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EZ View Flow Meters Assembly Redesign
Students: Firas Banjar, Talea Lund, and Anthony Nespoli
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Leah Newman

This project called for the redesign of Racine Federated Inc.’s EZ View assembly station. RFI also desired a reduction in the time it takes to assemble a flow meter by 15 to 25 percent as well as an ergonomically designed workstation. The problems associated with this process included a cramped, unorganized workstation and wasted time walking around searching for needed components for the assembly of the EZ View flow meter.

After collecting the appropriate data, the team developed a plan for improvement. The combination of a more organized work space and the implementation of the new layout is expected to increase production by 520 to 780 additional flow meters per year.


AQ-1 Department Re-Design Project
Students: Mitch Bartczak, Philip Lee, and Elias Macias-Simeon
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Charlene Yauch

Safety-Kleen Systems desired an improved process layout and production flow of their AQ-1 production line. Safety-Kleen also wanted to increase production capabilities from 20 units per week up to 30 or 40 units per week, as well as to reduce non-value added activities. The team observed that the poor use of floor space was leading to an increase of these non-value added activities. The team developed and evaluated several layouts using the Simplified Systematic Layout Planning methodology. In addition, they used simulation software to develop a flexible resource allocation. The recommended layout and outcomes from the simulation are expected to result in a 550 square foot reduction in floor space, to increase production capabilities from 23 to 28 units per week, and to reduce nonvalue added time from 960 to 667 minutes.


Offline Area: Process Analysis and Redesign-FedEx SmartPost
Students:  Betty Cheng and Jennifer Lowry
Advisor: Dr. Charlene Yauch

This project involved the redesign of the manual processing area at the FedEx SmartPost facility.  A need for increased productivity was identified and became the focus of this effort.  The team accomplished the goal of increasing efficiency by focusing on two sub-objectives: 1) increasing worker productivity and 2) reducing error rates occurring within this area.  These objectives were achieved by gathering and analyzing data obtained from the client, research, interviews, time studies, and observations.  The major findings of this project are an expected 16.5% increase in productivity and a projected $76,650 cost savings.


Process Redesign-KitPackers
Students:  Juvissa Marks and Craig Rekowski
Advisor: Prof. John Farrow

Kitpackers requested an analysis of their processes to improve on-time delivery and reduce work in-process.  The manufacturing process and the floor layout were redesigned resulting in changes to the manufacturing area as well as storage and staging areas to improve organization and efficiency.  The redesign of the process improves material flow, reduces work in-process, and improves productivity.  The team used lean manufacturing analysis to create cellular manufacturing.  These cells reduce Kitpackers on-time delivery problems and work in-process.  This solution also provides more flexibility for workers and products.


UPS Route Improvement - United Parcel Service
Students:  Monica Block and Pavel Katsev
Project Advisor:  Dr. Tom Schuppe

Two Milwaukee area UPS distribution centers desired to improve their PM Air Express package pick-up routes. On the routes, drivers pick up express packages between the hours of five and nine pm on weekdays. Each driver is typically assigned to a specific geographic area. The goal of this project was to reduce the cost function of the routes, specifically by reducing miles traveled.  The project was approached mathematically; possible solutions were researched in literature and implemented programmatically. The final solution was a heuristic - or algorithm - with a user interface that solved the traveling salesman problem of scheduling the drivers within each geographic area.