Needs Assessment

            The first thing that was required of this group is that each member in the group reviews the scope, background, and process that the company gave.  The next thing the company asked the group to do is brainstorm engineering solutions to ergonomically doff and transport packages as described in the scope.  The packages are filled with yarn, and must be lifted from the floor to a more operator friendly level for transport.  These packages must be held while yard is being doffed from either a Spin Draw/ Texturing and Draw Texturing winder, or from an Extruder winder.  The company (Shaw Industries, Inc.) is requesting the students to provide original ideas and solutions to complement the existing process equipment.  Shaw Industries, Inc. also urged us to implement ideas for actually constructing a prototype of our final design.  The group will submit this design to the company, and they will decide to either approve the design for construction, or return the design to the group for further modification.

There are two different types of needs:  wishes and demands.  All of the previous needs listed were demands, hence they are all very important.  The following is a table that outlines need specifications that are wishes and ranks them on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is completely not important, and 10 is very important.