Projects
One of the most valuable experiences students can gain from SOC is the hands on projects that echo Cal Poly's philosophy of Learn By Doing
2022-2023
Inspired Flight Data Analytics Team
The Data Analytics team created a dashboard to analyze customer tickets the company receives when there is a problem with the products. They collected raw data, conducted interviews, and did further research with professors. They used Python to create feedback loop that showed an analysis of the customer tickets received and help identify common problems.
Team Members: Ethan Emery (lead), Eliana Ives, Wesley Tam, Kotomi Saito, Shashank Thapa
Inspired Flight Motor Testing Team
The Motor Testing team designed a PDB supporting structure, in SolidWorks, used to improve the efficiency of motor testing. Their design is planned to decrease the time of the PDB mounting step in the setup process. They also recommended a different layout in the motor testing lab. Lastly, they recommended solutions for soundproofing the testing area and the location of an emergency stop button
Team Members: Ofer Barr (lead), Tyler Luby Howard, Celeste Johnson, Lake Schnick, Ryan Te
Inspired Flight Floor Layout Team
The Floor Layout team designed a new floor layout to limit congestion, unutilized space, and excess movement. They analyzed the workstation and used line balancing technique to apply new workstation assignments. They also reorganized the equipment and tooling based on tool type and size and part description and number. They had the opportunity to visit the site and implement their ideas as well.
Team Members: Prabal Sharma (lead), Luis Giovanni Wang, Sydney Lunasin, Tony Gudkov
J&M Products Team
The J&M team created three dashboards: top level (management), department level, and work center level in Looker Studio to improve production performance data collection and analysis. They first built a database to hold new records using MySQL, then developed an interface for data entry, and lastly, designed the dashboards to display KPIs.
Team Members: Ellexis Monsanto (lead), Nika Zamani, Ryan Salazar, Brent Nakashima, Jonathan Howo
iFixIt Team
The iFixIt team analyzed the current iFixIt warehouse to see what improvements could be made to the process and apply them to their new facility in Tennessee. They used simulation to outline the current state and validate their improvement ideas. They designed different layouts to improve the daily throughput at each workstation.
Team Members: Jack Reed (lead), Zachary Mendenhall, Cassandra Cuna, Frank Tucci, Jonathan Lee
Trelleborg Team
The Trelleborg team was tasked with improving the breast implant demolding process. They worked with fixture samples and visited the site to get data on the current process. From there, they created prototypes and came up with suggestions on how to improve the working conditions for the operators. As a result, they designed an adaptable fixture to improve the ergonomic factors and recommended different workstation layouts and stretches.
Team Members: Nick Quattrocchi (lead), Angelo Reis, Carlos Sosa, Nathan Gee, Elxx Vanderpool
MDC Precision Team
The MDC Precision team created a live dashboard for the manufacturing floor and vendor quality. They created SQL queries to extract data, and shipping and non-compliant forms to obtain data. Using what they collected, they created a live dashboard in Tableau that analyzes the live data and help identify vendor problems.
Team Members: Charlie Osborn (lead), Sofia Charvel, Ryan Keany, Pete Woo
Cal Poly Casting Team
The CP Casting team worked on optimizing the molding lab and creating an efficient system for the moment casting project. For the momento project, they improved the process from 5 momentos/hour to 40 momentos/hour, reaching their goal of shipping 275 momentos. For the molding lab, they implemented 5S by creating lab sheets, updating labeling, relocating materials, maximizing student work areas, and creating stations for lab equipment
Team Members: Liam Cohagan (lead), Ashima Saji, Sai Erram, Theo Sprouse
Seqeul Boba Team
The Sequel team created recommendations for the company to improve their efficiency of serving drinks. They used Power Apps to gather data and identify the bottlenecks in the system. As a result, they recommended a Kanban system to decrease the continuous rearranging of drinks when serving to customers.
Team Members: Benjamin Fick (lead), Alice Chung, Angela Choi, Eoin O’Brien
2021-2022
Cal Poly Rec Center Team
The Cal Poly Rec Center team analyzed and redesigned the Proshop workspace to improve organization, ergonomics, and efficiency of work. The Rec Center serves around 5000 students, faculty, alumni and community members per day. They had excess movement, excess time per customer, and a lack of system organization. The Cal Poly Rec Center team created a redesign of the space, a QR code system to monitor merchandise stock, a macro to organize excel lost and found, and training for the employees on their implementations.
Team Members: Mackenzie (Lead), Ethan (Analyst), and Charlie
Syserco Team
The Syserco team created documentation and improved the existing Purchase to Pay process for Syserco. They conducted interviews with employees and created swimlane diagrams and process flowcharts to better understand the current process. Using this information, they wrote work instructions and complied suggestions for improvement.
Team Members: Miles (Lead), Joseph (Analyst), Ellexis, Jack, and Sofia
Enduro Camper Team 2
The Enduro Campers team 2 developed a dynamic Gantt chart tool in Google Sheets that allows for better management of current and planned camper builds. The team observed the manufacturing process to create the work breakdown structure used in the Gantt chart. The project management solution allows for editing as builds progress and can be easily displayed on the shop floor.
Team Members: Aidan (Lead), Rayven (Analyst), Doug, Benjamin, and Ivan
Sales Engineering Club Team
The Sales Engineering Club team helped SEC create an application/platform that will perform like a Customer Relationship Management software for their club. SEC is a club on campus that increases awareness for sales engineering and gives students opportunities to network with industry professionals. The Sales Engineering Club team created a Trello Workspace to help with club communication and organization among board members.
Team Members: Blake (Lead), Kristen, Kotomi, and Vaidik
Metamorphosis and Sequel Team
This team worked with both Metamorphosis, a company that works in the pet industry, and Sequel which is a boba company created by a Cal Poly alumni. With Metamorphosis they conducted market research and learned about the companies supply chain process. For Sequel, the team analyzed the boba shop's workplace to improve efficiency of work through increasing organization, worker utilization, and decreasing bottleneck time.
Team Members: Anna (Lead), Zachary, Liam, and Prabal
BMED/ME Automated Purchase Team
The Automated Purchase team created an online interface where students submit PRFs which allows the department to view and manage their submissions for approval. They used Microsoft Forms to gather initial information on parts needed for projects, Microsoft Excel to act as a database for the information, and Microsoft Power Automate which automatically sends emails when needed. The operations flow chart for the project is shown to the left.
Team Members: Eric (Lead), Emily (Analyst), Mitchell, Evan, Nitya
The Parable Group Team
The Parable Group is a data driven marketing agency and media group that helps connect Christian retailers and publishers to consumers. Our team created a predictive and learning model that analyzes customer actions and predicts their likelihood of response. They used data on each customer's shopping habits to create the model. They also used python to define factors of interest in the data like recency, frequency, and monetary to give customers a score based on their purchasing patterns.
Team Members: Anjali (Lead), Cory (Analyst), George, Om, Tillman
Mobile Home Park Team
The project sponsor is part of a homeowner's association for a government funded senior mobile home park. Our team created a centralized online platform where all residents can conveniently get the most updated information about events/news in their community. Originally the mobile home park had printed notices, but they wanted to move to a more efficient way of getting their news out. Out team analyzed different website options along with what the sponsor was looking for. They created a private community website on Wix for residents to get information that they originally would receive from printed notices. They also trained the administrators on how to use and edit the website.
Team Members: Allison (Lead), Shawheen (Analyst), Ellexis, Liam, Ryan
Enduro Campers Team 1
Enduro Campers is an off-road composite truck camper manufacturer. They make high quality, lightweight campers to attach to the truck bed and replace traditional tow-campers. Our team improved current inventory management systems, created a bill of materials (BOM), created a master inventory list and made a materials/inventory tracking system. They used Google sheets to track inventory of raw goods and components, plan material requirements for camper models, and purchase more materials. The simplified ERP system within google sheets automated inventory tracking and the purchase order system.
Team Members: Justice (Lead), Justin (Analyst), Tyler, Nick
2020-2021
Southern California Edison Team
Team 1 delivered an app that allows the user to add and edit project information and a BI dashboard to measure project metrics. They also provided the customer with a user guide to use both the app and dashboard!
Team Members: Ryan Ruhany, Dane Dormedy, Edison Chow, Ben Haering, and Surya Venugopal
Team 2 delivered two apps that allowed submission and review of project proposals, a dashboard for reporting proposals and projects, and a SharePoint to collect data!
Team Members: Alden Glassey, Monroe Erle, Samuel Miller, Alessandra Chuquillanqui, and Jack Saavedra
Cal Poly Cat Program Team
The SOC Cat Project team took on the task of converting the CP Cat Program’s database to a digital format. Their old system kept all the information of their cats and adopters on paper, which made it easy to get disorganized. To improve this, the team developed an app using Microsoft PowerApps to bring the database to a virtual platform and make it simple to use. In the new app, the CP Cat Program can input, update, and search for information about each of their cats as well as allow potential adopters to submit adoption applications. The team has also created an instruction manual for new and existing employees to learn how to use the app.
Team Members: Ryan Lee, Dane Dormedy, Margaret Gustafson, Anna Smith, and Shayan Ruhany.
White Fox Team 1
The White Fox team was tasked with helping the company fix their supply chain issues. Previously, WhiteFox was having issues figuring out when to place orders, leading them to blindly ordering products and parts. The team was able to narrow the scope into creating an extensive model in Excel that would help the company configure when exactly to place orders and provide information about their stock. It was decided that the model would be created entirely in Excel. The information the model took in was the model parameters, part information, production schedule, and on-hand inventory. The model would be able to then output the EOQ, safety stock, reorder point, and order dates. This team also provided an extensive instruction manual and video walkthrough of the model for employees at White fox to reference.
Team Members: Timothy Scheuermann, Robby Demont, Jacob Andreatta, and Vanessa Veto.
iFixit Team
The iFixit team focused on redesigning the workstations for iFixit workers in the shipping. The goal of this project was to reduce wasted motion of employees in the 6 packing stations. To better understand the problem, the team members collected video footage of shipping stations, surveyed employees, took measurements of desks and shelves, and obtained the frequency of using types of boxes. The iFixit team had several challenges throughout the project that included no formal internal data collection system, a small sample size for surveying workers, the lack of buy in from shippers, difficulty of tracking quantitative success of their design, and that the stations did not have a uniform shipping station layout. Despite these obstacles, the team was able to make several final recommendations to improve the design layout of the stations. These recommendations included removing second monitors at the stations when applicable, placing most frequently used boxes in the easiest places to reach, having designated shipping station layout for certain tasks, and collecting more data and making it widely available for the company.
Team Members: Broghan Martin, Anjali Gupta, Edison Chow, Bela Cortwright, and Emelia Pagan.
IME Permission Number Team
The IME Permission Number team had the opportunity to improve the IME Department’s process of managing permission number requests. In the past, the administrative coordinator, Stephanie Allen, would manually review and fulfill each request via email. The requests would all come in at once during the student registration period, leading to an overwhelming amount of email. Using an array of Microsoft tools, including PowerApps, MS Forms, and MS Flow, the team was able to automate the process and significantly reduce the amount of time spent tending to each request. The new process starts with the student filling out a course permission number request which drafts an email for the course instructor. Stephanie immediately receives the email draft where she can approve of the email being sent. Once the email is sent, the instructor may choose to give the student their permission number. This system has already been implemented to use for the Spring 2021 term, but the team continues to add more functionality and make further improvements.
Team Members: Monroe Erle, Kerry Fung, Ben Haerig, Katia Luis-Diaz, and Kyle Pearson.
Systems Optimization Team (Internal)
The Internal Systems Optimization Team that developed a standard method of collecting and displaying club information. Due to rapid growth in the club, reform and organization was needed for the club to continue to run smoothly. The team recreated a database on Google Drive with standardized documentation for SOC, as well as provided a learning resource bank for members. The learning resources are accessible for all members on the google drive and include IME 223, Excel, Microsoft project manual, MiniTab, PowerBi, and Python resources.
Team Members: Tillman Erb, Lance Wharton, Cory Garlinghouse, and Andrew Gaskell
White Fox Defense Team 2
The White Defense Team 2 was the second project in 2020-2021 through White Fox Defense. The team created a facility layout for manufacturing of a new product, which also featured an assembly flow line, production plan, and a workstation redesign to utilize space.
Team Members: David Hom, Jack Rocca, Mitchell Cronin, and Ranjeet Nebhani
Candl Company Team
This team was tasked with automating the data cleaning and calculations from data CSV files that the company provided. The team used Python on Jupyter notebook to easily provide data points such as revenue, material costs, etc. to the company in an organized format. This company was founded by a SOC member and grew into a successful business.
Team Members: Mitchell Fong, Laila Schnebelt, and Alyza Jose
Pepsico Team
The team members focused on developing a more streamlined and automated data collection and analytics display process for Pepsico. The team utilized Power BI to complete this task.
Team Members: Chole Ma, Miles Larson, Daniel Tagalog, and Om Kumar
The Parable Group
The team was tasked with determining the factors that lead a customer to visiting their store in a month given a data set. The team used excel and python on Jupyter Notebook to complete this task, as well as statistical analysis procedures such as correlation analysis, random forest method, and logistic regression to check for statistical significance of the factors.
Team Members: Nicky Rodriguez, Justice Radler, Prabal Sharma, Samuel Miller, and Hernan Rodriguez.
2019-2020
iFixit Teams
Our members were able to complete three separate projects with iFixit!
Project 1 was dedicated to optimizing the kitting warehouse line to place the most used items closest to the operators without shifting hot items around as frequently to decrease the learning curve.
Project 2 focused on a comprehensive linear program to help optimize iFiiwarehouse layout given any pallet inputs.
Project 3 utilized process improvement techniques to improve the overall iPhone kitting process, making it quicker and easier by standardizing the process and finding a way to increase the batch size for larger in-house production.
Team Members: (1) Natali Markowitz, Anthony Hernandez, Astrid Jouret, Gianna Nobili, Surya Venugopal (2) Constantine Yap, Mo Cendejas, Elizabeth Yuen, Ryan Lee (3) Nicky Rodriguez, Vikrant Mannemla, Chloe Ma, Edison Chow
IWMA Team
The SLO County Integrated Waste Management Authority team worked to optimize the location and value of a recycling center in San Luis Obispo. The team looked into current legislature surrounding the opening and completed an in-depth cost-benefit analysis of the recycling center.
Team Members: Timothy Scheuermann, Roxie Peterson, Giorgio Agostini, Dane Dormedy, Jack Ng, Alden Glassey, Ben Haering
Alpenglow Team
The Alpenglow team researched different manufacturing processes to produce several different products. The team used cost analysis techniques to estimate the payoff period and built an interactive Excel dashboard to easily display the information.
Team Members: Jennifer Zakaria, Julia Morris, Broghan Martin, Ben Haering
Wayve Team
The Wayve team worked alongside the Cal Poly startup Wayve to help design the manufacturing process of a water bottle filter cap.
Team Members: Anjali Gupta, Anthony Hernandez, Maria Brown
Baba Small Batch Team
The Baba Hummus team performed a comprehensive cost analysis of Baba Hummus's pita chip making process. The team performed multiple time studies and conducted valuable work sampling.
Team Members: Silvia Kalinov, Christian Berger, Cole Hadaller, Isabela Cortwright, Brian Loh
Southern California Edison Team
The Southern California Edison Team helped train a business operations analyst in utilizing OneNote and Microsoft Project to streamline project management.
Team Members: Timothy Scheuermann, Roxie Peterson, Alden Glassey, Monroe Erle, Vanessa Veto
2018-2019
LA Sheriff's Department Team
This team worked with the LA County Sheriff’s Department to update their method of recording dives from sheets of paper to a user-friendly data entry dashboard in Excel, which included a historical database, a pivot table with multiple splicers, and more! Their solution helps the Sheriff’s Department analyze data with a few clicks of the mouse, greatly reducing the amount of time spent logging dives!
Team Members (from left to right): Mitchell McMilla, Lizbeth Guzman, Megan Arnold, Angela Colabela, Jennifer Zakaria
Hardy Diagnostics Team
The team was challenged with numerous scope changes that ended up forcing them to finish their project in a much smaller time frame than the other projects. Despite the disadvantage, they were able to complete the project and assess whether or not Hardy Diagnostics could meet daily production demands by designing a user-friendly program in excel. This program calculated if the specific product being produced would cause a shortage or surplus with the given capacity constraints (with the goal of minimizing surplus).
Team Members: Nick Mediati, Moyin Oyebanji, Marcos Diaz-Infante, Kathryn Versteeg, Ashley Bates
Baba Small Batch Team
This team was tasked with determining the labor cost per hummus container for Moez Bensalem, the CEO of the local hummus company Baba Small Batch. After taking time studies and collecting data over a 6-week period, the team provided a labor cost calculator that helps identify high cost steps and determine employee assignments that optimize labor expenditure. One recommendation they provided lowered cost per batch by $0.20, which could potentially save the company hundreds, if not thousands of dollars per year.
Team Members: Hudson Brooks, Julia Morris, Natali Markowitz, Micaela Bataclan
Southern California Edison Team
The Southern California Edison team organized a mass of document data in excel and streamlined the process for entering new information by developing a database in MS Access for their project sponsor, Peggy Lunsford. Focusing primarily on inputting/updating document information and the referencing/renaming of old data sheets, Peggy and the rest of the club were impressed with the effectiveness of the newly developed database. The team deserves a lot of praise for time they put into the project and the value of their product to Southern California Edison.
Team Members: Karina Camp, Stephen Holman, John Takiff, Audrey Lomenn
Clearwater Team
This team worked with Clearwater Tech to maximize throughput of CleanStart water purification devices. Although the quantity of teammates was low, the quality of their work wasn’t. With a focus on line balancing, the duo designed workstations for 3 and 4 people, theoretically cutting down the time it took to complete 96 units from 42 hours to 26, or a 38% reduction.
2017-2018
University Police Department Team
SOC worked with the University Police Department to quantify the qualitative services that the Visitors Information Center (VIC) provides to its customers and use this to determine whether or not the VIC should be torn down. This was achieved by analysis using Pareto charts, and fully allocated cost analysis.
Team Members (from left to right): Audrey Stella, Leilani Loo, Emma Vogliano, Eric Kambestad
Poor Richard's Press Team
SOC collaborated with Poor Richard’s Press to optimize the data transfer process in their new order system. Using IE tools such as fishbone diagrams, 5 Whys, and a histogram, the project included mapping the current state and developing performance metrics, identifying waste in the process, and offering improvements.
Team Members (from front to back): Megan Chan, Edward Yi, George Merida, Monique Salinger, Juliana Guidi
PetDoors.com Team
The Petdoors.com team used tools such as time studies, flow diagrams, and spaghetti charts to analyze the current state of pet door production, and made recommendations for the engineers so that they can more efficiently complete production.
Team Members: Rebecca Farr, Charlie Kesecker, Parker Duncan, Jay Matsumoto
Cal Poly Creamery Team
The Cal Poly Creamery team ran an in-depth analysis of the Creamery’s defective and excess cheese. They examined the cheese cutting equipment, and proposed solutions to cheese cutting process. They also provided recommendations to use the excess cheese in a cost-effective and environmentally-friendly manner.
Team Members: Audrey Mano, Robert Hemphill, Ariana Torres, Brian Kung