FInal Post

ME 250 really changed my view on the manufacturing process. In any previous project-based class or endeavor I undertook I would typically get a general idea of what was to be built and then begin building. This would then result in an extremely inefficient building process, wasted materials, and usually an extremely sub-par result. This would then have to be redesigned and rebuilt to get an end product of desired quality. In ME 250 we spent the vast majority of the semester designing the machine, making a CAD model, and tweaking the design. We then spent about 2 weeks or so actually building the machine and the end result worked astonishingly well. This really taught me how much more important the design stage is than the building stage and how the design stage can really be broken down into many parts starting from broad strategies down to individual components of your final design. I also learned how every detail of your design affects multiple different functional requirements for your final product and how you can analyze these kinds of things using a simple pugh chart.

Overall my team was fairly well organized which helped us to stay on track with our goals in the class. We also got along very well with each other, which was a huge advantage and taught me a lot about teamwork. What really makes a good team though is not only a group of people who work well together, but a diverse team as well. People will obviously do the best job at something that they like to do and are hopefully good at. So if your team is diverse enough then you can simply let everyone do the tasks they want to do and just help out with the other tasks. This results in everything being done well and it helps everyone to learn from each other. Also, if your team is diverse in leadership and or management abilities than you will do much better than a team with 4 dominant leaders or vise versa. Therefore it is very important that people begin to understand where they can fit in best in the group and to take on that role whether or not it is their most dominant strategy for team management. Most people at least somewhat have the ability to play several different roles in a team and it is important that all of these roles are fulfilled including the leader, analyst, promoter and supporter.

In the future I believe that ME 250 should have more CAD labs. Although I did gain a basic understanding of SolidWorks, I did not even come close to becoming proficient in the program. This is a valuable skill and has huge potential if mastered, but takes a lot of time and practice. Also, I was surprised that we did not have to complete a more extensive final report and reflection on the class. Although I did learn a lot from the reflection I am currently writing I think that there were more overall ideas that could have been taken from the course that I may be missing. This probably could have been emphasized more. I would also of greatly appreciated more mill times during the final weeks. This would of helped us to finish earlier and make a better machine.

Simply put I could have improved my performance by putting more time into the class. Although I don’t think it was absolutely necessary I am sure that if we had completed our machine a few days earlier we would of done better in the competition. We would have had more time to fix problems and master the control system. However, the rest of the class was in the same time constraint as our team, which leveled the playing field and actually helped us because of the simplicity in our design.