EVOLVE Business and Professional Magazine April 2017 | Page 35

The new process improved
ergonomics, efficiency, profitability and
competitiveness as well as quality ...
wire in a “Compliant Winding Machine.” Recently, as the 355,800 jobs as of December 2016 – an increase of more than
Riddle for fresh ideas on the winding machine. The machine took Florida Department of Economic Opportunity. With annual
company was upgrading its equipment, it reached out to Embry-
up significant floor space and required operators to lift a heavy
cover and feed twenty-pound spools of wire through the winding
mechanism, Madore noted. Nagi and Sabet-Rasekh conducted a
7,000 jobs, compared to the prior year, according to the
manufacturing wages averaging $57,369 in Florida as of 2015, the
sector can offer a high quality of life for talented local students.
The value of university-industry partnerships to promote
literature review to better understand the sonobuoy technology, innovation and job growth is a key reason why Embry-Riddle
analysis tools to explore more efficient options. Innovation Complex, or MicaPlex. The building, designed to
and they leveraged computer-aided design and advanced
The students’ design – a horizontal winding box – prompted a
company engineer to come up with a vertical version of concept.
“The new process improved ergonomics, efficiency, profitability
and competitiveness as well as quality,” Madore reported. “Now,
we have a very efficient piece of equipment that can produce
twice the amount of product on a quarter of the floor space,
compared to the original design. It sprang from the prototype
that the students did.”
Sparton’s experience was not unusual among manufacturers.
Often, production deadlines and the need to continuously
respond to competitive pressures from all regions of the world
means that, on a day-to-day basis, they may have little time left
over to pursue innovation. Partnering with university researchers
can stimulate new ways of thinking about long-standing
will soon debut the new John Mica Engineering and Aerospace
support existing businesses, entrepreneurs and start-ups to lead
the next wave of industry innovation and job creation, will serve
as the cornerstone facility within the university’s new research
park. Featuring business acceleration and incubation capabilities,
flex-lease space and cutting-edge instrumentation, the MicaPlex
and surrounding innovation corridor will help businesses across
a variety of industries more readily team up with university
experts to advance science, technology and the Volusia County
economy. To further extend those efforts, Embry-Riddle is also
planning a new manufacturing systems engineering track within
the systems engineering program at the Master’s level, as a joint
effort of the College of Engineering and College of Business, to
address the needs of the local manufacturing community.
manufacturing challenges.
At the same time, working with a manufacturing partner can
open students’ eyes to local career opportunities in the sector.
At Sparton, Madore explained, “We have 100 engineers in our
facility, and when students come in and see how complex and
complicated the product is, it starts to intrigue them. Teaming up
with Embry-Riddle has been a great opportunity to showcase our
company and different aspects of what we do.”
Real-world manufacturing experiences can lead to an
increased number of highly trained employees in the county’s
workforce; Sparton last year hired one of Embry-Riddle’s
Sathya Gangadharan is a professor of mechanical
engineering and Patrick Currier is an associate
professor of mechanical engineering at Embry-
Riddle Aeronautical University, a premier science
and engineering institution, which educates
students at residential campuses in Daytona
Beach, Fla., and Prescott, Ariz., through its
Worldwide Campus with more than 125 locations
in the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle
East, and through online programs.
graduates, for example. Statewide, manufacturing supported
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