conrad Rauhaus
Objective: Improve rework station by redesigning the layout to decrease cycle time and increase operator safety
Group: Environmental Dynamics International
Team Members: Matt Deay, Quentin Meyrand, Thomas Spence and Jake Szweda
Objective: Increase throughput in the disc assembly area by at least 10% and determine whether the disc assembly cell has enough capacity for the projected 2023 demand
Group: Storage Optimization at VA Hospital
Team Members: Jillian Baker, Sofia Gulyayev and Peyton Mocco
Objective: Increase space utilization and optimize current space of OR supply room while maintaining the functionality of the Pyxis system