Innotec Co-op
brad
Experience Information
Employer: Innotec
Job Title: Co-op student
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering
Received Credit: Yes
Paid: Yes
Abroad: No
Description of the Organization
Innotec is a very horizontal company that consists of many different "cells." Each cell is a machine that makes a part for a variety of customers. Each member of the cell is responsible for different aspects including running the machine. At Innotec it is very hands-on and mechanical.
Description of the Tasks/Projects Completed
During this last semester at Innotec, my time was split between my cell responsibilities (around 10 hours a week), production time (around 12 hours a week), and project time. My cell responsibilities were shipping, checking in materials, and safety. For shipping I would gather the parts that our customer had ordered for the day via a Hi-Lo. For material ordering, I would check in materials generally twice a week. We receive weekly shipments on most of our materials. The materials we use consist of large steel flat stock reels of 3 different size and thickness, copper flat stock reels, large barrels of 12 gauge and 10 gauge wire, and molded plastic housings. For safety, I would do monthly safety audits in our cell, complete at least 2 safety-related projects a month and inform other cell members of any safety concerns. The largest chunk of my time would go into projects. Most of my larger scale project were tied to Innotec's 8D system. With this system, you move the project through 8 steps: building the team, problem description, interim corrective action, root cause, permanent corrective action, validation, prevention and congratulations. I worked on mostly safety, MTBI (mean time between intervention), and changeover improvement projects.
Skills/Knowledge Gained Through The Experience
I learned many hands-on skills along with some controls skills. I used my design knowledge to create systems and then implemented these by building them through welding, cutting, wiring...
Favorite Part of the Experience
My favorite part of my Co-op was building the systems I designed. I loved fabricating and assembling the different components of a machine to create a working system.
How the Experience Influenced Future Career Goals
After my co-op I decided that I would like to go into a machine building type company. I enjoy starting from scratch and building up a whole complex system.