Formula SAE Vehicle Progress Report - Mechanical Engineering Project

This report provides a comprehensive overview of a Formula SAE vehicle project, focusing on the design, development, and management aspects. It details the project's introduction, management concepts, methodologies, and activities, including planning, design, and budgeting. The report highlights project milestones, main vehicle components (chassis, engine, gearbox, and suspension), and meeting schedules for progress reporting. It also discusses problems encountered, proposed and completed modifications, and issues faced during the reporting period. The report concludes with an update on project progress, referencing key management concepts and engineering principles, and emphasizes the importance of teamwork, adherence to SAE regulations, and the application of project management techniques to ensure the vehicle's successful development and testing.

10/3/2017
Student Name
Formulae SAE vehicle - PROGRESS REPORT

Formulae SAE Vehicle
Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
Management Concepts................................................................................................................................2
Method........................................................................................................................................................3
Summary of Activities.................................................................................................................................3
Planning...................................................................................................................................................3
Design.....................................................................................................................................................4
Budget.....................................................................................................................................................4
Project Milestones.......................................................................................................................................5
Products – Main Vehicle Components........................................................................................................5
Meeting – Reporting Projects Progress and Schedules................................................................................6
Problems Encountered.................................................................................................................................6
Modifications - Proposed and Completed....................................................................................................7
Issues Encountered During the Reporting Period........................................................................................8
Project Progress Update..............................................................................................................................8
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................9
References...................................................................................................................................................9
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Formulae SAE Vehicle
Introduction
The proposal helped identify important management approaches Formulae SAE teams require to
re-engineer and improve vehicle safety and component performance levels. The proposal
highlights various aspects linked to the design, materials, and component which are used to
develop the vehicle prototypes. The proposal goes ahead to highlight the teams role towards
optimizing, testing and reporting specific components of the Formulae SAE vehicles. The project
will require internal team approval before progressing after which the teams shall be broken in o
groups specializing in individual’s components and parts. Each group’s individual proposal
towards the project and components customization will be evaluated to ensure it remains within
the original vehicle blueprint plan and abides to the Formulae SAE regulations (Clifton &
Apostolides, 2011). The progress report shall analyse different aspects linked to the planning,
design, finalization, and sponsorship, development, testing and reporting Formulae SAE
vehicles. It will also explore challenges encountered during the project and how the issues were
resolved.
Management Concepts
The Progress report focuses on highlighting the management concepts and approaches each team
will require utilizing on their project so as to achieved success. Formulae SAE vehicles team
management and vehicles development will expose each of the team members to a wide verity of
management concerns (Ghuman, 2010). Important management concepts each team members
and team lead would be exposed to during the projects include:
 Planning,
 Organizing,
 leading,
 controlling,
 commanding,
 coordinating,
 staffing,
 reporting,
 budgeting
 decision making,
 communicating and
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Formulae SAE Vehicle
 Directing.
Each of these management concepts and skills are critical towards every projects successful
implementation and each of the Formulae SAE team must master these skills to develop a
successful design.
Method
The project would see the implementation and use of management concepts by organizing roles
linked to overall planning as whole team and single unite. To achieve this I would take on the
role of the project manager in which I would need to coordinate the over team and ensure the
management concepts and activities are performance as per plan (Maley, 2012). The first stage
would require the team to utilize team work management concerns such as Planning, Organizing,
coordinating and communicating being practices by the team as a whole. This stage would be
undertaken during the initial planning each member will need to contribute towards the overall
vehicles design (Baldegger, 2012). Once the overall design has been decided on the team would
be broke in to groups specializing and responsible for certain sections whereby management
concepts like Planning, staffing, budgeting, reporting and coordinating. Thereafter the team leads
will require utilizing leadership, controlling, commanding, reporting, decision making and
directing management concepts on the project so as to ensure the project meets the set time line
and specifications set during the planning stage.
Summary of Activities
Planning
The Formulae SAE vehicle design and development would require being completed over a 6
months period delivering just over 180 days to design, develop, and complete the vehicles for the
endurance test and data collection. Funding for the project shall be primarily from sponsorships
and donations which team members must gather for their individual project responsibility and
components. Surplus finances and materials shall be distributed towards other vehicles design
aspects which will help reduce the financial and material burden on the overall team (Lewis,
2010). Teams shall be broken down into groups each focusing on an area of their specialization.
They would be responsible for developing all components under their designation area keeping
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in mind it meets the oval teams design and budget as well as meets the Formulae SAE
regulations.
Design
The entire team shall be involved in developing a draft of the design of the vehicle which shall
take into considering different aspects of aerodynamics, weight, speed, strength, and safety. The
individual team will then require developing their component designs and return the proposed
design to the team design table for overall team review and approval. This will prevent designs
clashing and ensure a final vehicle model design has been agreed on before any team proceeds
with development of theirs. To save time and promote coordination all teams will work
simultaneously on their allocated designs and simultaneously present progress reports during a
team meeting this shall be held every Friday (Bhise, 2016). This will help avoid missing major
developments and allow teams to highlight problems or progress on the project so as to meet the
set project deadline. All finalized designed shall be blueprinted and specific dynamics and
measurement gave for every component to avoid component design issues. On completion, the
overall blueprint for the vehicle and all components designs shall be patented to help protect the
design for future use.
Budget
Every team department will be responsible for locating sponsors and donors for finances, part
and component donations. Sponsorship shall not be limited to finances and will also accept
important vehicle parts and components (Callahan, Stetz, & Brooks, 2011). Each team
department is requested to secure additional finance and resources if possible and pool the
surplus resources towards the oval all team budget. This will assist individual teams who may
have experienced a budget deficit secure funding from the overall team surplus funds to ensure
design and development deadlines are met. This will help support the team as a unit and ensure
development goals are met.
Project Milestones
The Formulae SAE vehicle must be completed and ready for public presentation in 180 days
which makes it critical for the project to be completed within 150 Days. This will deliver a
troubleshooting period of 30 days in which the final project design can be polished, turned and
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Formulae SAE Vehicle
tested to ensure optimum results during public unveiling and endurance testing (Kerzner, 2009).
Sponsors and entrepreneur representatives from the automobile industry will be the main
attendants making it important for the designs to prove their capability to performance ay
optimum level.
The project shall be broken down into 5 main milestones which shall be reported on a weekly
basis.
 Milestone 1 - Designs Development and focus Component identification
 Milestone 2 – Component Redesign
 Milestone 3 – Redesigning and Testing
 Milestone 4 – Assembly on Formulae SAE vehicle
 Milestone 5 – Endurance and Performance Testing & Fine Tuning
 Milestone 6 – Vehicle Fabrication, sponsorship Adv. Display and public Unveiling
Products – Main Vehicle Components
The design will be focused towards developing a vehicle design which utilizes only the main
components required to allow the vehicle to function. This is due to the vehicle design mainly
being developed so as to test the performance of the vehicle and allow the automobile students to
make modifications to the design with the objective of improving it. This would allow for a
minimum number of components to be utilized thus allowing each team to focus on a specific
component which would allow each group to develop a proposal (Jonasson, 2016). At the end of
the exercise, the team would have 4 to 5 modified components which they can present to the
sponsors and automobile industry as their development and improved design. The vehicle design
will consist of 4 main components namely the Chassis, Engine, gearbox and suspension and
steering this will allow the team to be divided into the four groups which would allow for each to
develop their design after which they can decide on the most important compost to consider
developing. It’s not possible to redesign the entire system but the performance of one component
can be tested after which modifications can be made and tests repeated to register any
improvements. This data can then be used and presented to industry leaders who may be
interested in infusing the new design to their vehicles.
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Formulae SAE Vehicle
Meeting – Reporting Projects Progress and Schedules
The project shall be implemented by ensuring the teams meet on a weekly basis and report the
projects progress. This would be important as it would also allow for the teams to raise any
concerns they may have encountered a request for assistance for other team members. Milestones
shall also be set on a monthly basis which would allow for the teams to report on the progress
and fill in reports on whether milestones have been achieved or not. Milestones play an
important role in the project as they allow the team and management to determine and track how
the project is progressing and which team may be lagging behind (Wysocki, Effective Project
Management: Traditional, Adaptive, Extreme, 2010). Each team will also need to present a
details project progress plan with detailed graphs, tables and a Gantt chart which highlights the
specific time they intend on completing the project. This is important as the team manager would
be able to monitor each department’s progress and reorganize the teams focus or manpower and
resources to assist the team gets back on track. The team leader manager would not participate
directly in the process but would play a supervisory role in which he would need to visit each
team and monitor their progress. This would allow for constant management of the teams
progress ensuring the team meets its completion target and has adequate time to test the vehicles
and resolve any issues that may be encountered by the team. All meeting would be recorded via
audio media to help save time and efforts and recording distributed to each of the teams as the
minutes of the meeting. This will ensure all information has been recorded and understood by all
members (Wysocki, Effective Project Management: Traditional, Adaptive, Extreme, 2010). The
team lead and manager would also be responsible for obtaining all permits required for the
prototype Formulae SAE vehicle to participate in the race. This is important as the prototype will
still require being insured and meet all safety standards before the vehicles can be approved to
participate in the event.
Problems Encountered
It is inevitable that the project is will encounter major complications and problems have its
important for all teams to be prepared to handle and resolve them. This makes it important for
the team to be prepared psychologically to handle any concerns and problems they encounter.
Expecting to encounter a problem is the key element to being able to successfully resolve this
problem (Biafore & Stover, 2012). This makes it important for every team member to retain a
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Formulae SAE Vehicle
cool mind while working on the project and expect to encounter problems so as to be prepared to
resolve the problems. Formulae SAE vehicle prototype designs are not developed to win the race
although this will develop an advantage they are mainly aimed to demonstrate the vehicles
capable to maintain its performance under pressure thus proving the modifications made to the
vehicles are sustainable and can be used on future designs. It also helps students demonstrate
their capacity to identify and resolve automobile engineering problems which they expect to
encounter on the project
Modifications - Proposed and Completed
It’s also critical for all teams to document their components for modification and propose
modifications which they intend on making on the component to the team. This information
requires being reviewed by individual’s teams and a final decision made after which the
information must be documented on the overall project log which will ensure the project
proposed changes are registered (Recreational, 2005). This will serve two main purposed namely
• Set proposed project development and
• Encourage teams to meet the performance targets.
With the information registered on a log, the teams need to continue with the development of the
project and ensure all information has been properly registered relating to the project. It's
important that all development and achievement are also registered as this would allow the
project manager and participant demonstrate their capability to resolve a problem. It’s also very
important to document failures as these can be considered for further development to help with
the projects further improvement.
On completion, it is necessary for the prototypes to be tested and their projected outcomes
recorded to help determine the actual performance as compared to the projected performance.
Once again this data will play an important role after the completion of the project as the data
can be used and presented to the professor as direct demonstrations of the engineer’s
performance and capability to resolve problems. This is the main intention of the project as it
allows professors to evaluate and assess individuals based on their capability to research, locate
current issues and develop solutions which can be used to help boost performance.
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Formulae SAE Vehicle
Issues Encountered During the Reporting Period
Simply developing and improving a design does not demonstrate of proof an engineer’s
capability to resolve problems thus making it critical for the engineer to also register and log
their problems and complications in the same manner. This is vital and must be done on every
project as it documents the problems encountered and allows the individual to recollect on their
experience. In addition to this, it also allows the individuals to demonstrate their practical
capabilities to perform on the project which is a critical requirement in engineering. Engineering
students cannot rely on theoretical approaches as this can lead to serious complications related to
project implementation. It is vital for the engineer to be able to review a project from a practical
perspective and also consider developing important approaches for its development and
improvement (Rakos, Dhanraj, Kennedy, Fleck, Jackson, & Harris, 2015). The Formulae SAE
vehicle prototype designs and races are aimed at allowing students to expand their vision with
relation to practical implementation and demonstrate their capabilities. This makes it important
to utilize this opportunity to also demonstrate each individual’s performance and ability to
contribute possibility in the future toward vehicle designs.
Project Progress Update
With the proposed project developed I have moved along to assemble the team and also
presented the proposal to the program coordinator for approval. Senior members have also began
approaching sponsors regarding the proposal of which we have received several interested
parties willing to sponsor the project once approved by the project coordinator. We have also
approach the Formulae SAE who has provided us with the prototype vehicle specification which
must be followed when designing the Formulae SAE vehicles. This has allowed us to determine
important specification thus allow us approach sponsors for funding and other forms of
assistance towards developing the Formulae SAE vehicle.
Conclusion
With vehicles remains an important form of transportation in the modern world, young engineers
will need to revaluate the current design and come up with new designs which will deliver better
performance as well as address serious complications being experience by automobile
manufacturers. Factors like pollution, congestion and other important points must all be carefully
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Formulae SAE Vehicle
addressed as the concern is only growing more alarming each year and the permanent, as well as
the environmentally friendly solution, must be found.
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Formulae SAE Vehicle
References
Baldegger, R. (2012). Management in a Dynamic Environment: Concepts, Methods and Tools.
Heidalberg: Springer Science & Business Media.
Bhise, V. D. (2016). Ergonomics in the Automotive Design Process. Boca Roton: CRC Press.
Biafore, B., & Stover, T. (2012). Your Project Management Coach: Best Practices for Managing Projects in
the Real World. John Wiley & Sons,.
Callahan, K. R., Stetz, G. S., & Brooks, L. M. (2011). Project Management Accounting: Budgeting,
Tracking, and Reporting Costs and Profitability. John Wiley & Sons.
Clifton, M., & Apostolides, A. (2011). Progress Report. eStar Books.
Ghuman, D. K. (2010). Management: Concepts, Practice & Cases. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill
Education.
Jonasson, H. (2016). Determining Project Requirements, Second Edition: Mastering the BABOK® and the
CBAP® Exam. New York: CRC Press.
Kerzner, H. (2009). Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling.
New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Lewis, J. P. (2010). Project Planning, Scheduling, and Control: The Ultimate Hands-On Guide to Bringing
Projects in On Time and On Budget , Fifth Edition: The Ultimate Hands-On Guide to Bringing
Projects in On Time and On Budget. McGraw Hill Professional,.
Maley, C. H. (2012). Project Management Concepts, Methods, and Techniques. Boca Roton: CRC Press.
Rakos, J., Dhanraj, K., Kennedy, S., Fleck, L., Jackson, S., & Harris, J. (2015). The Practical Guide to Project
Management Documentation. John Wiley & Sons.
Recreational, D. M. (2005). Design Modifications and Recreational Enhancements to the Wyoming Valley
Levee Raising Project at the Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania River Commons: Environmental Impact
Statement.
Wysocki, R. K. (2010). Effective Project Management: Traditional, Adaptive, Extreme. John Wiley & Sons.
Wysocki, R. K. (2010). Effective Project Management: Traditional, Adaptive, Extreme. Indianapolis: John
Wiley & Sons.
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