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NEWS RELEASE
Contact: Leah Jackson (jacksonl@nsula.edu)
News Bureau
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6466
12/14/2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NATCHITOCHES -Students in Northwestern State University's Industrial Engineering Technology program earned credit for practical experience by conducting a motion/time study at the Boise Wood Products plant in Flatwoods. In completing the Motion/Time 3000 class with a project for an area business, the students gained exposure to a real world environment, while developing suggestions for how the company can run more efficiently. Two groups of 11 total students participated.
According to Bobby Nowlin, associate professor of engineering technology, teams of students visited the plant, observed operations and conducted stopwatch studies to determine if efficiency and safety issues could be improved. The teams made four visits to the plant, prepared a written report and a PowerPoint presentation and formally presented their findings and recommendations to management.
"The two teams observed the operation to see if we could gather ideas to help them reduce waste," said Dustin Adcock, a junior from Natchitoches. His group observed the operations of a composite board sealer process and developed ideas of how to reduce the time it took a product to go run through the system. It was Adcock's first experience working with a company and he said the experience helped him learn time management and how tasks are completed within the company.
Based upon their findings, the students proposed a change in procedure that will save 25-30 seconds on a 4-1/2 minute process. Adcock was pleased with his role in helping to find cost-saving solutions.
"The operation was pretty high-tech, but I felt prepared," he said. "We knew what some of the problems might be and the management was receptive and seemed pleased with our work."
"They learn to understand how the company or plant operates and observe the efficiencies and inefficiencies," Nowlin said. "The students gained presentation experience, report-writing experience and were evaluated by someone outside the university. Plus it opens doors for future employment and internships. It was a positive out-of-classroom experience."
The project was coordinated by Blake Dowden, an NSU IET graduate now employed as an industrial engineer at Boise.
"It went exceptionally well," Dowden said. "The students were thorough and had some good recommendations that we will implement in 2007. "The students are exposed to the management system and they are selling themselves as capable individuals. It is good for them to get that exposure and our human resources personnel gets to evaluate a potential crop of employees. The management was so impressed with the students that he wants to continue to work with the school and do a project every fall. We are going to continue this relationship."
Northwestern's IET classes have conducted similar studies for Alliance Compressors, Williams Brothers Furniture and Appliance, Trus Joist and ArtCrete.
"This is an enormous benefit to the students," Nowlin said. "They go out and perform a task their degree might require them to do. It is real-world experience."
"I knew they would come through with good information," Dowden said. "I had high expectations and they didn't let us down."