USC, SF students problem-solve for All-Clad
Sarah Hertzler holds a lid with anodized mock copper, finished to look like the real thing.
Jack Shea presents his team’s methodology for finding several solutions to making mock copper lids that look like the real thing.
Students at South Fayette and Upper St. Clair school districts are for the first time working together to provide solutions to real-world problems. Working as consultants for All-Clad Metal Crafters in Canonsburg, seven teams of students presented their findings Dec. 17 on problems ranging from reducing scrap waste and calculating “embedded energy” costs, to manufacturing mock copper products that look like the real thing.
“The solutions we’re presenting are expensive to implement at first, but they in turn increase workflow and efficiency for All-Clad,” said student Ted Mialames of his team’s project to reduce curly, metal trimmings from an Omera cutting machine.
“The scrap is long swarf, and we were trying to find out how we can either eliminate it or collect it more efficiently,” he said during his presentation at Hilton Garden Inn in Southpointe. In all, his group came up with six solutions, ranging from magnets, vacuums, shredders and collection bins.
Working since late September, each group’s presentation discussed their road blocks and potential solutions, along with the pros and cons of each design. The acknowledgement of setbacks and seeking solutions that are most free of complications comes from a collaboration with the LUMA institute.
“LUMA teaches a method of identifying problems and solutions from a human-design perspective,” said South Fayette superintendent Billie Rondinelli.
“These projects combine so much. You’re working with a real company on real problems they face as manufacturers. These students are not only identifying solutions, they’re understanding their own learning styles and giving self-assessments where normally you’d have a teacher checking their work,” she said.
South Fayette students had been working on past projects like water purification with Tarr Industries, but the work was done after school. The project with All-Clad is the first time students collaborated with another district while in class and getting credit.
“We used technology like Google Drive, screen-sharing and video conferencing to work together,” said senior Sarah Hertzler, who’s worked on projects like this since she was a freshman.
Hertzler’s group sought a solution to make cheaper lids for stovetop cookware that looked just like real copper.
“We were told (by All-Clad representatives) not to identify ourselves as students, but consultants for All-Clad. And it worked. We got more information from other companies that way,” she said.
“But you’re not lying here. You are working. You were ‘hired’ to do this work,” interjected South Fayette principal Scott Milburn.
“LUMA was very helpful for us, because of all the projects, this was one we had no clue about starting out. We had to research the very basic mechanics of metal bonding before we could even set out to design a solution for cheaper lids,” said student Jack Shea.
The students then had to weigh what they found to be viable options for producing a copper lid look-alike: heat treatment, powder coating, paints, electroplating and anodizing. The team chose the last option as most cost-effective and durable without cutting corners on quality.
“The anodizing doesn’t provide a shine like some other solutions, but manual buffing and polishing could accomplish that look. Otherwise, this was the best solution,” said Pat DeMarco.
One team’s presentation on the “encore program,” or production of refurbished used pans, showed how the problem-solving strategy can carry over to almost any industry that uses logistics.
“We tasked ourselves to find the embedded energy in a product, or in other words, the total amount of energy required to mine the raw material, to production, all the way to transport, packaging and sale,” said senior Kambree Love.
Like others, Love’s team had to scrap their original plan for calculating energy and costs because their formula wasn’t inclusive enough, but also overly complicated.
“We had to revise our plan to identify mutual and exclusive stakeholders, then analyzed energy bills and logistics,” said Rachel Pollock.
What Pollock and her team came up with was a dizzying series of numbers isolating energy consumption in joules units and finding that refurbished pots used 96.4 percent less energy than a brand-new pot. “The numbers are impressive. It’s nearly identical to what we came up with,” said All-Clad’s Bill Groll, “This is proof you’re learning how to operate with a company using consumer standards. It’s not a school test.”
Administrators said they plan to continue cross-district collaborations like this because they provide so much real-world insight and experience.