Completing ME 250 this semester has taught me about
designing, manufacturing, teamwork and time management.
During the design process, I have learned to keep in mind
the limits of a project, such as available materials, manufacturing ability and
time. All four of my team members and I were new to manufacturing, a factor
that played a large role in the design of our machine. In order to design a machine
that minimized input and maximized output of these three and other qualities,
we tried for simplicity. If there were one thing I would wish to take away from
this class, it would be that simple is better.
I came into this ME 250 class with little exposure to
manufacturing processes. Learning to use the mill, drill press and other basic handheld
tools was both interesting and a little intimidating at first. After a while
though, it was gratifying to be able to make a connection between a part on
paper and the correct machining method to yield a finished part in 3D. From
carrying out these machining processes, I also learned the importance of
double, triple checking everything. We had several bad moments when our parts
didn’t fit exactly how we needed them to and resulted in time lost from our
already chaotic schedule. For example, the aluminum base plate (which catches
the lip of the restraint tubing as it slides down in the restraint housing to
keep the anchor from slipping through our machine completely) was just a smidgen
too small for the restraint to slide through. We spent well over an hour filing
it down to the correct size.
A large part of teamwork is communication. Something I
learned about communicating with my team in ME 250 and something I personally
had an issue with was the importance of being assertive. I believe this is what
I would change about my performance in this class. I found, especially in a
class that requires such varied work (CAD models, manufacturing, blogging, etc.),
that splitting the workload in terms of peoples’ strengths was helpful. I also
learned the benefit of preparing for a meeting ahead of time. The more prepared
we were individually, the more efficient our meetings became. Later on, as our
team utilized sources such as Google Docs our efficiency increased even more.
The one change I would suggest for this course is more
emphasis on manufacturing early. By the time our team realized the nearness of
the due date and began serious manufacture mode the machine shop was swamped,
whereas the previous week there had been machines open. Otherwise the GSI’s, instructors
and machine shop instructors did a great job of preparing us for the class.
My experience in ME 250 was enjoyable. Although the class
was a great deal of work and put me through a steep learning curve, the
majority of what I learned will be of great use in the future. It will be
interesting to see what ME 350 and 450 have in store.
-Jess
