Past Capstone Projects

Over the past thirty years, countless projects have been completed through the Capstone program. Listed below are descriptions of some Capstone projects that have been successfully completed in past academic years.

Capstone 2001

Douglas Machine Project
The scope of this project was to design a new job shop facility and produce the optimal layout for it. Rather than each division having its own fabrication shop, Douglas Corporation has proposed the introduction of a new division, Douglas Components. It would eliminate the need for a fabrication department in other branches by supplying all fabricated and purchased components to the individual branches. It would operate in the fashion of a job shop, giving it the ability to service external customer also, as way to both increase and even out the fluctuating demand associated with this type of business, Therefore, the second half of the project outlines the requirements for producing an efficient order process flow for incoming orders of any type.

MeritCare Health Systems Project
The objective of the MeritCare project was to study the patient flow within the healthcare system. This involved evaluating patient flow requirements, defining the existing patient flow processes, and identification of new flow options, therefore, to ultimately present a selection of patient flow processes to MeritCare.

Brenton Engineering
The Capstone project for Brenton Engineering focused on the investigating what e-business opportunities were available for Brenton and how these opportunities could be utilized within the company. To gain a full understanding of what opportunities to suggest, a detailed systems analysis was performed by analyzing process flow charts, interviewing employees, and outside research.
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IME Recruitment Plan
The purpose of the recruitment plan project was to develop a plan for conducting Industrial Engineering & Management (IME) recruitment operations. The recruitment plan project focused on creating a proposal that would reach two objectives: help the Advisory Board reach their goals and help the IME department grow to 700 students by fall 2006. The recruitment plan focused on four main areas: the Recruitment Administrator, First-Year Activities, Mid-Range Activities, and Long-Range Activities.
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Capstone 2000

TEAM Industries
The purpose of the Capstone project was to provide TEAM Industries with a new layout and assembly line that will allow them to efficiently assemble clutches for the Polaris snowmobiles and ATVs. The project consisted of three different activities. First, the current processes at TEAM were analyzed to determine the flow of parts through the system. After the current process was understood, the project team focused their attention on changing the current layout and designing the new assembly line. Finally, some additional requirements including a new coolant recovery system, a bar stock cutting operation, attaining program, and a new balancing system were researched for proposal of new systems.
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Research and Technology Park, NDSU
The scope of this project was to define a list of available resources and document a general implementation plan for Phoenix International and those future companies that will compose the Research and Technology Park on the NDSU campus. The project will also develop marketing tools to inform the public about the general make-up of the park, who is involved, and the benefits those parties are receiving.
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Phoenix International
Phoenix International needed to move into a new research and development facility that would house a shop floor that included areas for prototype line, vehicle bays, design validation, production test, fabrication shop, component reliability, service, and inventory. In addition to the shop area, they needed two floors of office space to house such functions as corporate administration, new product design engineering, and many other technical areas. It was the duty of this Capstone group to determine a logical solution to this situation by taking into account building codes, human factors, departmental interactions, and space restrictions.
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Capstone 1999

SJE-Rhombus
The SJE Capstone Project consisted of three main concerns: production floor layout, material handling system, and timings and routing software. The capstone team evaluated the existing system, then a system of specification was documented that described exactly what systems needed improvement. The team brainstormed some alternatives, researched the alternatives, made a decision matrix and chose a design for the best alternative. This entailed a three-step process that started with a conceptual design, then a preliminary design and finally a detailed design for SJE-Rhombus.
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Case IH
The primary objective of the CASE corporation project team was to aid in the installation of an additional agriculture assembly line. The Capstone Team developed the initial stages of the agriculture tractor assembly line. They made recommendations for the layout of the new configuration for the agriculture tractor as well as the requirements for processes, layout, tooling, and labor. The team also did a cost analysis of the plan as well as the equipment requirements. Finally, they developed an efficient and reliable system for inventory and parts movement, storage, and control.
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United Parcel Service
The objective of the Capstone project for UPS was to determine an optimal or improved routing solution in the Northern Plains District. This was done by using various methods of operational research, logistics, and business techniques to create numerous options that will help improve the present system. The success of the project depended on the ability of the team to analyze the data in order to optimize the routing system. They took into consideration the aircraft and vehicle types, capacities, distances to destinations, cost per mile, and the cost per pound.
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