Experience Matters - Grand Valley State University

Work Instructions

Dustin
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering Over the course of my second co-op experience, I wrote work instructions for different areas of the plant. The areas were the test stand for bypass valves, compressor assembly, and UPS shipping area. The instructions included steps and pictures for each step to eliminate confusion for the operator. I designed different ideas for a lifting device for one of their compressors. I also updated the plant layout for the core area of the foundry for equipment that was rearranged.

Working at Steelcase

Mark
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering -Worked on and involved in multiple different projects involving a variety of existing and new products - Chairs and Tables. -Worked on a sustainability project for a single product by organizing a full Bill of Materials for both EMEA and NA. -Worked on multiple projects with life cycle management (LCM) -> Cost reducing existing products by changing materials or changing the design by reducing the material used, but not decreasing the strength and integrity of the product. -Worked on developing mechanism plate for a new products chair - Worked on CAD modeling, prototyping, and organized and evaluated all FEA and physical testing to comply Steelcase standards. -Worked on a power management for a new table product - brainstorming, modeling, and testing to follow codes and compliance. -Organized, packed, and attained the materials for large important shipments to Europe for trade shows. -Created prints/drawings for a variety of products for supplier quotes and manufacturing. Worked on a HOT customer complaint issue by scientifically testing and proving multiple solutions.

Product Design at Knape & Vogt

Alex
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering I worked in the Product Engineering department on new product development and the improvement of current products. Daily tasks included 3D modeling of design ideas that turned into either making or ordering prototype components and any all new designs needed research and calculations to prove they could be effective or not. Those products would then have to be presented in a clear manner that explained their workings for other employee's to understand. Also completed testing of the prototypes as well as current production products to compare to competitor products with data analysis of testing done to present to other employee's and give recommendations on the best option to proceed.

Interning at Trans-Matic

Nicholas
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering My first rotation at Trans-Matic began with updating 3D cad prints using the Pro-E software. This job was a constant throughout the rotation due to the large amount of requested changes. Intertwined with the 3D updates, I was placed on several projects such as designing a conveyor system to sit in the back of one of the presses to remove scrap or redesigning a spindle head to better fit parts placed on them.

Steelcase Co-Op1

Mark
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering -Cost Reduction projects on Hosu, Visalia, Millbrae, and SW_1 chairs. -Involved in a few brand new start up product lines. -TPS project: Documentation of test specification on existing products. -Only engineer on importing some new products -Ganging project: Modeled and Prototyped a panel clip to resolve an issue on an existing product.

Co-op 2

James
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering During my time at Trans-Matic I completed many engineering related tasks. One of these projects involves improving the current process of drying and demagnetizing the media that is used to deburr one of our parts. The media consists of tiny stainless steel pins that are ~0.019" in diameter and ~0.125" long. In the current process the media is dried using an electric skillet. A previous intern developed a concept using a pneumatic vibrator attached to a sort of runway below a heat lamp that would dry the media as it was vibrated slowly down the track and into a bowl at the end. Through many tests I found more flaws and fixed them until we found that it was becoming too expensive and complicated to finish. I then came up with a completely new design which I will complete in my final week. I also researched and contacted outside suppliers of high speed cameras with hopes to purchase one for use with our presses. There is a meeting scheduled for 04/25 to determine which one we will purchase. Additionally I came up with energy consumption values using Ohm's law and measurements taken directly from the presses and a couple other assembly machines. With these values we were able to figure out how much money it was costing the company to run them.

Vention Medical

Ryan
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering I worked a lot on creating/updating a lot of maintenance and operating procedures for laser welding equipment. I also got to work directly with customers and suppliers in trying to solve product and process issues.

First Co-op Semester at Herman Miller

Daniel
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering A primary focus of my internship was to evaluate potential uses for 3D printing within both my specific department and the company in general. I also designed a fixture which causes a sign to flip 180 degrees when a rope is pulled and completed several other smaller projects.

Great Working Place and People

Nizar
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering I have worked on different projects such as investigation engineering problems, testing new products, designing customized parts and equipment, making engineering drawings, modifying solid works models by design tables, and working on SAP system for engineering changes.

Projects: Long and Short

David
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering As part of the main project I was placed with I was in charge of updating the Problem Solving Document, a Six Sigma tool used to analyze and keep track of projects. I ran tests on many solenoids, X-rayed them, and tore them apart to measure how certain parts had changed during calibration. I retrieved data from the End Of Line Tester and helped set up a work instruction for that task. One day some of the technicians called in sick and I helped keep the line running by fixing faults and supplying parts to the feeder bins. One of the product lines was going to get a new machine in the assembly, and while I was being built I was asked to help feed parts through to make certain it was running properly. I got some design work done with Solid Works. For one project I designed a gauge that would be used to measure terminal height at three critical points on the part. Another design was for parts that would help parts be picked up properly off of the track running through the annealing oven. I was also tasked with acquiring a piece of equipment for the quality lab that would function like an Instron, but be easier to use.

Internship

Brittany
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering I completed three red line packages. Red lines are the final model changes and job updates before a job is completed. I also was able to make a wire way cover and redesign a guide pin assembly that was creating an issue with its original design. I made templates for part changes on a current machine. I completed several detailing packages (prints), as well as, several detail checking. There was never a dull moment at work, nor was there a dull moment out of work! JR is a very community like company and provided me a great first co-op experience.

Hands-On and Fast-Moving

Stephen
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering I ran production on multiple product lines that included stamping, laser cutting, injection molding, and assembly processes. I also led a team of six other interns in completing projects for the division that would improve machine efficiency or eliminate wasteful steps in weekly processes for the company. I completed projects dealing with machine or operator efficiency by implementing an automated pump system for lubricating oil for a reflector press and creating a standard component for multiple laser cutters that would save operator time when starting new coils of parts. I identified new projects for the team to complete, ordered replacement parts for machines, shipped products, and assisted in updating quality documentation.

Engineering Co-Op 3

Kathryn
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering I worked mostly with the manufacturing side of CHI implementing lean principles and new manufacturing techniques to their new line of Bliss chairs.

First Co-op at Autodie

Tyler
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering I was part of the simulation department where I would take the developed parts from Catia CAD software and then placed it in Dynaform. In Dynaform I would mesh up the surfaced blank, post, cavity, and binders then checked for any issues like holes and other defects to the surface. I would setup the specific job and would run the simulation. After the simulation was done, I would open it in ETA Post where I would analyze and put together a report for Chrysler. I completed a project where all the active parts from the program would be simulated by dropping them on the nets described in the GD&T and using a new software we had just gotten. I had to create the net surfaces for each part then mesh them, set it up, simulate it, analysis it, and finally create a report for Chrysler and a PowerPoint for my coworkers on how to use the new software.

Blackmer Experience

Dustin
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering Writing assembly instructions, complete with pictures, for 29 compressor models that Blackmer offers.

Shape Corporation: Intern Experience

Chelsea
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering Two main projects were assigned to me this semester. One project being an optimization project, where I developed a methodology to minimize mass on a grill housing unit. The part is normally full of ribs, and the program used told us what ribs are necessary. The mass on the part can be greatly reduced while still staying within the stress constraints, displacement constraints, and frequency constraints. I created a document that takes a user step by step through the process and did many presentations to engineers involved with the part as well. The other main project worked on was simulating the forming process of the ends of an aluminum beam. The ends are "crushed" to fit into the design space, but this process leads to high-stress areas. I set up the simulation and post-processed the results. A few smaller projects were worked on as well. Another optimization project to find a light weight high strength beam and several small tasks to help with the work the rest of the CAE team does.

Vention Medical - 1st Term

Ryan
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering I worked mostly investigating and dealing with customer quality complaints, such as assemblies and devices not meeting specifications. Problems were investigated by thoroughly testing each part of the devices. Testing often involved having to design new and unique measurement methods and fixtures. Once the cause of the problems were found, I would help come up with solutions and have them implemented as soon as possible.

Magna Mirrors Engineering Co-op

Steven
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering During my first coop at Magna Mirrors I had the pleasure to design two pieces of testing machinery, learn different techniques of finite element analysis and visit General Motors and Chrysler. I had opportunities to immerse myself in a variety of designs, prototype builds and in the field mirror testing.

Working at GHSP has Been a Great Experience.

Hayden
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering This semester I was tasked with creating a system of visual scheduling for our electronics department. What my boss wanted me to create was a pull system closest to our customer. Currently, our planner schedules the week's products at the first work centers in the electronics area, the SMT's. The products are then arbitrarily forced through the other work centers based on what needs to be finished first. The electronics coordinators walk through the floor every morning and count the parts in progress to determine what we have and what still needs to be done. This leads to certain products sitting and waiting for long periods of time, parts getting misplaced, and inaccurate inventory counts. The pull system I have designed will utilize Kanban cards to move product through the various work centers. I calculated how often we can build the necessary products through the necessary work centers to meet our demand and based a supermarket for our finished goods off this interval. These supermarkets are designed to hold enough products to meet the average daily demand, to supply demand while the supermarkets are being replenished, and then a two day safety buffer. This buffer will slowly decrease as the system improves and there is less error. There is a similar supermarket setup inside the electronics department for the WIP. This is where the product is waiting to be used at some work center. There are two sets of cards that move with the products. One card follows the trays of WIP around the department, tracking its progress. The other set of cards follows the totes of finished goods from the last work center to the finished goods area. The finished goods cards are stored on a board denoting three separate areas. These areas are coded green, yellow, and red. While all of the slots are filled, the finished goods area for that product line is full. Every morning, a coordinator goes out and pulls the number of cards that meet that day's shipments and places them on the previous work centers build board. This signals them to start building certain products from their WIP area. As more cards are removed for shipments, the lower the supermarket gets, and the more into the red the finished goods cards go. This provides a visual way to see how much product is in the supermarket at any given time. As the work station consumes trays of WIP, they remove the WIP cards and place them onto another card board. This WIP card board has the same color coded slots. When a certain level is triggered, the cards are removed and placed at the SMT build board. This triggers the SMT's to start more products to replenish the WIP. The coordinators distribute the cards from this build board to the lines that are ready, or near ready to changeover to a new product. So far my system is only operating for three products from one work center. My boss wanted me to focus and start with these part numbers since they are some of the largest demanded products from our electronics department. There are a few more tweaks to this initial experiment that need to be made before it is rolled out to more work centers. I will continue to work on this part time throughout the summer.

First Co-op Semester at Faurecia

Amanda
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering While working at Faurecia xWorks in Holland I had the opportunity of working on components of major projects that were already in-progress. I also performed research for new projects and interests. During my semester I was also asked to execute tests of projects that were near completions.