Welding circuit boards. Assembling and adhesing PVC parts. Wiring fixtures. Humans, robots, and machines collaborating on assembly lines: Students taking part in Bryant’s Innovation and Design Experience for All (IDEA) program took a dip in the deep end of the manufacturing process during a visit to a Hayward pool supply company plant that makes lighting, electronic controllers, and other products that make a backyard swim a refreshing and enjoyable experience.
The site visit to the facility in North Kingstown’s Quonset Point industrial park helped inform the IDEA cohort’s development of recommendations foro improving Hayward’s manufacturing workflow with AI.
“We have a 78,000 square foot facility, and it's densely packed, but we've got a strong team,” said Plant Manager Peter Macedo in welcoming Bryant students and advisors. “The question that you are going to try and help answer is how manufacturing companies might harness AI to effectively monitor workflows, support employees, and anticipate safety, quality, and efficiency issues on the production floor. This is going to mean a lot more to you after you see the production floor.”
Slipping on safety glasses and led by Hayward employees like Noah Tellier ’21, ’22MBA, the facility’s Continuous Improvement Manager, the members of IDEA Cohort 8 got an up-close look at multiple production lines during a 40-minute tour. Tellier explained the function of the various products being manufactured, the equipment being used in the process, and the roles of the employees that visitors encountered during their 10-hour shifts at work. As Tellier discussed the need for safe operations, for example, the point was emphasized by the beeping warning of a forklift backing up nearby.
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“It's definitely helpful actually being able to see what needs improvement as opposed to just guessing what they need,” said cohort member and Business major Myles Nolan ’29 as the tour concluded. “Noah gave a lot of good information about things that need to be sped up or need to be changed; I took a lot of notes about quality control, because if you can speed that up and check everything then it's 100 percent certain that the product going out is a good product.”
Cooper Mallar ’29, an Accounting major, added, “This site visit gave us some ideas on what we might try to brainstorm, so that's very helpful for us getting started with the work that we're doing.”
Macedo said the site visit is a valuable way to give students hands-on exposure to manufacturing. “A lot of kids go to school for business thinking it will be in an office, sitting at a computer,” he said. “They’re not necessarily seeing what the real-world application is. So, I think that the value of this visit is kind of opening their eyes.
“Will there be something that comes out of this that we could apply here?” he added. “I hope so. That would be cool.”
“Will there be something that comes out of this that we could apply here? I hope so. That would be cool.”
The IDEA project directly relates to Tellier’s job, which involves finding ways to continuously improve operations at the plant. “Even if everything is humming along efficiently, high quality, great safety rating on that line, there's still opportunities to improve,” explained Macedo.
A North Kingstown resident whose undergraduate degree was in International Business, Tellier is currently the only Bryant graduate working at Hayward, although the company has been engaged in the institution’s supply chain capstone and has hosted several Bryant interns, as well.
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“We're looking for more for this year, so if you guys do like what you see or are interested in what's happening here, as you continue and progress through your college careers, by all means, keep us in mind,” Macedo told students.
Tellier recalled visiting a Best Buy store on a site visit during his own IDEA experience. “Maybe I'm biased in saying this, but I feel like our visit is the best one,” he said. “You get into the real world, and you see the value that IDEA can bring.
“It's actually really good timing with our group’s AI-driven question, because one of our [goals at Hayward] this year is to create an AI implementation roadmap,” he added. “So, mining any resource that we can in order to help us build that roadmap, like the Bryant students, is great — we could take those suggestions, tweak them a bit, and get them into the roadmap.”