Kyle Riffle

Mechanical Engineer • Project Manager


PROJECT MANAGEMENT ROLES



1. SAE Baja



Using intimate program knowledge to plan and lead



I was exposed to the SAE Baja collegiate race series as a junior in college. Having grown up working on muscle cars with my mom, I took to it like a fish to water. The vehicle has 4 primary subsystems including suspension, chassis, drivetrain and controls, with a sub-team responsible for each. I started out machining simple parts for the 2018 car as a shop assistant, a role that taught me the importance of communication between each of these sub-teams.


Accepted as 1 of 13 on the 2019 team, I used my now intimate knowledge of the program to plan and lead the team through several iterations of design, simulation, testing, budgeting, travel and competition. Meeting strict deadlines and coordinating disparate fundraising efforts were two of my biggest challenges, while my biggest successes were getting the team to California and passing the sanctioning body's technical inspection.



2. SmartPrep Centrifuge Latch Redesign



Managing through a pandemic while designing to international standards



When a Denver-based medical device manufacturer discovered a dangerous design failure in their industry-standard tabletop centrifuge, they contacted our organization for help. Concluding that the existing latch implementation was to blame, I assembled a team of 4 designers plus myself to tackle the problem. Our first challenge was to recreate the test procedure based on the company's internal documentation and the standards they were trying to meet - IEC 61010 and 60601. Over the next 9 months we would work iteratively, building and testing prototypes until arriving at an entirely new latch implementation that met the company's requirements.


My role on the team was 90% Project Manager and 10% designer. Detailed planning was extremely important on this project because of the fixed budget and time frame. Management reserves were included in my time and cost estimates, and these were essential to our success after coronavirus forced a significant pivot to outsourced manufacturing. In the end, the existing electronics were reused. This reduction in scope allowed me to keep the project on schedule and within budget while continuing to fulfill the customer's requirements.



3. Epic Playgrounds' "Pent-a-ground"



From undergraduate design project to competition-winning design come alive



Epic Playgrounds, Inc. was a team of undergraduates assembled as part of a course in design collaboration. Again working on a fixed budget and timeframe, our task was to design a school playground. The client was a school in South Africa, and funding would come from the Colorado School of Mines McBride Scholars fund.


As Team Liaison, my time was split 60/40 between managing the project and designing a portion of the playground myself. Chosen for its uniqueness and its focus on early skill development, our design won the McBride Scholars design competition and was built at the God's Will school for developmentally handicapped children.



4. JetBoil MiniMo: Planning Manufacturing



Planning in high detail after discovering unexpected complexities



Having worked with simpler JetBoil models previously, I pitched the MiniMo as the potential focus of a reverse engineering project for a course in manufacturing. Bringing onboard my engineering acquaintances Matt and Evan, we disassembled the diaphragm-regulated MiniMo stove head and discovered a part count four-times greater than its little brother, the Flash. Deciding to proceed despite the added complexity, we would spend 5 months modeling everything from the tiny Lindal valve pin to the complete work station that an assembler would use to install it.


As project manager, I started by focusing on the end-of-semester deliverables and the work packages that would be required to satisfy them. I estimated the work required for each based on my mechanical design experience, and I build the project Gantt using Matt and Evan's resource calendars. Throughout the project I handled status meetings, and communications with the project sponsor. I oversaw deliverables for each stage and ensured there complete and on-time delivery. Near the project's close, I handled project documentation, sponsor satisfaction and comprehensive report assembly.



5. Stage-Gate Design Improvement



Balancing multiple projects across a rigid Stage-Gate timeline



A basic Surveyor's Wheel contains 80+ parts and costs around $24 to manufacture. Many of these parts are injection molded, and many are unique and non-reversible. As engineers focused on manufacturabilty, we sought to increase product profitability. In stage 1, we applied DFMA to vastly simplify the product while retaining all existing functionality. Assembly times and part counts were reduced by 20%. In stage 2, we added functionality at the expense of increasing complexity to pre-DFMA levels. Taken together at the end of 5 months, the new design would allow us to compete in the existing US $2M surveyor's wheel market and as well as the marking wand market using a single product. This led to a reduction in unit cost and an overall increase in profit, since the per part cost of the injection molded parts could be brought down significantly with higher volume orders.


As project manager, I planned both stages of the project and coordinated complex resource calendars among myself and 3 designers who worked on multiple projects. Highlights included documentation and revision control practices that facilitated intensive collaboration on CAD parts and assemblies as well as detailed reports and design review presentations.