Enterprise Resource Planning

Automatic Weld Inspection

For the year 2000, welding expenditures in the U.S manufacturing, mining and construction industry was about $34 million. In order to test these welds in a non-destructive manner, nearly half a million radiographs are being produced every year. General Manager-Operations wanted a team at the imaging lab to develop new methodologies to identify defects in welds for analyzing the radiographs.

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Lorn Manufacturing Case Study

lornmanuThe Lorn Manufacturing case study details the dilemma Jim Russell faced after losing three fingers in a horrible accident that occurred while he was cleaning a lap winder in an industrial plant. Who is responsible? Did Russell fail to follow procedure while performing his maintenance duties, or is it the manufacturer’s fault for not following proper safety guidelines when designing the machinery? Find out the jury’s verdict and learn about engineering ethics.

Students use this case study to develop an understanding of the following key objectives:

  • Implementation of safety procedures in a manufacturing plant
  • Application of codes and standards in professional environments
  • Qualifications engineers must have to serve as expert witnesses
  • Proper communication skills in a professional environment, such as a manufacturing plant

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Mauritius Auditorium Design Case Study

5This multimedia courseware focuses on an acoustical design of the polyvalent hall at the Swami Vivekananda International Convention Center on the island of Mauritius. The multi-use hall was praised as a “fabulous building and quite and achievement” after successfully hosting a United Nations conference without any acoustical problems. Later, as a band rehearsed for the building’s first rock concert, the sound quality fell severely short of expectations. A problem arose with the loud music, requiring a reconsideration of the hall’s design before it could provide satisfactory acoustics for any similar events.

The materials provided here will introduce students to the following concepts:

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Wellborn Abridged Case Study

47Wellborn Cabinets is a family owned business that was founded in 1961. The company’s headquarters and largest factory are located in Ashland, AL and occupy over two million square feet, building about 5,000 cabinets a day. Wellborn primarily supplies builders and dealers who work with customers to design kitchens and dressing and entertainment suites, with a typical order of 20 cabinets containing 15,000 pieces and costing about $15,000.

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Wellborn Case Study

11Wellborn Cabinets is a family owned business that was founded in 1961. The company’s headquarters and largest factory are located in Ashland, AL and occupy over two million square feet, building about 5,000 cabinets a day. Wellborn primarily supplies builders and dealers who work with customers to design kitchens and dressing and entertainment suites, with a typical order of 20 cabinets containing 15,000 pieces and costing about $15,000. Wellborn began to use Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems about 10 years ago to manage its business.

Wellborn Cabinets adopted a system called Symix, a full ERP system, in 1998. Although Symix had a complete set of modules, all of which were used across all of the company’s departments, each plant used its own database so two plants that were close together were not linked on the financial end. As a result, spreadsheets were used to merge data and engineers had to maintain 580,000 discreet bills of material. Shopfloor workers knew the bills of material were not accurate and paid little attention to them, instead building the cabinets using “tribal knowledge”, which led to frequent returns and many defects. Marketing, engineering, and training issues were also not addressed adequately.

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