Chair Comments — June 2007
I hope everyone is enjoying their spring, taking advantage of the good weather. Summer is just around the corner.
Prof. Mamidala Ramulu elected Fellow of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers
Chapter 039 member Mamidala Ramulu has been elected a Fellow of SME. From the UW School of Engineering web site, "We are pleased to announce that Professor Mamidala Ramulu has been elected as a Fellow of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, one of only nine named in 2007. Election as an SME Fellow is limited to a select group of individuals each year, making it one of the most prestigious honors presented by the Society." Congratulations Professor Ramulu! See: the original article.
Report from SME Chapter 039 May Event
On a beautiful spring day in May, I visited Tahoma High School in Covington (south King County, east of Kent) to see their entry in the 2007 FIRST robotics competition. The FIRST Robotics Competition challenges teams of high school aged people and their mentors to solve a common problem in a six-week timeframe using a standard "kit of parts" and a common set of rules. They design and build a robot to solve the problem. Robots from various teams compete regionally, then nationally directly against each other performing this problem solving task.
This year, the robot had to pick up a plastic blow-up swimming ring and place it on a receptor at one of three heights. The higher the placement, the more points scored. The match takes place in 2 minutes, 15 seconds. There are many additional rules and regulations, all found on the FIRST web site. "What I found to be fascinating was that approximately the first 15 seconds, the robot must run autonomously, without human guidance. After that, the robot is controlled by a team member. The Tahoma students reported that they were one of the very few teams that had a robot that actually worked in the autonomous mode.
At the meeting, we enjoyed pizza, a slide and
video presentation by the students, and a demonstration of the robot. On a practical note, the students had the robot pick up an empty pizza box and place it in a garbage can.
Read the rest of the comments with images!
Call to all members!
We are still in need of articles for our Chapter bulletin from our own membership. I have already started receiving articles from members of other chapters nation wide.
Letters to the Editor:
Did you see something we did wrong or we could do better? Did you like something we did? Do you simply have something to say and want to be heard? Then write a letter to your Bulletin Editor! Lengthy letters will be linked with a short description of the content, shorter letters will be written in full. Offensive letters will be edited for content, so make it easy on us and keep all letters civil. We want to hear from YOU! You can send your submissions in any form you like.
Is Your Factory at Risk of Being Off-shored?
Has your plant manager mentioned moving your facility to Mexico? Are you experiencing cost pressures from overseas competitors? Do you fear this year's Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma projects aren't going to hit the cost targets management has set for you? Are you now doing 3 people's amount of work because of downsizing and cost-cutting?
As a manufacturing engineer, I have lived this every day. I hear top management entertaining the thought of closing my factory and shipping it to China. I have more Six Sigma project ideas than I have time to start, let alone complete, but can't get to them because I'm in constant fire-fighting mode. Morale is decreasing, turnover is rising, and I fight
