Teaching Tactical Industrial Engineering to

High School Students

Brandon R. Theiss, PEBrandon.Theiss@Rutgers.edu

About Rutgers Governor School

• At no cost to their families, students spend three weeks of the summer following their junior year studying on the campus of the Rutgers University School of Engineering

• Scholars gain hands-on experience in research and work on challenging and open-ended problems with others who share their love for engineering and technology.

• Free of grades and official credit, GSET emphasizes current research trends and teamwork.

• The hands-on learning environment is unique, non-traditional, and inspirational

• Program lasts three weeks

Selection Process for Governor School• Student must be nominated by his or her high school’s nominating

committee.• Students are evaluated based upon

• Transcripts• Essay• Extracurricular Activities • PSAT Scores• Teacher Recommendations

• 15% - 25% of nominees have been offered

Students Typical Day

Course Schedule• 2 Required Courses – Physics & Robotics• 3 Electives• Complete one Research Project

• Autonomic Cloud Computing!• Biofeedback for Correction of Dance Movements• Biomechanics of Human Body Motion: The Effect of Excessive Backpack Loads on Human Posterior Trunk Muscles• Brain Control: Facial Typing System• Centrifugal Molding of Elastomeric Robots• Dynawheel Stroke Rehabilitation through Android Games• Electric Motor Design• Engineering the Next Generation Airplane• Exploring methods to develop cross-platform mobile apps• Fabricating and Characterizing Polymers and Composites• Fabrication in a Clean Room: Key to Success from Microelectronics to Nanotechnology• Innovative Design in Substation Engineering• Magnetic Bead Manipulations in Microfluidic Devices• Optimization of a Pharmaceutical Formulation• Pandemic Pathfinding: Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse• Parallelizing programs for the multicore era• Real-Time Personalized Stress Analysis• Schlieren Visualization of Shock Waves in Supersonic Flow• Separation of Mixtures in Microfluidic Devices: A Macroscale Model Using Magnets

• Six Sigma Styled Analysis of the Glass Fabricating Process at Silver Line Industries• Synthesis of Zinc Oxide Nanomaterials

About Silver Line Industries

• Founded in 1947 • Acquired by Andersen in 2006• 7,000 windows a day • Leading manufacturer of vinyl windows • Facility Located 5 miles from Campus

About the Students

Jenna Ritchie- Southern Regional HSManahawkin, NJ

Bertha Wang-Hillsborough HSHillsborough, NJ

Nikhil Shukla-Cherry Hill High - EastCherry Hill, NJ

David Liedtka-Notre Dame HSLawrenceville, NJ

Student Qualifications

• Rising Seniors• Selected for Industrial Engineering project based upon affinity

• Was not anyone’s first choice

• One student had taken a statistics course• Students didn’t know that the field of industrial engineering existed

nor what industrial engineers do?

The Problem

• Reduce Glass Breakage• Only 3 weeks• 8 hours onsite at Silverline• No prior training or knowledge of Industrial Engineering

• “Before Governor’s School, I had a very limited understanding of industrial engineering,”- Bertha Wang

• No known solution

The Approach

• Formally teach the tools techniques and methods of industrial engineering in a traditional classroom (though late) context

• Assign the students an activity related to the concept• Finally have the students apply it the next day in the field

Week 1

• Two site visits of 90 minutes each• Four Hours of in class instruction• Goals

• Define who the customer is• Define what the process is• Identify concerns with the current process

• Deliverable• 3-5 Page paper • 15 Minute Presentation to internal project team

In the students words

• “In working side-by-side with Silver Line, we quickly realized the amount of data that needed to be collected was extraordinary”- Nikhil Shukla

Giving the Students the Tools

• Students were given each a copy of the Certified Six Sigma Green Belt Handbook

• Not given assignments but told to use a reference

• Students were instructed to download the free trial of Quality Companion

• Students were assigned to complete some of the online tutorials

• No formal training in the software

Lesson 1

• Topics Covered• Introduction to DMAIC• Brainstorming Techniques• Supplier Input Process Output Customer diagrams

• Assignment• Create a Fishbone Diagram using Quality Companion to identify the root

causes for the defect of “Brandon does not have a girl friend”.

Fishbone Diagram- Why Brandon Doesn’t have a girl Friend?

2nd Day students were on the production floor

• Students actually brought to the “Gemba”

• First time exposure to:• Noise• Heat • Energy• Danger

• More than a field trip, had actual deliverable

SIPOC Diagram

Lesson 2

• Process Mapping• Value Stream Maps

• Value Added vs Non Value Added?• Was their entire education up to this point in their education value added?

• Process Maps• Work Flow Spaghetti Diagrams

Overview of Window Assembly

Site Visit 2: the Value Stream Map

Day 4 Presenting the Results

Week 2

• Two site visits of 90 minutes each• Four Hours of in class instruction

• Goals• Present SIPOC and Value Stream Maps to the Customer• Create and Verify Individual Process Maps• Identify Current Data Collection

• Deliverables• 3-5 Page paper • 15 Minute Presentation to internal project team

In the students words

• We found that even the smallest of details could have an enormous effect on our end results.” - Nikhil Shukla

• “The process maps were a critical part of everyone on the team developing a thorough understanding of the processes we observed from start to finish”- David Liedtka

Detailing the process

The importance of verifying for completeness

Reaching out to Other experts

• Glass undergoes brittle fracture• Material shows no plasticity response

to a tensile load• No slip of dislocations to other

crystallographic planes• Fracture occurs through the

propagation of cracks through the material perpendicular to the direction of applied loading

mech.utah.edu

• Cracking is the breaking of bonds (Remember I said this……)

• For brittle materials, often rapid and catastrophic with crack quickly propagating (Important caveats for glass here though….)

Dr. Steven Mercurio

Week 3

• Two site visits of 90 minutes each• Four Hours of in class instruction

• Goals• Present QFD and Metrics Maps to the Customer• Ideal State Process Maps• Recommendations

• Deliverable• 3-5 Page paper • 15 Minute Presentation

In the students words

• “We were constantly presenting the progression of our project to Silver Line employees of various ranks with different levels of understanding of our project”- Jenna Ritchie

How to present the results

• Lesson Focus• Identify who your audience is• What information is important to each group• Transcending Language Barriers• Making the results meaningful• Using the right tool to present the right message

Fishbone Diagram

Glass Breakage

Man

Materials

Machines

Methods

Measurements

Environment

Thinner glass tends to break more often

Dropping the window modules

Diamond cutting blade causes cracks

Operator whips glass as opposed to using edge to break

Minimal data collection

A cooler surface temperature makes glass more shatter-prone Operator does not

line incision up with edge of cutting table

Previously existing imperfections

Glass is not secure in carts, prone to damage on bumps

Machinery malfunctions

Inconsistencies in floor puts glass at risk of cracking in cart when cart hits a bump

Human errorHeating lamp

The way the operator drives the cart

Optimization software

Bumps on butyl put added pressure on the glass

Pressure from fitting modules into sash

Using the Man Machines Materials fishbone template in Quality Companion, the team could easily define possible causes of glass breakage and structure those causes into categories.

Pugh Diagram

By using the Pugh Matrix, the team was able to identify the best recommendations for improving Silver Line’s window-making processes—and decrease the amount of glass breakage that occurred on the line.

The Results- Silverline

• “We especially appreciated that the solutions the students presented addressed many different aspects of our overall process, which will allow us to attack process improvements from a variety of angles” - Scott Steurer, quality assurance manager at Silver Line

• Detailed Process Maps• Time studies• 4 Proposed solutions which with further investigation could yield dramatic

savings

The Results- Students

• “This project has shown me the depth and detail necessary for industrial engineering, as well as the unlimited application of statistics.”- Bertha Wang

• Invaluable Experience• 16 page research paper• Real world experience

Questions?

Contact Information:Brandon R. Theiss, PE

Rutgers School of Law- CamdenBrandon.Theiss@Rugers.edu