The main goal of this week's lab is to make sure that a single, clear vision for the product is taking shape, and to ensure that things are coming together for the assembly model and product contract presentations on Wednesday and Friday this week. The materials need to be first submitted on Tuesday this week, but you should continue to refine materials up until your presentation. If you happen to have lab after your presentation, your focus should be on further refining the product after receiving feedback.

Even though you will be working on the overall assembly, you will also still need to be doing tests and experiments at the same to time validate the design details.

The technical review is coming fast (November 19), so critical parts should be ordered within a week to ensure that they are received on-time.

Advanced preparation for Lab #8
Your task force should prepare a short, well organized, status report on the tasks that it has been working on.

Review the shop safety rules. It is a good time to heighten safety awareness, both in how your team works in lab, and also the consideration of customer safety in your product's design.

Financial officers should prepare a budget status report for the team.

System integrators from both sections should meet to form an agenda and update the project schedule (Gantt Chart), covering tasks through to the technical review (see the scheduling lecture).

Options for product configuration and overall form should be prepared in full scale using 2 or 3 dimensional media. If the models are in an electronic format, they should be printed on paper, full scale, so that they can be pinned up for discussion and editing during the lab meeting.

If AV equipment is needed, the system integrators should set this up prior to the start of lab.

Recommended Lab #8 Activities
Begin with the standard meeting startup.

Financial officers should give a short budget update to the team.

System integrators should present an updated project schedule through to the technical review. Input should be obtained from section instructors and team members. A plan should be made for how team members will access the schedule and how the schedule will be modified/updated. There should be a 'schedule owner' to whom the status of different tasks is reported.

Review the current status of the design. This should include reports from different task forces. Review your product contract to ensure that all are on the same page.

Discuss the overall product configuration and form options. Consider changes as appropriate and make sure that there is consensus about the direction of the product.

Spend as much of the lab time as is possible working. Time is short. Remember that lead times on ordered parts can be substantial.

Lab instructors may want to meet individually with each task force to review progress and help with design issues.

Note: Wednesday next week (Nov. 11) is a staff and student holiday (veteran's day). Teams with labs on Wednesday should make plans for how they want to proceed. The lab will be open on the team area side of the lab 9 AM-5 PM and 6 PM - 10 PM. The machine shop will be closed.