Design to Deliver: Optimizing Craft Production for Efficiency, Profit, and Purpose
Students design and implement a vehicle production systemCopyright Image taken by teacher contributors while testing activity.
Teams of students become startup car companies aiming to win a contract with Porsche. The project requires them to design and build four prototype vehicles using plastic bricks. They then take on various engineering roles to plan a production floor layout and run a simulated production process. After analyzing their initial performance and making improvements, a second simulation determines which team wins the contract based on the number of high-quality vehicles they produce. The project concludes with each team creating a report using data from both simulations to evaluate their performance and suggest future improvements.
Mechanical engineers design and test physical devices, from engines and machines to consumer products, applying principles of motion, energy, and force. Industrial engineers focus on optimizing entire processes and systems, figuring out the most efficient ways to use people, materials, and equipment to reduce waste and improve productivity in a wide range of industries. Finally, systems engineers take a big-picture approach, overseeing the entire lifecycle of a complex project to ensure that all of the different components and teams work together seamlessly and efficiently to achieve a shared goal.
After completing this activity, students will be able to:
- Design and implement a vehicle production system that integrates principles associated with craft manufacturing concepts and engineering roles using the engineering design process.
- Analyze performance data to evaluate their production system, then design and implement revisions, to maximize the number of vehicles and profit they can build within the allotted time.
- Evaluate and reflect on the performance of the initial and revised systems and propose potential next steps.