Parts suppliers, substantive costs, and buying issues:
Appendix C shows the complete budget table to include estimates and totals. Shipping cannot be included until parts are purchased. All parts will be purchased as soon as all calculations are complete to ensure delivery and prevent price increase issues. The total length of tubing shows a larger amount that the calculated sum in the parts drawings (Appendix B) due
to suppliers offering sections in standardized lengths at a reduction in cost. In most cases, it will be cheaper to order an even length of feet in tubing than a fraction of feet. This is similar with small items available in bulk, eg. packages of 5 hinges, a box of locking pins, or a bag of screws.
The updated budget in Appendix D shows a savings of approximately 50%. This discount was due to ordering parts in bulk with other projects and the school’s regular parts order. This savings would closely reflect the cost of parts if they were purchased in bulk as in a manufacturing situation.
Labor rates, outsourcing rates, and estimated costs:
Welding costs and shop time will be calculated for estimates only as the project is designed using procedures already known and available to the design team. Parts costs and totals can be seen in Appendix C
Labor:
An itemized list of labor intensive jobs can be found in Appendix E
Estimated total project cost:
The estimated total cost of this project is $350 with tax/shipping. This includes all raw material, delivery fees, additional hardware, and testing. The raw steel tubing is cheaper in longer sections; this will require more time to cut to size. The difference in price for cut-to-length sections is more expensive than the labor to cut them down in Hogue. Items listed as available under MSC or McMaster Carr will be price checked through other distributors again before purchasing for possible savings.
Funding sources:
This project is independently funded since the product is intended to be patented and sold after its completion. Any donations or other funding from outside sources could create issues with the ownership rights.
Schedule
The proposed schedule can be found in Appendix E. This timeline includes mildly conservative time estimates to account for error but currently does not allow for major issues to include parts not arriving within a week of ordering, winter school closures, or part failure and rebuild.
Task Flow and Timing
The order of the tasks in Appendix E is designed to assist the project flow and in most cases cannot be done out of order. Shop time and parts ordering will be planned to assist the chart as shown.
Task Dates and Deadlines
The dates and deadlines in Appendix E are in place to ensure adequate progress is met each week and that there is time at the end of the quarter for testing set up, part modifications, and to allow for possible unforeseen issues. The major milestones in the construction of this project are the center tree, the base, and the racks. These are the three section headings seen in the Gantt chart in Appendix E.
The updated Gantt chart shows the anticipated time for completion and actual completed dates for each task and subtask. The overall time to complete was close to what was anticipated, but was not close for most individual tasks, (ie. some were longer and others were shorter than anticipated). The order of tasks was changed to do similar work like drilling or cutting all at the same time rather than do each part together. This reduced much of the anticipated time for sections that would have made the total project run long.
Estimated Total Project Time
Most of the time associated with this project is going to be in the physical construction of the device. The estimated total project time can be found at the end of Appendix E. A conservative estimate of 51 hours has been assumed to accommodate minor issues and will be used to estimate future projects.
Gantt Chart (Schedule)
