Working at GHSP has Been a Great Experience.
Hayden
Experience Information
Employer: GHSP
Job Title: Intern
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering
Received Credit: Yes
Paid: Yes
Abroad: No
Description of the Organization
GHSP is a great place to work. Everyone there is friendly and has a great sense of humor. There is rarely a day that I don't enjoy myself working there. If there is anything I need help on, somebody is always around that is willing to help. Most coworkers are impressed or excited that you asked for their help. It is a great feeling to know that others are supporting your project and want to see it succeed.
Description of the Tasks/Projects Completed
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.
Skills/Knowledge Gained Through The Experience
I've learned a lot about inventory systems. I have learned about different Kanban systems and how they work. There are so many different ways to organize and move products and components throughout your plant. I learned how to calculate different supermarkets based on how often and how much you can build given a specific work center and its demand. I've also learned more about how our electronics department currently works, the issues it has, and how my project addresses those issues.
Favorite Part of the Experience
My favorite part of this experience was staying right where I was. This was my second co-op with the manufacturing department. I got to work closely with my boss from last semester, and her boss (my new boss for this semester) both of whom are great people to work with. They are always willing and ready to help me. I also got to work closely with a lot of the same team leaders and coordinators as last semester. I've even sat at the same desk with the same people since last May. They are a great group of people to work with.
How the Experience Influenced Future Career Goals
I would love to continue to work at GHSP after graduation. I've never considered working on the manufacturing side of engineering before these co-op experiences, but now I can honestly say I enjoy way more than I thought I would. I always was more interested in the design of products and working in that realm of the PDM major, but now I see things in a whole new light. In order to become a great design engineer, you need to understand how real world parts are manufactured and assembled. You could come up with the greatest design in the world, but if it it can't be feasibly assembled it will never work. I hope to apply what I've learned so far into making myself a better design engineer.