Daily Pioneer News

PLATTEVILLE - University of Wisconsin-Platteville industrial engineering students Ryan Sullivan, Kyle Krisher, Jence Torkelson and Pete Droessler have been working closely with Prairie Industries of Prairie du Chien for their senior design project.

The goal of the project is to help Prairie Industries increase through put by 15 percent while using the same amount of people and time. Through put is when workers load the machine, the parts cycle through and exit and are then inspected and packaged. The group has been brainstorming ideas of how to make this process more time efficient while minimizing costs. They are making recommendations such as automation of the packaging process while reducing time by arranging set up time reductions and having regular maintenance checks performed.

The senior design projects help the companies that sponsor the project while providing real-life experience and networking opportunities for the students. The students will make a minimum of six site visits where they will run time studies, gather data, take measurements and get input from their contacts.

Each of the students is responsible for a different part of the project. Sullivan is an industrial engineering major with an emphasis in management and is the team leader and communication coordinator. He is a resident of Madison and the son of Tim and Diane Sullivan of Cottage Grove. Sullivan accepted a position at Trane in La Crosse as a compressor quality engineer and will be starting in late May.

Krisher is an industrial engineering major emphases in business and production and is in charge of the ergonomic aspects of the project. On visits, he is responsible for providing more ergonomic options and seeing if a job could give repetitive stress injuries. He is currently working on developing ergonomic redesigns of each cell along with a rotation schedule between jobs. He is a resident of DeForest and the son of Don and Michelle Krisher, also of DeForest.

Torkelson is also an industrial engineering major with an emphasis in production and is the assembly engineer of the project. He is in charge of the automated sortation portion of the project. He is a resident of Plymouth and the son of Jim and Shirley Torkelson, also of Plymouth. Torkelson will be returning to UWP in the fall.

Droessler is majoring in industrial engineering with an emphasis in production and is the process engineer of the project. He is in charge of set up time reduction and overall process management. He is a resident of Montfort and husband to Sara Droessler and son of Don and Jan Droessler, of Dickeyville. Droessler plans to finish his undergraduate in the fall at UWP while continuing to work at Daleo Machining Inc. as a manufacturing engineer. After graduation he plans to further his career at Daleo Machining Inc. by using the tools and skills learned while attaining his undergraduate.

All of the students are responsible for the visual management portion of the project which improves operator reliability and reduces clutter in the facility.

Anyone wanting more information about senior design projects may contact Swaminat Balachandran, project advisor, at (608) 342-1718.

Contact: Swaminat Balachandran, professor of engineering, (608) 342-1718, balachas@uwplatt.edu Prepared by: Dawn Picton, UWP Public Relations, (608) 342-1194, pictond@uwplatt.edu