Workshop Organisation

[Flash]

How do other teams organise theyre workshop as far as time and resources go?

Our plan at the moment is to use a whiteboard in the workshop and plan a week ahead (in conjuntion with an overall plan), allocating the equipment each task is likely to need, and when they will be using it. It seems to me that this is pretty crucial to getting a car made in time for the competition, although I don't think for a second it will work out exactly as planned.

Any thoughts?

Cheers,

Matt Houston
University of Auckland
Technical Manager

[Flash]

How do other teams organise theyre workshop as far as time and resources go?

Our plan at the moment is to use a whiteboard in the workshop and plan a week ahead (in conjuntion with an overall plan), allocating the equipment each task is likely to need, and when they will be using it. It seems to me that this is pretty crucial to getting a car made in time for the competition, although I don't think for a second it will work out exactly as planned.

Any thoughts?

Cheers,

Matt Houston
University of Auckland
Technical Manager

[ben]

We have two big plastic boxes in our lab. When you have a part designed and ready to be made you put it in the 'in' box and then the members of our team with machining skills come in when they're free and pick something from the bin.

Finished parts are placed in the 'out' bin.

Prority is determined on a fairly ad hoc basis by myself and group leaders.

For example priority at the moment is getting the engine running, so the restrictor is first in the shop tomorrow morning.

Ben

University of Birmingham
www.ubracing.co.uk (http://www.ubracing.co.uk)

[Michael Jones]

We have a reasonably complicated but largely decentralized system. Each subteam (there are about 10-15 each year, some consistent over years, some not) has a bin for parts in progress and proposes deliverable schedules for our Feb. 1 initial prototype construction, testing and finalization. Team leaders make sure everything is going smoothly and to plan and that subteams aren't doing anything fundamentally retarded, and pretty well leave them to their own devices. The car in preparation for Feb. 1 therefore looks pretty bare even at this point, but does come together rather rapidly in the last week. Much of what's there as of that date is up for negotiation still though - if there's good reason to redesign or alter a part, it's done.

As for priorities during this time, it's primarily a systems engineering analysis of critical paths done partially objectively, partially by qualitative observation and awareness of past historical bottlenecks. We have had a systems engineer in charge of this for the last four years with various levels of succes - depends on their involvement and knowledge of the system as a whole. In the end though, it does require a broader buy-in by most members to really stress the importance of systems maintenance and development. In 2002 and arguably this year, this has been done effectively. In 2001, it was done less formally but equally well. In 2003, both less formally and less well, and it showed in the end.

---
Michael Jones
Coordinator, Student Project Teams, College of Engineering

Cornell Racing
http://fsae.mae.cornell.edu

[vinHonda]

We yell, kick and scream at newbies to make parts from our drawings.

Actually, we have weekly allotted machine shop hours at a nearby local college, usually Saturday from 9am-5pm. Lathes, mills, drills galore, 20 or so of us machining parts. The lead up to the Saturday is prepration of a lot of drawings and making sure we have stock material. But it's fun to see 9 or so teammates all on lathes on the Saturday. A lot gets accomplished with good planning and allocation of tasks. It's 8 hours of solid machine shop hours with basically unlimted machines and stacked manpower per week!

Cheers

Vinh

University of Toronto Formula SAE Racing Team
www.fsae.utoronto.ca (http://www.fsae.utoronto.ca)

[Michael Jones]

Hey Vinh...good to hear you're getting that kind of support! Which school's helping you out?

Cornell's team actually has access in January because school doesn't officially start until next week. The team sacrifies two or three weeks to monopolize the machine shop. It's necessary - unfortunately, the sophomore level machining training class is scheduled in the spring, which greatly limits access after that point. We have been lucky enough to build various connections off and on campus to help out with emergency last-minute tasks, but we certainly do plan to get things done early and, if not possible, around the schedule of MAE 225.

---
Michael Jones
Coordinator, Student Project Teams, College of Engineering

Cornell Racing
http://fsae.mae.cornell.edu

[vinHonda]

Whutz up Mike? How's the new car com'n along?

It's George Brown that's help'n us out, the one near Casa Loma. It's a nice 2 min drive from campus.

Still gonna hit that Feb 1st mark? We shouldn't be far behind that!

Vinh

University of Toronto Formula SAE Racing Team
www.fsae.utoronto.ca (http://www.fsae.utoronto.ca)

[Michael Jones]

...and all this time I thought they just had a good cooking school. Nice deal. The school's student machine shop is closed for a couple of days to replace old equipment so things are a bit behind but it shouldn't be impossible to hit Feb 1 again. Always looks and feels impossible at this point but it's amazing how quick the pieces fly together last moment.

Should be a solid entry too - given last year's occasional sketchiness, we're aiming to make it bulletproof rather than continue experimenting with potentially valuable time consuming innovations until May. That, and we'll hopefully avoid the curbs this time.

---
Michael Jones
Coordinator, Student Project Teams, College of Engineering

Cornell Racing
http://fsae.mae.cornell.edu