Experience Matters - Grand Valley State University

First co-op rotation at Autocam Medical

Zachry
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering I came into this co-op with four years of previous machining experience. My role this semester was somewhere between a skilled machinist and an engineer. I worked on a team to help design a process for a new product. This included writing CNC code, testing process capabilities, programming CMMs and other gauging devices and many more things. I worked closely with my team to get the process stable and repeatable on one machine with only one machinist (myself) and then was able to expand our process to four machines and train six machinists on it by the end of the semester.

Herman Miller Co-op 1

Chase
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering Some of the projects I worked on varied from designing conveyor components, to overseeing part re-routing on the floor, to data collection and interpretation. All of which included working with many different people throughout the company. I was also put on a group project with some of the other interns where we worked on a presentation all summer and reported out at the end.

Co-op Summer at Herman Miller

Samantha
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering This summer I was apart of the options team, which is responsible for making custom modifications to any Herman Miller design. I had the opportunity to engineer real products and actively contribute to my team. Furthermore, I worked on an intern project team that explored the supply chain and identified bottlenecks in the system that are hindering us from increasing the capacity of certain product lines.

Co-op at Transmatic

Avery
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering I completed tasks ranging from simple updates of tooling drawings to updating and designing components for assembly machines and presses in the Holland location. I designed a condensation hood to catch fumes and run off coming from some of the presses, part diverters where operators can switch parts coming off the press from going in the good part bins and bad parts bins.

Magna Mirrors Engineering Co-op 1

Jacob
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering This semester I worked along with product engineers in the door handle product development department. Throughout the semester I helped with the design and validation of various handle projects for numerous leading car manufacturers. Since the facility I worked at is an R&D facility, I spent a lot of time in the tool shop and validation lab modifying and testing handles for ultimate strength, travel, effort, and CFM (air flow). I also completing freeze test studies to determine water ingress. Another big part of everything I worked on was documentation of what I was doing. I spent a lot of time creating DOE's (design of experiments) for the tests I performed as well as filling out design verification plan and reports and bills of material.

2nd Co-op rotation

Tyler
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering I was asked to help design and build automation cells that assisted with the e-coating of the parts. This involved designing end of arm tooling for robots, building lighting cells to help illuminate the parts, and even coding the cell to help ensure the most efficient run times. I was also asked to design and build an inspection cell that vision inspected the packing of finished parts. This was done to ensure proper packaging. With this cell I was granted full design freedom and was allowed to code, build and design it how I envisioned best fit for the project.

Engineering Co-op

Gabriel
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering I spent the majority of the semester working on a new SATCOM antenna that we are trying to get contracted for. My responsibilities consisted of designing and modifying various components, coordinating with mold houses to have parts injection molded, designing and constructing interim fixtures to build samples of the antenna, physically building the antenna, and creating a drawing package for the antenna. I also completed similar smaller projects throughout the co-op semester.

Advanced Product Development

Kelly
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering This semester, I further developed my CAD skills with projects such as a camera mount, outside mirror blindzone signal, and electronics storage unit. I learned how to operate the CNC as well as how to test electrochromic reflectance in a temperature-controlled chamber. Over the course of the semester, I developed a standardized lighting specification procedure.

Scrap Metal Engineering

Alex
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering Projects included reverse engineering cyclone systems, designing airlocks, overseeing the design & production of four semi truck trailers, and helping organize the re-location of one of our recycling plants. Other projects included minor plant improvements and additions to our manufacturing processes.

Rotation 2 for CAE Role Co-Op Student

Adam
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering Magna Mirrors of America gave me the opportunity to train with a senior CAE (Computer Assisted Engineering) engineer to learn Finite Element Analysis (FEA) skills as well as Optimizations techniques, and other CAE tasks. Some programs that were assigned over my second rotation included completing FEA analysis and CAE analysis of Honda's T90A (Civic) handle program, Ford's U611 (Aviator) handle program, Toyota's 890B (Tundra) mirror program and multiple other smaller jobs that were required of me during the 16 weeks of the rotation. Although FEA and CAE took most of my time at the company, I was involved with multiple physical part testing and data acquisition for the U611 handle program, as well as GM's T1XX (Silverado Trailer Tow) mirror programs.

2nd Co-op Rotation at Gill Industries

Leif
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering This semester, I split my time between process engineering at a plant level and product engineering at a corporate level. In process engineering I worked closely with operators and team leaders on the production floor to monitor and improve line efficiency in several ways. Some of the smaller projects I completed include updating operator work instructions, modeling small fixture parts from drawings, and maintaining a daily throughput line chart that reported efficiency of one of Gill's larger volume lines. I also completed several larger projects like doing a time study on one of Gill's larger volume lines and completing an engineering time breakdown of every operation in the line, finding inefficiencies, and suggesting steps to improve the line. Another large project was measuring a feature on a welded subassembly to complete a study seeing if there was a correlation between weld fixture, stamping, and gap dimension. By far, my largest project while in process engineering was designing, ordering components for, and fabricating a flow rack for a line in order to potentially increase efficiency. The second half of this semester, I spent my time with the corporate product engineering team. Some of my miscellaneous tasks in this department included testing and measuring parts for quality concerns and benchmarking, comparing different revision levels of drawings, and gauging parts to see if they matched coordinate measuring machine (CMM) data. Most of my time in this department was spent preparing to take over the work of a project engineer that went on maternity leave at the beginning of April. This included attending all of her meetings with her in order to gather all of the information I would need to be self-sufficient throughout the product launch. My involvement in the launch included traveling to machine builders to oversee trial parts, speak with engineers from the customer, and do light rework on some parts. My experience in this stage of my co-op allowed me to step right into a full product engineering role and test my professional abilities.

Engineering Co-Op

Jackson
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering I worked primarily with the manufacturing and production of our products. My work mostly involved troubleshooting industrial machinery, improving and upgrading processes, and analyzing data.

Gill Industries

Jack
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering Over the course of the semester, I spent time assisting the Manufacturing Engineering, Product Engineering, and Estimating departments. Most of the work consisted of critical tasks that other employees did not have time to do themselves. I spent the majority of the semester conducting a dimensional study on a new program and participating in brainstorming meetings to develop plans to solve any problems. I was able to develop and display my design skills as well by designing and 3D printing smaller scale projects such as display fixtures and remote cradles for our test lab. the co-op involved updating and reviewing spreadsheets as well, which exposed me to the organization and communication of data. Most of the assignments were performed individually, but I was able to collaborate with other co-ops, occasionally.

Process Engineering Intern - Large Area Coating

Jensen
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering This semester I worked on projects that involved mechanical design, troubleshooting quality issues, developing testing methods used in production, and process support.

Second Co-op Rotation at Herman Miller

Robin
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering - Designed a 200 ft. steel cord guard for factory floor - Created a specialized actuator tool for Smart Desk assembly machine - Re-designed arm pad assembly station for Aeron chair - Designed and tested pneumatic hold down machine for screens assembly area, to reduce occupational overuse injuries - Designed 8' x 8' extending pack table - Designed a safety guard for lubrication area within Smart Desk work station - Developed and designed new brand specific asset tags for all Herman Miller machines - 3D modeled existing vacuum lifts for re-release

Innovation

Connor
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering As an advanced product design intern I work mostly on benchmarking and assisting other engineers. Benchmarking consists of taking competitors mirrors and creating a document that breaks down competitors mirrors performance and parts. Another huge part of working in the Advanced Product Development group is our quarterly innovation meetings. Each quarter we are tasks with prototyping a new feature or product that has never been done before and presenting it to the team.

Co-op 3

Bradley
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering My job during this internship was to play the role of a test and measurement mechanical engineer. This role involved designing fixtures, custom parts, and machines in CAD to improve the efficiency of test and measurement stations on specific assembly lines in all departments around the company. After a design solution was generated, it was also my job to send out the fabricated parts and purchase the necessary purchased parts. This involved the creation of a professional Bill of Materials as well as budget planning to justify certain solutions. Once that project was fully fabricated, it was also my job to assemble and wire the solution. This allowed me to spot mistakes and learn better ways to design machines and fixtures in the future.

Recycling Engineering

Alex
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering OSHA compliant guarding- from machinery to handrails for raised platforms. Platform designs for machinery, large scale material storage and transportation solutions- such as custom scrap bins and semi truck trailers. Multiple small scale projects to improve workflow and upgrade machinery.

Engineering Co-op

Gabriel
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering I converted ACAD and Inventor drawings to SolidWorks models and drawings using advanced modeling techniques. This involved aiding the development of an updated drafting standard based on current ANSI standards. Additionally, I completed time study analysis and completed several Engineering Change Orders (ECO's) for components that were being converted. Lastly, I designed and produced piece parts for an antenna for one of our customers based on military specifications. This project involved working hands on with machinists to understand manufacturing processes and with senior Engineers for precise Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T).

EGR 290: Co-Op Experience

Breanna
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering With Surge Cardiovascular, projects and tasks that were completed include the implementation of an antimicrobial wound care product line, updates to product packaging design, performing and completing design validation and verifications for a variety of tests on multiple product families, update to general documents, and completion of performance qualifications to validate manufacturing equipment and processes.

H.S. Die Engineering Co-op Student

Vincent
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering My daily tasks consisted of: testing the glass content of polypropylene production products, documenting functional and safety improvements to the plant, and inspecting molded parts for quality. Projects completed include: the creation of a safety data sheet booklet for chemical hazard reference, development of standard operating procedures for plastic injection molding, and data extrapolation for mold scoring.

Ravenna Ductile Iron Co-Op I

Nicholas
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering Throughout this semester I worked with RDI's engineering team, performing a variety of tasks to gain a broad understanding of the engineering aspects of a foundry. This included the cleaning and examination of casting mold patterns for damage or defects, scrap analysis of castings to determine patterns in defects, and CAD work to create new mold patterns or modify existing ones. A major project completed was the reverse engineering of a transferred pattern, utilizing measurement techniques and CAD skills acquired in earlier EGR courses.

Steelcase - Engineering Co-op Rotation 01

Zachary
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering Working with the manufacturing engineers at the Steelcase Kentwood plant, my projects ranged from helping implement new products into the plant to doing projects that helped support existing product lines. A good portion of my work was designing racks/fixtures on AutoCAD. These projects included speaking to the operators to get suggestions, working with suppliers to get the fixtures built, and getting the fixtures calibrated to ensure that they would keep parts within tolerance. In addition to that, I helped support other engineers with various other projects which exposed me to the different roles within the department. These projects included laying out production lines, compiling data to justify projects, studying processes and suggesting changes to make the processes more efficient.

1st Co-op rotation at Gill Industries

Leif
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering As a first rotation co-op at Gill, I had several different opportunities and responsibilities. With how Gill outlines their co-op experience, the first rotation is focused on exposing students to several different departments in order to understand every step of the manufacturing process from design to finished good. I began my semester working as a machine operator. Additionally, I developed operator work instructions and startup/shutdown instructions and posted them on new machines. In the manufacturing engineering department, I completed time studies on existing lines and came up with ways to improve efficiency and minimize unscheduled downtime.

Innovation

Connor
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering I helped develop a specification for a powerfold for a company.