Playing It Smart

With summer fast approaching, children are eager to play outside, making playgrounds a popular destination. ISyE seniors Patricija Freiberga, Katherine Vandelac, Walter Marshall, Diriye Osman, and Diya Hariharan focused their senior design project on these popular summer attractions.

The team collaborated with Landscape Structures, Inc. (LSI), a Delano, MN, based company that manufactures catalog and custom-designed playground equipment. As orders for LSI’s custom playgrounds increased, so did customer reports of defects. Working with LSI employees Bob Wolter and Brad Wiyninger, the team aimed to reduce custom product defect reports by 20%, enhancing reliability, lowering costs, and improving customer satisfaction.

To achieve these goals, the team employed Root Cause Analysis techniques, including data analysis, Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA), and the 5 Whys method. They used defect data provided by LSI and interviewed employees from the Custom Welding, Custom Engineering, and Custom Design departments. They discovered that nearly 80% of reported defects fell into five categories, such as incorrect product or part delivery and welding defects.

After identifying these categories, the team conducted further root cause analysis to determine the source of the defects.  They found that lack of standardized communication, absence of quality checks, and human error were the most common defect causes.   

The team ultimately delivered five recommendations to LSI, along with a cost-benefit analysis of the solutions. The top two recommendations were to update and improve standard work documents and to hire a dedicated custom produce quality technician.  To support the implementation of these recommendations, the team revised several standard work documents to reduce high-incidence defects, such as mixing up easily confused parts (ie, including a left-side bracket instead of a right-side bracket in a delivery). Creating the new quality technician role would allow engineers and welders more time to focus on their respective jobs, as well as centralize responsibility for maintaining systems and documentation, and oversee overall quality improvement.  The benefits of this new position are projected to outweigh the cost.

If LSI implements all five recommendations, the customer-reported defect reports are expected to decrease by at least 20% over the coming year, as well as provide cost savings.

Reflecting on their project experience, the team emphasized their increased appreciation for the importance of flexibility,  clear documentation, and standardization. These new graduates are now swinging their way into summer with a better understanding of playgrounds and their futures.