• Table of contents
• Project Engineers - Purchasing
  • Customer Needs
  • Project Requirements
  • Approval Review
  • Related Pages
  • Fabrication

Project Engineers - Purchasing¶

Your purchasing process always starts with your Project Engineer. Our goal is, as quickly as possible, to approve purchases that will be appropriate for your project! This is what you should expect to see at your future jobs whether in industry or academia! (you may have already seen it in clubs and Greek organizations.)

Customer Needs¶

The purpose of defining customer needs is so that we can determine the multiple technically based project requirements that are needed to meet those customer needs.

Project Requirements¶

From the technically defined project requirements, we create multiple concepts for addressing those. We can then establish the criteria needed to make or buy key project components.

Approval Review¶

When we are asked to approve any purchase, we do so only after looking at the proposed concept and the requirements it is intended to address. Only then can we begin to determine if the proposed purchase is the appropriate one! Please note that urgency is rarely a criteria used for approving purchases!

Please note:

Teams need more than just a concept! Teams need a concrete design documented that fully shows how the items will be used (schematic, CAD, installation / mounting, etc.) as well as supporting analysis showing how/why the item will work within the overall system. In terms of the design process, this usually means passing through concept generation and selection and getting into detailed design - before ordering parts, especially expensive ones.

In general, we do not need to purchase parts to see "if they work". Commercial parts are sold to meet their manufacturer's specs. We also do not generally order parts to see "if or how easily they can be integrated". Instead we use the available data sheet information for this.

Some things that we normally catch during this review:

• accidentally ordering surface mount components when through-hole ones are to be used with a protoboard
• buying actuating components like motors and relays that exceed the current or voltage capabilities of the electronics that were expected to drive them
• buying actuators whose size or shape is dramatically different than needed
• ordering parts that also need special mounting components which were not included in the purchase request
• not buying enough or buying too many items for a variety of reasons. For components that are likely to get damaged through use or accident, we might need to order extras / spares. We evaluate remaining time in the semester, shipping delays and costs vs. the cost of the spares!
• failing to follow the special process needed for all chemical orders.

To save time, money, and frustration all around, the Project Engineers all perform this review as part of the approval process. Our only goal is to help you get the right parts that your team can actually use to move your project forward. We do this based on the design process artifacts that are taught in IED and then used in Capstone, and more importantly, later in most of your careers.

Related Pages¶

• CAD Templates
• Diagrams and CAD

Fabrication¶

After the above, follow the process outlined on the Capstone Support wiki for creating:

• Parts machined/created by student team - Self Fabricated Part Process
• Parts machined/created by RPI staff - Shop Fabricated Part Process
• Parts created through rapid prototyping - Rapid Prototyped Part Process