A Complete Product Design Realization Experience Through Integrating A Computer Integrated Manufacturing Course With An Automotive Capstone

Engineering capstone classes are the culmination of a student’s academic experiences. The objective is for the student to use much of their engineering knowledge base to design a system or component for a set of design requirements. This usually entails a detailed team project with the design criteria, product drawings, analysis, parts list, product costs, discussion and conclusions. If the design is fabricated at all, it is done so in a rudimentary fashion. The team usually consists of other students in the same capstone class, which therefore means all team members are of the same major, so these students tend to have very similar engineering perspectives. At Kettering University, a process is being developed to integrate engineering students of both mechanical and manufacturing backgrounds into design teams. Most recently this process has been applied to the automotive-specialty capstone within the Mechanical Engineering department and the computer integrated manufacturing class within the IME Department. The automotive-specialty capstone student teams are charged with designing a vehicle. Within the teams, leaders are chosen to be responsible for various aspects of the design. The CIM students are integrated with these design teams, with one leader chosen to be responsible for the manufacturing of the design, an aspect of the design project that previously was not developed in detail. Manufacturing students provide input into the feasibility of manufacturing the part, the manufacturing processes, material selection, tolerancing and quality issues. The students meet regularly inside and outside the classroom to perfect their design, analysis, documentation, and actually fabricate a component of each vehicle. Through interaction and practical experience, the students learn lessons in design for manufacturability and working in multidisciplinary teams that they would not have without the course integration. A class overview, schedule, and methodology is included, as well as the assessment results.