Applied Engineering

Projects

We gratefully acknowledge Jim Manely and the Demmer Center for Business Transformation at Michigan State University for their guidance and assistance with our projects. We gratefully acknowledge Judy S. Jacobs, Director, Corporate & Student Relations Office, Michigan State University, Department of Supply Chain Management for her assistance in securing projects.

For information on becoming a project sponsor, please contact Dr. Laura Genik.

The following are the project sponsors and projects for the Spring of 2010:

MSU Center for Service-Learning and Civic Engagement (CSLCE): “Fill the Bus” Logistics Analysis

Screen Shot 2016-05-17 at 9.33.20 AMFor over 40 years, the Center for Service-Learning and Civic Engagement (CSLCE) has been getting students involved in their community through a number of service opportunities. The Fill-the-Bus program debuted during welcome week in September 2009 and targeted freshman, instilling in first year students the importance of civic responsibility to the Spartan community. Each academic college requested that freshman bring an item to donate such as pencils, notebooks, cans of soup, non-perishable snacks, soap, shampoo, combs, band aids, etc to be donated to organizations such as the Lansing School District, Boys and Girls Club, and the MSU Food Bank.

We collaborated with CSLCE to make the Fill-the-Bus event an even greater success this upcoming year by reaching a larger number of students and maximizing the impact on the community. We did this by developing a plan that optimizes sorting, scheduling, and sourcing activities during the event. Improving the distribution of these donations will ensure that each recipient organization receives goods best suited to their needs. This was accomplished by utilizing process mapping and project planning software. In addition, we developed an enhanced marketing plan to broaden the campaign this year to target all students. This will not only increase the amount of donations, but will simultaneously better reinforce the message of civic engagement to the entire Spartan community.

Team Members (L-R): Sarah Crete, Kelsi Franckowiak, Amy Gerstacker, Jon Wiita, Kevin Bowen

Team Members (L-R): Sarah Crete, Kelsi Franckowiak, Amy Gerstacker, Jon Wiita, Kevin Bowen

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Girl Scouts Heart of Michigan Council: Long Term Strategic Development

Screen Shot 2016-05-17 at 9.38.40 AMOur capstone group created a comprehensive plan for The Girl Scouts of the USA, headquartered in Lansing, Michigan. The plan is geared towards increasing sales revenue and reducing reliance on cookie sales while increasing revenue from donations and merchandise sales. The plan was partially completed by our group throughout the semester and can be continued by future capstone groups. Our team came up with ways to keep a record of where sales were both made and attempted, which can increase the number of customers asked to buy products, reduce redundancy in attempted sales, and reveal trends in sales. Making customers more aware of how they can purchase products and how their support helps Girl Scouts and the community was also part of the comprehensive plan. Surveying potential customers allowed our team to better understand the effect on sales if customers were made more aware of how supporting Girl Scouts is both tax deductible and a good cause. By giving customers discounts on cookies and merchandise, overall sales and advertising from merchandise distribution can be increased. Through looking at the success of selling cookies in unconventional ways, such as at sporting or holiday events, Girl Scouts may potentially increase overall sales revenue considerably. By helping make The Girl Scouts of the USA more successful, our team helped support their mission of increasing young girls’ independence, confidence, and sales experience, all of which help improve the rest of their lives.

Team Members (L-R): Cory Gregory, Sam Moser, Clayton Rice, Tom Herzog, Steven Moyers

Team Members (L-R): Cory Gregory, Sam Moser, Clayton Rice, Tom Herzog, Steven Moyers

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MSU Extension: Ingham County Fresh Foods

Screen Shot 2016-05-17 at 9.41.06 AMThe MSU Ingham County Extension is committed to helping American families in Ingham County who are experiencing stress during these current economic times. Working together with Michigan State University, the Ingham County Fresh Food Initiative is designed to give the citizens of the Greater Lansing area fresher fruits, vegetables, dairy, and meat. This, compared to the boxed and canned food they mainly receive now, will give people more nutritious food along with decreasing food waste.

The Greater Lansing region is home to many seasonal and year-round fresh food producers; however the Greater Lansing Food Bank only collects a small amount of these fruits and vegetables. Therefore, a gap exists between potential production and connecting interested growers to supply the food bank with greater amounts of fresh food. The main objective is to help make recommendations on the feasibility of incorporating fresh-foods into the emergency food networks’ supply chain. This can be done by identifying farmers interested in donating to emergency food providers, finding incentives for farmers such as tax breaks, and developing good marketing strategies to promote this cause.

Team Members (L-R): Craig Maser, Brett Neumann, Randy Bell, Damon Chang, Matthew Bogg

Team Members (L-R): Craig Maser, Brett Neumann, Randy Bell, Damon Chang, Matthew Bogg

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Greater Lansing Food Bank: The Garden Project: Packaging and Procurement

Screen Shot 2016-05-17 at 9.50.35 AMThe Greater Lansing Food Bank operates a field gleaning program called The Garden Project. It provides food pantries with fresh produce that would normally go to waste. It also supplies organizations, residents of subsidized housing and others in need. Area farmers and growers allow volunteers of the project to come and harvest the extra crops out of the fields and distribute them directly to those in need.

In previous years, volunteers of the gleaning program have relied on donated banana boxes from a Meijer distribution center to store and distribute the produce. In 2009, the program used over 7,600 boxes to move 336,000 pounds of fresh produce – including over 225,000 pounds of apples. Due to the closing of the distribution center and a change in the supply chain, Meijer can no longer provide packaging materials to The Garden Project.

While our clients had the food and volunteers to distribute to the hungry, our team accepted the challenge to make sure that The Garden Project had a reliable and sustainable alternative to package and distribute the food. We were able to procure reusable as well as disposable packaging in an efficient and cost effective manner. This enabled The Garden Project to concentrate on feeding the hungry in the greater Lansing area.

Team Members (L-R): Adam Briggs, Anne Rauscher, Amarpreet Gill, Jonathan Stratton, Nicholas DIetz, Jamarr Lewis-Whatley, Timar Hughes, Kyle Kirkby

Team Members (L-R): Adam Briggs, Anne Rauscher, Amarpreet Gill, Jonathan Stratton, Nicholas DIetz, Jamarr Lewis-Whatley, Timar Hughes, Kyle Kirkby

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Greater Lansing Food Bank: Food Bank Collaboration 

Screen Shot 2016-05-17 at 9.57.29 AMThe Greater Lansing Food Bank, in conjunction with the Mid- Michigan Food Bank and the Ingham County Food Bank, has been working for years to distribute food to families in need in the Tri-County Area. Recently, a lack of information sharing and data collection has become a roadblock in their operations, causing inefficiency and redundant measuring systems. As a result, food is not being distributed equally as some individuals “play the system”to receive more donations, while others go without any assistance at all.

This project is particularly meaningful to the sponsors because it allows them to determine the number of individuals fed each year, which they have previously been unable to determine.

We implemented a system which improved the data collection and processing within the Food Bank system. This system measured the amount of food entering and leaving the system, in order to produce reliable data about the number of people served, the number of meals provided, and the amount of food collected.

A uniform information system was implemented throughout the food collection system in order to increase the quality of data. Up to this point, the data collected was unreliable and inconsistent. This system improved the quality and regularity of the entire system. The improvements we made to the Greater Lansing Food Bank, and its partners, will undoubtedly improve the data collection and processing within the Food Bank system. This will allow for better external reporting and identification of internal problem areas.

Team Members (L-R): Chi Heng Huang, Terry Link, Dembe Ndiaye, Justin Kanera, Gregory Swears, Babob Chalou, Missing: Myung Yeo

Team Members (L-R): Chi Heng Huang, Terry Link, Dembe Ndiaye, Justin Kanera, Gregory Swears, Babob Chalou, Missing: Myung Yeo

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Greater Lansing Food Bank: Food Bank Route Optimization

Screen Shot 2016-05-17 at 10.06.56 AMThe Greater Lansing Food Bank (GLFB), servicing the tri-county area of Ingham, Eaton, and Clinton counties, provides food to tens of thousands of people each year. These people include seniors, children and the “working poor,”those individuals that don’t earn enough to meet their daily basic needs. The Greater Lansing Food Bank works closely with the Mid-Michigan Food Bank, which provides similar services in seven counties that overlap with GLFB’s three counties.

Our challenge was to optimize truck route coordination between GLFB and Mid-Michigan Food Bank, ultimately saving gas, time, and money. Often times, trucks from both entities would perform similar tasks on the same day in the same area. With an overlap it was evident that communication and collaboration was needed.

Our Capstone class allowed us to bring together our engineering and business skills to create a viable solution to this challenge. We used a Six Sigma approach to process design in order to eliminate redundancies. We were able to present our sponsor, GLFB, with an efficient route alteration, utilizing Mid-Michigan Food Banks resources and vice versa. Our technical and business training, along with our creative skills, enabled a route fusion that demonstrates savings in gas, time, money and results in revenue generation.

Team Members (L-R): Lisa Christman, Heather Wilkinson, Terry Link, Salvatore Grillo, Brian Tanis, Bob Chalou

Team Members (L-R): Lisa Christman, Heather Wilkinson, Terry Link, Salvatore Grillo, Brian Tanis, Bob Chalou

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Mid Michigan Red Cross (Mid MI Food Bank): Training Program for Volunteers

Screen Shot 2016-05-17 at 10.15.01 AMAs the economy declines, Mid-Michigan families are finding it harder to make ends meet. The demand for food assistance is growing throughout Michigan. Several agencies and non-profit organizations, such as the American Red Cross and Feeding America, fund the Mid- Michigan Food Bank.

While partnering with other food banks and programs, effective time utilization and minimization of costs are key factors in effectively managing a volunteer based non-profit organization.

Working with the Mid-Michigan Food Bank, training modules and operating procedures for different volunteer tasks were created. The modules allow volunteers to quickly and easily acclimate themselves to various job duties and business processes. This will help optimize use of time and resources by volunteers and staff members.

Some of the new training modules consist of reading electronic material, and watching videos on how to correctly and efficiently execute volunteer tasks: assembling, sorting, and organizing. Ultimately, volunteers will complete tasks more efficiently and spend less time training with staff. Consequently, staff members will have more free time to devote to serving food to the hungry and homeless.

Team Members (L-R): Janette Miller, Shawn Adams, Stephanie Cieslinski, Kevin Guimont, Allison Marshall, Bob Chalou, Dave Karr

Team Members (L-R): Janette Miller, Shawn Adams, Stephanie Cieslinski, Kevin Guimont, Allison Marshall, Bob Chalou, Dave Karr

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Mid Michigan Red Cross (Mid MI Food Bank): Volume Analysis

Team Members (L-R): Janette Miller, Truc-Mai Nguyen, Carsten Loewe, Jamie Clavette, Bob Chalou, Katie Walker, Dave Karr

The Mid-Michigan Food Bank (MMFB) is a non profit organization that provides food to local communities, churches, shelters, and kitchens. They support over 200 agencies in seven different Michigan counties with the help o f local donations and also the American Red Cross.

Currently, the MMFB is facing the challenge of volume optimization. With the varying size and weight of the distributed products, the challenge lies in creating an accurate picture of the volume of the items they are trying to ship. This is resulting in extra transportation legs and increased costs due to their current distribution process.

By correlating outgoing shipments with the pick up of the donations, the MMFB would have a more accurate way o f utilizing the volume o f their transportation. Our objective is to develop better distribution modes and increase planning accuracy. Measurements of both vehicles and common items will allow’ for recommendations for optimal transportation strategies. The creation of a standardized system will provide a more accurate receiving and distribution process, while maximizing volume capacity.

Team Members (L-R): Janette Miller, Truc-Mai Nguyen, Carsten Loewe, Jamie Clavette, Bob Chalou, Katie Walker, Dave Karr

Team Members (L-R): Janette Miller, Truc-Mai Nguyen, Carsten Loewe, Jamie Clavette, Bob Chalou, Katie Walker, Dave Karr

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XG Sciences: Graphite Nano-Composites: Market Analysis for Use in Fuel Cells

Screen Shot 2016-05-17 at 10.27.13 AMAs the economy declines, Mid-Michigan families are finding it harder to make ends meet. The demand for food assistance is growing throughout Michigan. Several agencies and non-profit organizations, such as the American Red Cross and Feeding America, fund the Mid- Michigan Food Bank.

While partnering with other food banks and programs, effective time utilization and minimization of costs are key factors in effectively managing a volunteer based non-profit organization.

Working with the Mid-Michigan Food Bank, training modules and operating procedures for different volunteer tasks were created. The modules allow volunteers to quickly and easily acclimate themselves to various job duties and business processes. This will help optimize use of time and resources by volunteers and staff members.

Some of the new training modules consist of reading electronic material, and watching videos on how to correctly and efficiently execute volunteer tasks: assembling, sorting, and organizing. Ultimately, volunteers will complete tasks more efficiently and spend less time training with staff. Consequently, staff members will have more free time to devote to serving food to the hungry and homeless.

Team Members (L-R): Jason Shalla, Ashley Fox, Jessica Fox, Allison Mills, Kevin Pasch

Team Members (L-R): Jason Shalla, Ashley Fox, Jessica Fox, Allison Mills, Kevin Pasch

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XG Sciences: Graphite Nano-Composites: Market Analysis for Use in Batteries

Screen Shot 2016-05-17 at 10.31.31 AMToday’s batteries are built for either power or capacity, but not both. XG Sciences Inc. offers graphene technology that will revolutionize the battery industry.

Working with Dr. Lawrence Drzal, the Chief Scientist at XG Sciences, we have conducted an analysis of the high performance battery market to recommend growth strategies.

Functionalized graphene-based batteries have the capacity to overcome conventional trade-offs, thus providing the best of both worlds – a high-capacity, high- powered battery. This enhancement to cycle life leads to more energy per charge, less time per charge, and more charges before the battery needs to be replaced.

Graphene-based battery electrodes have the potential to transform the future of the energy industry. Wind and solar energy industries have always been set back by the lack of mass energy storage capacity. Graphene-based battery electrodes could very well be the key technology needed to boost the green energy industry to a level o f self-sustenance.

Team Members (L-R): Dr. Larry Drzal, Donald Wu, Andrew Schock, Jui-Yao Chen, Khoi Tran. Mr. Bob Chalou, Anthony Mistretta

Team Members (L-R): Dr. Larry Drzal, Donald Wu, Andrew Schock, Jui-Yao Chen, Khoi Tran. Mr. Bob Chalou, Anthony Mistretta

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XG Sciences: Graphite Nano-Composites: Market Analysis for Use in Super Capacitors

Screen Shot 2016-05-17 at 10.35.40 AMThe core principal operation of supercapacitors is to store electric charge by using large surface areas created with numerous tiny hollow spaces. Within the field of super capacitors, Carbon Nanotubes technology is leading the market as it allows for the creation of uniform size surface areas with maximum utilization of space.

In this age of constant evolving of technology with a use of innovative materials, it is essential for companies to continuously stay on top of developments while creating and adapting to competitive technologies. Manufacturers of supercapacitors are able to replace Carbon Nanotubes and other comparable materials with a new material developed by XG Sciences, xGnP Graphene Nanoplatelets, which still retains similar electrical properties. Moreover, the use of Graphene will provide up to 99% cost savings to the manufacturers.

Collaborating with XG Sciences, we conducted a full market analysis for supercapacitors based on costs, safety and its current specification for the xGnP brand of Graphene Nanoplatelets. Wc utilized the internet, library database resources, SWOT analyses and comparisons of current and potential materials. The market analysis helped us give recommendations to XG Sciences on current areas where xGnP Graphene Nanoplatelets technology can be implemented, as w’ell as possible emerging fields in which this technology can be developed for the future.

Team Members (L-R): Madina Khamzina, John Risk, Nipa Patel, Ainagul Abdikalikova

Team Members (L-R): Madina Khamzina, John Risk, Nipa Patel, Ainagul Abdikalikova

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