What Was This Part of The Project?
As our team traverses further into our Capstone Project, we have completed Design Step 3: Evaluation of Alternative Concepts. The overall theme of this step was thinking about how our project would work in the real world. In our Decision Matrix, we did just that by thinking critically and discussing how each of our concepts would preform in various areas such as durability, transportation, ad ease of manufacturing. We then assigned a value to how important each area was and how well each concept preformed in that area. To further assess the real world impacts of our project, we created a detailed Life Cycle Assessment Report with an accompanying infographic, to display our finds in a more convenient form factor. The five factors we looked at for this report were: Raw Materials, Transportation/Distribution, Use-Reuse/Maintenance, Recycling, the Manufacturing Process, and Waste and Emissions. For this step, we also began doing CAD tutorials in Onshape to lay the groundwork for our future design steps.
This web-page includes our Individual and Team Decision Matrix, our Life Cycle Assessment Report, images of my CAD models, and my reflection on this step. A traditional concepts section is not included, as concepts can be found in the project proposal and throughout the documents.
This web-page includes our Individual and Team Decision Matrix, our Life Cycle Assessment Report, images of my CAD models, and my reflection on this step. A traditional concepts section is not included, as concepts can be found in the project proposal and throughout the documents.
Individual and Team Decision Matrix
Life Cycle Assessment Report
Life Cycle Assessment Infographic
My CAD Models
Reflection:
Overall, this step was an improvement from our last. One thing that went better was our time management. We were more on top of things this time and did our work in an appropriate time frame. This allowed us to boost the quality of our output. We have been able to account for this aspect and improve as a group. Another aspect that went well was how well we got along. There were never any major arguments that occurred between group members and whenever we disagreed on what way we should take the project, we were always able to compromise and move forward.
For all that went well, we had our shortcomings. Firstly, we didn't follow the website properly at all times. For example, our initial sketches weren't detailed enough which lost us points. We will work on this next time. Another failure of our project that has continued from the first part is making sure everyone is pulling their weight. Throughout the second part of our project, there were points where the work load was not being evenly shared or certain people weren't getting their parts done in time. This isn't the fault of anyone, but the failure of the group as a whole. This will be something we all need to work on moving forward.
For all that went well, we had our shortcomings. Firstly, we didn't follow the website properly at all times. For example, our initial sketches weren't detailed enough which lost us points. We will work on this next time. Another failure of our project that has continued from the first part is making sure everyone is pulling their weight. Throughout the second part of our project, there were points where the work load was not being evenly shared or certain people weren't getting their parts done in time. This isn't the fault of anyone, but the failure of the group as a whole. This will be something we all need to work on moving forward.