Capstone Design Program: Industrial Engineering

Transforming Industrial Engineering Theory Into Companion Laboratories with Practical Applications

Neil Grundy — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 11:01:40 PST

The goal of this project is to create an all-inclusive laboratory for the Introduction to Industrial Engineering course. For the beginning engineering student, this lab will reinforce current and past educational experiences, prepare them for their first co-operative experience, and develop their technical writing skills. The project will include five essential components: five different laboratory assignments, a student lab packet, prepared materials to complete each lab, and a professor/TA packet with grading metric. The requirements for this laboratory were developed through surveys of three separate populations that would benefit from this lab. The polled populations were Northeastern University co-op employers,...

Systematic Layout Plan for Baystate Benefit Services

Stephen Aiello — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 11:01:39 PST

The problems facing a small and growing business are often self-inflicted. Lack of attention paid to facility planning and work flow design, as the company grows, is common. Baystate Benefit Services is such a company. Baystate began in 1993 as a two person operation and has grown to become one of the regions largest insurance brokerages. As they became more successful, and the business grew, Baystate needed to add to their work force to accommodate the increase in business. The expansion happened in a piecemeal way, with no regard to work flow and location of resources. This project focuses on...

The Blades Manufacturing Process at Gillette

Jason Friedman — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 11:01:39 PST

Inventory control problems are a common concern at many manufacturing firms. The Gillette Company has made a commitment to modernizing their material handling and inventory control systems. Our project consists of working with the Blades Department to deliver a feasible solution to two problems in the manufacturing process. These are that the existing FIFO (first in first out) inventory system is not followed in several operations and that a sputtering (a carbon coating operation) operation can be skipped periodically. If a FIFO control is not established prior to a washing process, oil from a previous step sets into the blades,...

SWSG Information Management System

Douglas Lesavoy — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 11:01:38 PST

Strong Women, Strong Girls (SWSG), a nonprofit organization, focuses on the empowerment of women and girls through community involvement, social awareness, and women in history. The SWSG organization is highly dependent upon data to achieve their goals and to secure funding support. SWSG does not have a systematic method for handling data in both electric and paper formats, thus denying them the ability to utilize collected data to its fullest extent. The design team will present SWSG with a fully functional web-based information system (IS). The IS organizes and validates the data entry process, saving SWSG time and improving information...

Reducing and Monitoring Material Waste at Malden Mills

Joseph Abed — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 11:01:37 PST

Malden Mills has determined that their waste produced is equal to 4.1 percept on a forecasted production of 14,500,000 yards. The company loses an estimated $7.24 for every yard lost in the process. Observations were taken of the manufacturing floor, and supervisors as well as operators and managers were interviewed to gain more insight into the problem. From there, Pareto charts of waste data revealed that the 3 largest contributors to wast are the finishing department, the quality cuts taken in all departments, and finally the knitting department. From interviews, it was hypothesized that the main cause of these defects...

Mac-Gray Remanufacturing Operational Analysis Design Project

Alex Zinni — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 11:01:36 PST

Mac-Gray currently remanufactures approximately 5,000 washers and dryers per year. This process is referred to as certification. A recent business acquisition will require Mac-Gray to increase their production quantities to at least 10,000 machines per year. The capstone team has analyzed the current remanufacturing operations, identified opportunities for improvement and provided recommendations that will enable Mac-Gray to reach their production goals. To accommodate this increase in production capacity, Mac-Gray will purchase a new facility. Analysis of the current remanufacturing operations and the current facility layout enabled the capstone team to propose to Mac-Gray a new facility layout. The new layout...

Human Extraction Rescue Robot: Material Handling Methodology Proof-of-Concept Prototype (Athena)

Matthew P. King — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 11:01:35 PST

Rescue operations performed in dangerous situations constrain the rescuers ability to succeed at performing that operation and compromise the safety of the rescuers and personnel involved. The use of a rescue robotic device to perform an evacuation increases the survivability of the victim because it can extract the injured person in settings that are deemed unsafe for other people to enter. The outlined rescue robot is an investigation into a material handling methodology for robotic human extraction and a proof-of-concept prototype that has the capability to extract a two hundred pound dummy onto its conveyor platform, provide neutral head and...

Improving Throughput on Manufacturing Assembly

Onur Tachincioglu — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 11:01:35 PST

Power One is a leading manufacturer of customized DC/DC converters. The converters are composed of transformers, inductors and PCB. However, the focal point of this project is the manufacturing process of transformers and inductors. Currently, Power One is experiencing complications in their assembly line. Results from our extensive data collection and analysis shows that among other problems, such as poor tools and unorganized layout design, the assembly line is unbalanced. This generates large numbers of work in process, low efficiencies and higher operational expenses. Our approach included analyzing the high running transformers and inductors that would impact the performance of...

Cole Hersee SPC Project

Christine Blehm — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 11:01:34 PST

Because of an undetected problem in Cole Hersee switch manufacturing process, 1,400 defective switches were shipped to customers in late 1999. These switches underwent and passed visual inspection prior to shipment, but the test was not adequate to identify the defective switches. The NEU Capstone design team was asked to design an effective inspection test for the switches. Specifically, the team was to create a fixture for in-line random testing of switches, to establish control limits for the continual monitoring of the process using the testing device, and then to determine functional user limits (ie: the maximum recommended force that...

BJ's Wholesale Club: Product Flow & Staffing

Fawaz Al-Khalaf — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 11:01:33 PST

BJs Wholesale Club, Inc. is the leading wholesale club chain operating in the eastern United States. Since the 1980, wholesale clubs have grown very popular and hence, very competitive. In order to maintain its market in the United States, BJs must incorporate labor standards for their order pickers and forklift drivers. BJs can use this information to measure and optimize their productivity. Our solution will be based on our observations from the Stoneham, MA BJs and a mathematical model to help determine the optimal labor scheduling requirements. To verify our solution we will use a simulation to provide support for...

Allied Domecq Trombo Group Project

John Coviello — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 11:01:32 PST

The objective of this project is to develop a spreadsheet-based model that helps determine the optimal equipment allocation in new Allied Domecq Trombo facilities. Allied Domecq, the parent company of Dunkin Donuts, Baskin Robbins, and Togo, utilizes the concept of shared resources to combine their three brands into one store. The model ensures an acceptable range of customer wait time and equipment utilization. These constraints are based upon peak hour sales demand. Because variable demand is common to the retail environment, the model incorporates Monte Carlo analysis to simulate the impact of variation. With this probability addition, the static model...

Americorps Service-Based Project

Kerri Beiswenger — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 11:01:32 PST

The main objectives of this project are: (1) to facilitate a more efficient manner to collect, store, and retrieve needed information on performance measures for the Massachusetts Promise Fellowship Program, (2) to understand, analyze, and finalize at least three performance measures that effectively evaluate the need and impact of programs for the Fellowship Program, (3) to provide the Fellowship Program with a reporting system that reduces the time it takes to report performance measures back to their funding organization. The Massachusetts Promise Fellowship Program serves youth throughout various communities of Massachusetts. In order to receive funding from their parent organization,...

Abutment Hammering Tool for Dental Implants

Robert Birichi — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 11:01:30 PST

The following report analyzes the need for a device to be used in conjunction with the Bicon taper lock abutment systems used for prosthetic reconstruction when a tooth has become extensively damaged. In this system, an implant is placed in the jaw and integrated through bone regeneration. The titanium implant acts as a synthetic root, producing a solid foundation for the prosthesis. An abutment is then placed in the implant. The abutment serves as a post for cementing a prosthetic tooth to the implant. The abutment in the Bicon system is applied to the implant through a taper lock mechanism,...