There are quite a few areas of the Project Management Process that can be enhanced with recommendations and lessons the team learned while executing the project. The following section is broken into recommendations the team would make and recommendations each individual member of the team would make with respect to technical, scheduling, and cost lessons.

Team Recommendations

Timeline/Scheduling

Recommendation 1: Shared Database of Documents.

The first recommendation would be to have a shared database of tasks between the team members. There were a couple instances during execution of the project when having a shared database of current completion of a task would have benefitted the schedule. Instead of completing a task and then seeking feedback from teammates getting feedback while working on the task would really improve the quality of the completed task.

Recommendation 2: Split Workload as Evenly as Possible.

The second recommendation would be to divide tasks equally and fairly, there are times during the project management process where workload may be different for each team member, as a result the quality of work can suffer and more importantly deadlines can be missed. One team member may be overloaded with work and sacrifice completion on one task to complete another.

Budget/Costs

Recommendation 1: Purchase Materials in Advance of Needing Them.

The first recommendation would be to purchase materials before they are needed. There are some cases when material is needed urgently and unfortunately there can be premiums placed on the material and must be paid because the team needs the material. When material is purchased early it can be stored and proper plans can be made, along with the ability to return material to salvage costs not necessary for the team to spend.

Recommendation 2: Use as Little Resources as Possible for Each Task.

The last recommendation would be to set work for a task to be completed by as few as individuals as possible. The largest cost of the budget was labour costs by a large amount and with fewer teammates working on the task, more costs can be saved in labour.

Individual Recommendations

Team Member: Jake Hall

The first technical lesson learned was to try and use as many components and devices already available on the market. The team decided at the start of the project to design a drive mechanism for the device. Upon executing the project, especially during the Mechanical Design Phase, the team would have benefited from the use of a proven mechanism. Time would have been saved in designing, there would have been no cost for labour as the device could be purchased as a whole, and the team could have focused more of their technical skills on other tasks of the project. Figure 52. below shows a system for purchase from NEXEN products. Instead of the time trying to find components that will work with each other to create the Rack and Pinion system to drive the device, a lot of time could have been saved by purchasing this component.

The second technical lesson learned relates to the design of machined of components. There were two components specifically that would and did need specially made tools to machine them properly. Both the Upper and Lower Plate Spacers had acute angles that could not be machined with the machines the team had access to. Thankfully with the help of Professor Lockwood in the Machining Lab, the team was able to machine the acute angle. The lesson learned is to accurately evaluate the feasibility of creating any and all components of a device. Every other component could have machined with regular processes but these two components did provide some difficultly. Figure 53. below shows the acute angle.

Team Member: Daniela Cruz

Personally, since the start of this program Daniela always struggled while working with programs such as SOLIDWORKS and MASTERCAM. Is not as easy for her to be able to work with these programs and have success without questions or struggling. So, an important technical lesson that Daniela had was how to use SOLIDWORKS in a more complex way, by watching the other teammates creating the design of the product. Along with that, trying to include everyone’s ideas, design in it and show her their ways of working with the program. Daniela knows that she should be able to design something like what the team did alone, it is just harder for some team members and they may have more knowledge or strengths in other topics. Daniela is more than happy that Veggie Blaster had such a good team that helped her and tried to teach her.

Another important lesson was the creation of a Gantt Chart, at first it was amazing to learn what a great tool it is and how much it can help the team to visualize the time of the tasks and have a better idea of the time management during the completion of the project. Before learning this in class Daniela always wondered which tool could be useful for any person so a team could be as productive as possible since everyone is different. There are people that are more visual or technical, and Daniela considers herself more visual. Having this tool could really help with any type of project to try to stay up to date every time.

Team Member: Sean Michelich

One of the lessons Sean took away was that time management is exceptionally important when attempting to undertake a project that is as involved as the capstone was. Sean would recommend that trying to juggle work, other courses, and maintain some semblance of a life while undertaking a project of this type is inadvisable. While there was a decent amount of time available for the project, Sean discovered that he, personally, needs to work on his skills regarding maintaining a calendar of events and a daily schedule. At points throughout the project, Sean found that he had an accumulation of tasks that he hadn’t realized had come due both for Fanshawe and in his work life and he would very much like to avoid those situations in the future.

Perhaps it is closely related to his time management issue, but Sean's other big lesson learned from this project is that tasks should be started as soon as it is possible to do so. Sean ran into issues with material acquisition. As he saw there was material the team would need for the project available, he didn’t think too much more about it until it was close to the time to machine it. The material he then ordered did not show up and material had to be purchased locally, at a higher cost, and with understandable concern from the group. There were other tasks during the project that he saw further ahead in the Gantt but thought that they could wait until the schedule demanded, but in hindsight Sean would recommend that if there is time to do so, move on to the next available task regardless of it’s scheduled start (keeping dependencies in mind).