Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned

In six months time the ME Elecmetal team successfully redesigned, prototyped, qualified, produced, and delivered over 1,000 of these 2,200 pound steel castings.
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This success required detailed, collaborative design work and process optimization by the design team of ME Elecmetal casting engineers and NASA design engineers.

Track Belt Being Installed on the Transporter

Major lessons learned were:

Close collaboration and communication with the customer are essential for rapid, effective design development, process definition, and quality control management.
Design confirmation in the prototype stage was critical for alloy selection and quality assurance. Solidification modeling was an important tool in effective and timely design.
The six month production schedule, the challenges of prototype verification, and the high product count for this 2,100 pound casting called for strong project management skills and flexibility in resource allocation, production planning, and scheduling.