In Our Schools


Investment Casting Allows You to Impact the World: An Intern Experience


by Emily Miksa


Behrend in Erie, Pennsylvania. During the summer of May 2017, I had the incredible opportunity to begin my internship with Arconic in Whitehall, Michigan. Arconic’s Power and Propulsion division is a world-class producer of aero engine components and their parts can be found on nearly every aircraft in the sky. During my time with Arconic, I worked as a manufacturing engineering intern in the Wax Department for the Howmet Casting Facility. This facility utilizes the investment casting process to develop and manufacture single-crystal, high temperature turbine blades. The shear amount of labor that goes into each and every part is absolutely remarkable. As a manufacturing engineer, I was given the unique ability to learn, analyze, and understand the process from start to finish.


M During my time with Arconic, I was


given multiple projects to work on and manage throughout the summer. My first project was to implement an inventory management system for the Wax Department’s totes. At the time of the project there was no real-time system in place for organizing or maintaining tote inventory within the department, only physical inventory that was taken weekly. This was a major issue because the master schedule depended on tote counts to plan assemblies and order more stock. Without an adequate system, the department was at risk of not meeting targeted demands. As a solution, my team and I implemented a barcode scanning system to check totes in and out of the department’s system. I developed Standard Rules in Use and Work Instructions that were easy to understand and allowed operators to become familiar with the new computer


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y name is Emily Miksa and I am a senior studying Industrial Engineering at Penn State


system. I even worked side by side with the operators to show them how the system worked and to inquire how I could make the system even better for them.


One very important task that I was


regularly assigned during my time as a manufacturing engineering intern was to conduct observations and time studies throughout the Wax Department. These studies allowed the team to evaluate time efficiencies, develop standards for production, and determine waste within the manufacturing process. These studies were a great learning tool for me because not only did they help me learn about the processes within the Wax Department, they also assisted in my ability to build relationships with supervisors and operators in my department. The relationships you build out on the floor are super important and these tasks allowed me to strengthen my communication skills throughout my internship. Building upon my experience with


time studies, once I developed enough experience with the process, I was given the project to develop standards for our Cell Support. The cell support staff is


tasked with assisting and maintaining the assembly cells. In addition, Cell Support also does last minute mold finishing before they are sent to inspection. There were currently no standards in place for finishing molds, which caused the Wax Department’s direct labor utilization to be incorrect. In order to correct this issue, I conducted times studies in order to understand how different molds required different amounts of time to be finished. This data was then converted to hours per piece and set as standards for each job in the area. Working at Arconic was an


incredible experience. Knowing that there are over a half a million people flying at around 40,000 feet this very second is unbelievable, but knowing that you helped put them there is indescribable. Investment casting allows you to impact the world in ways you would never imagine. Not only is the single-crystal casting process an awe- inspiring work of material science, but it also has the ability to connect families all across the world through a variety of implementations and I think that is pretty amazing.


December 2018 ❘ 13


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