Name of NGM Educator: John Hoyle, Howell Cheney Technical High School |
Name of Host Company: Baldwin Pegolas Furniture |
Grade Level: 10-11th grade |
Student Work Types:
|
Task Abstract: Maximilian Baldwin is the founder and owner of Baldwin Furniture and Baldwin Pergolas in Middletown, Ct. His company has been built on a high level of product quality and service which has resulted in strong customer loyalty and product recognition. Baldwin Pergolas has experienced rapid growth at an astounding annual rate of 10% per year. This has resulted in a wide variety of manufacturing processes which have grown without documentation. Nearly all Baldwin Pergolas are custom built. Like the manufacturing processes, product definition has outpaced documentation. As a result, each pergola requires massive amounts of design work and consultations with customers. A lack of documentation also results in the need for oversight of shop activities for each and every product and item. Given the nature of the product, Max and I deemed it an ideal opportunity to create modularity of components. Lean Manufacturing with its inherent element of product modularity is a key area in industry today. Getting experience in implementing a modular design process at Baldwin presented outstanding possibilities for lessons for our students at Cheney Tech. We ultimately created a full design process involving modular parts for Baldwin Pergolas. The entire design process has been fully streamlined and components standardized. The results have been astounding. |
Task Objectives: Students will learn about Lean Manufacturing modularity terms and explain benefits of modularity of design. |
Esssential Understandings/Questions:
|
Task Description: Activities: Activity 1: Activity 2: Activity 3: Related Lessons: Parametric Design - Students will have ongoing lessons using Autocad Inventor creating parametric designs. Students will create assemblies which have components that are dimensionally driven by other items in the product. Related Lessons: Purchasing - Students will be given a product and asked to create a purchased products list of the items. Discussion will focus on why a modular product line would have an easier job of purchasing as compared to a non-modular one. |
Resources Required:
|
Prior Learning Required:
|
Educator's Comments:
|