EasyLearn: Six-Sigma based Projects in Engineering

Today, Engineering is the most sought after career option and the number of engineers passing out each year; is increasing each year. As a part of the degree curriculum, in the final year of degree, the students have to undertake projects. Two in fact: Minor & Major Project. What is expected from the students by their professors as project is their theoretical knowledge and skills to be seen in the projects. Of course, innovation is their utmost desire, but, most innovations are accidents, isn’t it? And innovation is not the only idea which is going to fetch ‘wows’ for your project, but, the application of the project and the result matters a lot too. In this post, I will suggest you some projects which, in terms of their application and result, are highly rated in the industry.

Six Sigma is a very important term in industries today. It is a Quality Improvement technique which takes a business process to a whole new level which the companies can only dream of. Six Sigma based projects are highly rated by companies and you will have an upper hand in the recruitment processes over others because of the term Six Sigma in your Resume. Let us first start with a brief introduction to Six Sigma and then we will talk about Six-Sigma based Projects in Engineering.

Introduction to Six Sigma

Six Sigma is a quality management methodology which uses different theories and tools to improve the yield of exiting process and reducing the time, money and resources put in. It is a statistical technique to represent the deviation from the standard and measure the same. A Six Sigma process produces only 3.4 defects per million opportunities. In simple words, Six Sigma is a Quality improvement process to attack the reasons behind the defects and, thus, provide a full proof solution against any problem.

Application of Six Sigma

Six Sigma is a process which can be applied to almost any business process or even to a non-commercial process. For instance, if there is an electric generator in your locality which is having low efficiency, collect the data of the power generation and fuel consumption for a reasonable duration and you can increase the efficiency by applying Sis-Sigma methodology on it. You are a team leader and your team members are making mistakes in their projects time and again. Collect the error (mistakes) data and apply the sis-sigma operation and see the astonishing results. The effectiveness of Six-Sigma is tried and tested. Companies, today, just love to go the six-sigma way because there is always scope of improvement in any ocmmercial process and with continuous improvement, the Operating cost goes on decreasing and thus, the company can fulfill the desires of customers: ‘Low Price making no compromise with Quality’.

Projects in Six-Sigma

This is the most crucial part of this post: the Project Ideas.

1. Six-Sigma projects, as I said before, can be done both on commercial and non-commercial activities. If you are lucky enough to do your Summer Training in a company like: Hero MotoCorp, Maruti, Honda or any manufacturing company for that matter.
2. Thermal Power Plants are also a very good option as a Project can be done on their Capacity Utilization, Resource Utilization.
3. And, you won’t believe me when I say that you can even choose a non-commercial process if you don’t get an opportunity in a company. You can concentrate on your Hostel Electric Generator, calculate the power generation data and the fuel consumption and go for the target of better fuel efficiency.
4. Doing a project on Industrial accidents is also a very good choice and is a hot topic these days.

These are only a few ideas from the never-ending list of Six-Sigma based Projects you can take and work on. The possibilities are immense and the appreciation you are going to get is immense too. If you have any idea and want to discuss it with us, post it as a comment in the comment box below this post.

EasyLearn: Design Softwares (Mechanical Engineering)

Today, designing is the backbone of any production system. The 3D modelling softwares in the market today (for instance: SolidWorks, Catia, Pro/E, AutoCAD etc) are so advanced that it is now possible to make anything you want. You can stimulate the working of the design too and see, how it goes. One good thing about the available softwares, used in industries, is that they are identical in more than many ways. So, if you learn one, you can operate any with some hands-on that software.

How to learn a Designing Software?

This, in fact, has an obvious answer: Join a Training Institute. But, this is actually not that obvious, though! You learn it today and you don’t practice it tomorrow, don’t go through the capabilities of the software; it will not take long for your training to go in vain. Actually, designing is not a cup of tea. If you have that zeal of learning a designing software, you have that thought process, imaginative power to think about models, then you should go for learning a software. But, if you want to learn a software just for the sake of learning and to elongate your resume, don’t go for it; simple as that! Lots of students ask me which software should he/her go for? This is, in fact, a very good question. Yes, I said at the start that all softwares are nearly the same, but, the user interface is a lot different. The capabilities of few softwares are better than the rest. And this is the reason why industries give preference to a few softwares only. SolidWorks and Pro/Engineering (Pro/E) are the most popular. Both softwares are capable of doing anything for you and are amazingly capable of doing almost anything.

For learning any design software, you need guidance: from a tutor or from a book.

• Sham Tickoo’s is the best book in the market.
• Tutorials are available on YouTube
• Documents related to design are readily available on Scribd
• Practice is really very important. Engineering Design books like: ND Bhatt have a lot of assemblies up for grabs.
• Just clicking here and there in the software is really handy. It tells you the capabilities of the software and the features.
• Help tab in the software is underrated all the time. But, in actuality, it explains all the features offered by the software and the directions regarding its use.

Learning a designing software needs your time, interest and practice. If you have that zeal in you to learn, you will succeed for sure. And believe me, it is the best dimension of Mechanical Engineering course. You will relish the time you spend learning it.

EasyIdea: Project Ideas for Mechanical Engineers

One of the most important dimension of a 4 year degree course is the Project. In the final year of degree, students are required to work on Projects for which they are going to be evaluated too. Most of the students don’t take this seriously and many who does, don’t find an idea to work on. So, in this post, I will explain ‘How to get an Idea?’ & ‘How to work on that Idea?’

How to get an idea?

This is the most important step of a project: ‘the beginning!’ If you get a good idea to start with, it will boost your confidence and your interest in the project will be sky-high. But, the inverse here is also true. If you work on an idea you are not interested in, then you won’t be able to apply your mind and soul into the work at all.

The question is unanswered still: How to get idea? Remember, you are going to become a mechanical engineer and the industrial training you have done at the end of second & third year are most critical for you to discover your interest. In my case, I did my first training from a Thermal Power Plant and the second one in a Manufacturing Plant. Both the fields fascinated me and thereby, I ended up doing two projects in my final year: One a Six Sigma improvement in a Thermal Power Plant, and other, a system design in manufacturing plant. Students thing that they should make the innovative project. Yes, of course this is the best you can do. But, innovation is not the only option you have. Innovations are not planned, remember! Most of the innovations are accidental rather than a planned recipe. Modification, Improvement and Design are three things which are of importance too. Making changes in the already existing systems and making a working model is a very good option actually.

Some Project Ideas

There are a few project ideas which you can think about and work on:

1. Improvements using Six-Sigma (It is your choice what system for improvement you take)
2. System Design Project (In the company where you completed summer training)
3. Capacity Utilization of thermal power plants
4. Hydraulic Ram (Using water as the working fluid)
5. Fabrication of mini Steam Turbine (Using a Pressure Cooker as boiler)
6. Fabrication of Solar Air Cooler
7. Fabrication of Four-wheel Steering system
8. Fabrication of Automotive Thermo-Electric Generator (ATEG)

In all of the above projects, I had involvement. First five I did myself. All the project ideas above are going to be a learning to you in one way or the other.

I will highly recommend you to choose a project related to your Industrial Training. Because you seen by yourself how the stuff was working there. You saw the apparatus in that industry and if you do a project on that Industry, it is going to help you a great deal and the company people can help you out in any difficulty. So, think about it!

EasyRank: Engineering College Ranking 2013

  

Outlook India magazine published Engineering College Ranking in India 2013. OUTLOOK India has Published the List of Top Engineering Colleges in India. The Ranking for Top Engineering Institutes are based on the Students Care, Infrastructure, Placements and Academic Excellence.

List of the top 75 Engineering colleges in India:

EasyHow: Choice filling in Online Counselling

Online counselling has made the admission process smooth. But, it is not an easy task to participate in online counselling process. A better filling of choices can fetch you a seat in a better college and bad choice can spoil your good rank. Now the question arises, ‘How to fill the online choices in Counselling?’ There are more than many things which you should take care when you are filling choices online. This post is for the Online Counselling of premier Engineering Institutions through Central Counselling Board (CCB) or Central Seat Allocation Board (CSAB) called nowadays. There are two kind of cases in general:

If your rank is moderate (10000-15000), then you can either go for a good branch in a less reputed college or you can take a ‘less than good’ branch in a highly reputed college. The benefit associated with the latter is that the option of ‘Branch Sliding’ is open for you.

First, if you want admission in a particular college, fill all the branches of that college right at the top. Even if you get an inferior branch first (not your preferred branch), don’t worry! You will get ample opportunities even after the first counselling. And not just the subsequent rounds of the counselling, you can change your branch by ‘Branch Sliding’ which is an option provided to you by your respective colleges. This option lets you change your branch on the basis of the marks you secure in the first year.

The Branch Sliding is a tough nut to crack though. You are supposed to secure good marks in your first year, if you want to get the branch of your choice. And when I say good marks, I mean to say that you need to be in the top 25 in your college if you want your wish fulfilled. This option also depends on the current strength of a branch. There should be a minimum number of students in every branch. Suppose, you have Civil Engineering at present and only 60 % of the seats in your branch are occupied and rest are vacant. If the college have a criterion of a minimum of 75% seats to be filled in every branch, then you cannot apply for Branch Sliding. Because if you do, the 60% of the seats in your branch which were filled earlier will decrease further. So, you need to be absolutely sure about it and there is always a risk associated with this option.

Second, if you want a particular branch then go for all the top colleges and fill only that branch of those colleges and fill a few inferior colleges too right at the top before filling any other branch. Obviously, if you are doing it, you are playing safe and not taking risk which is associated with branch sliding. Never fill the less reputed college before the reputed ones because it is going to spoil your chance even if you are getting the better college. Never think negative about your rank and do fill the good branches of the better colleges too. Who knows, when your luck favors you!

Do it accordingly and there is no one in this world who can stop you from getting the best results for you.