January 22, 2007

Engineering Students 
Help “Stop Hunger Now”

  — Senior design projects help global food aid program

Each day more than 30,000 people die of starvation around the world. It is a crisis highlighted during World Refugee Day and in the national and international media. While the causes vary, the short-term solution is the same — send food aid to the areas hardest hit. It is a monumental task requiring countless hours of work by volunteers and aid workers.

At North Carolina State University, a group of students in the Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering used their industrial engineering skills to help a global food aid organization improve its process for preparing and shipping meals to more than 55 countries in crisis. The students, all seniors completing their capstone design course, worked with Stop Hunger Now to improve its Raleigh warehouse operation. The projects were coordinated through the Engineers Without Borders chapter at NC State.

“The projects actually started as a result of efforts by one of our students, Kate Hensley, who was working with the university’s Engineers Without Borders chapter,” said Clarence Smith, assistant head of the department and project design course instructor. “Unfortunately she wasn’t able to work with this first set of projects, but she was able to coordinate the senior design students’ projects with the needs of Stop Hunger Now.”

The students formed three design teams, each with a specific task assigned. Team 1 studied the warehouse layout and developed a new layout for storage and production and to improve the flow of materials from delivery of raw goods to finished product ready to ship. Team 2 focused on the supply chain functions, and Team 3 created an inventory control and management database. Dr. Michael Kay, associate professor of industrial and systems engineering at NC State, served as project adviser.

After the students assessed the operation and the areas needing the most improvement, they worked through the semester to find workable solutions. At the end of the semester the teams presented their recommendations to Chad Stutsman, program director for Operation Sharehouse, the food distribution arm of Stop Hunger Now. The students’ reports helped Stutsman improve the organization and flow of materials at the Raleigh facility. The inventory control and management database will be used in the Raleigh facility and at the Charlotte and new South Hill, Va., facilities, which opened in July 2006.

“The students’ projects helped organize the warehouse and programs in a way that I can adapt to future growth,” said Stutsman. “I used most of the recommendations in the warehouse, and the database was very well done. It will be used in all of our current facilities and in the planned facility in Mississippi. I’m very grateful to the NC State students for their hard work on this project.”

— weston —

(See related story at www.engr.ncsu.edu/news/news_articles/StopHungerA.html.)

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