OSU students gain experience, help an Oklahoma manufacturer

Thursday, April 22, 2010

OSU mechanical engineering seniors Andy Vo (left) and Dayton Likins have developed a machine that will help reduce the waste on the current assembly line at the Goodyear plant in Lawton, OK. The machine could potentially save the plant $150,000 a year.
By Celeste Cash

(Stillwater, OK April 22, 2010) -- The Goodyear plant in Lawton is expanding despite the economic downturn, and several Oklahoma State University students are contributing to the plant’s success while gaining valuable industrial experience.

For instance, mechanical engineering seniors Andy Vo and Dayton Likins from Tulsa have developed a machine in their senior design class that will help reduce the waste on the current assembly line at the plant. The machine could potentially save the plant $150,000 a year.

“My favorite part of the class is that it’s hands-on and that we are doing it by ourselves,” Likins said. “We get to design and come up with a solution to a problem on our own.”

The problem for Vo and Likins’ team was clear, make corrections to a machine that had been causing waste by producing tires that were unusable. The students were asked to develop a prototype to modify the machine, and also to install it.

“The idea for the prototype belongs to me and Dayton alone, and we’re currently manufacturing an actual working version for the plant to use, which will be completed before we graduate in May,” said Vo.

In the design class, students were given a choice of projects to choose from and each team was allowed to pick their top three.

“It's cool to get to help out a local company,” Likins said. “Some of the other student’s projects are for small companies that may not even have another engineer working for them.”

The pair say they also appreciate the interaction they get with plant officials and workers who have offered important feedback and expressed appreciation for the design of the prototype because of its simplicity and cost.

Goodyear has had teams of OSU students working on various problems throughout the plant. Another student project, by Olutoyin Ogunyomi, Ross Myles and Ebitimi Etebu, recycles scrap into usable product and is expected to save about $350,000 annually, according to plant officials.

Like the rest of the students, Vo and Likins are doing the work for school credit only, which also saves the company money. While Goodyear receives engineering assistance at basically no cost, the company pays for all the parts for the machine the students will produce.

Although both Vo and Likins have had internships in the past, they say they are gaining even more valuable real-world experience with this project, because they are faced with many unknowns, a lot of research, and no textbook to guide them.

“The class has been very helpful in preparing me to deal with different situations in design and communication,” Vo said. “This class gives us the chance to experience real world problems and allows us to solve them.”