2006-2007 Design Competition Summary

Sponsored by CICMHE and Modern Materials Handling magazine.

Contest Case Summary Description

Sweeteners Solutions® makes and distributes powdered and liquid sweeteners for food products. They ship to food manufacturers and food distributors. Due to current growth of the business, the company needs to increase its production capabilities.

Sweeteners Solutions® wishes to improve the layout design of their facility. The company has provided all the current production, inventory and sales data for this facility. The company anticipates an overall growth of approximately 8%. It is assumed that order characteristics (lines per order, units per line, etc.) will continue at current levels. In addition, inventory turns will remain the same. Sweeteners Solutions® seeks to develop the best material handling, storage and product flow for this facility including the manufacturing space. Their desire is to remain in this facility for an additional 5 years.

The project team's resulting design must be submitted to upper management of Sweeteners Solutions® for budget approval. As such, all significant financial decisions need to be justified, including but not limited to the following:

The placement of new manufacturing lines required, or updates required for existing lines (assume the cost of the new production lines to be approved and thus not a part of the justification)
Storage system layout (raw materials and finished goods) to accommodate increased production
Storage and handling equipment to be purchased
Production and warehouse control for improved product flow
Receiving and shipping recommendations for improved yard operations and operational control

Judging
The three academic and two industry judges evaluated the fourteen (14) entries according to the criteria of product flow, equipment utilization, space utilization, operational plan, overall integration and economic justification. Additionally, the judges were asked to evaluate writing quality, analysis and presentation.

The Results

CICMHE is pleased to announce the following results:

First Place ($1500 split among the team plus $500 for the department):
Amanda Andrikopoulos, Marek Gebicki and Matthew Hume
Montana State University
Michael Cole, Advisor

Second Place ($1000 split among the team plus $500 to the department):
Shankar Arul, Justin Martirano and Ben Slabach
Virginia Tech
Natalie Cherbaka, Advisor

Third Place (TIE): ($500 split among the team plus $500 to the department):

Drew Keeth, Shaina Tucker, Ryan Fukushima and Yi-Chun Lin
California Polytechnic State University
Lizabeth Schlemer, Advisor

Frederick Denny, Meredith Griffin, Alexandria Natividad and Kelly Sullivan
University of Arkansas
Russell Meller, Advisor

Honorable Mentions

David Meer, Ryan O'Connell, Scott Karas and Andrew Serfass
Pennsylvania State University
D.J. Medeiros, Advisor

JR Self, Kelton DoRemus and Michael Beier
Oklahoma University
Babur Pulat, Advisor