Our fabulous four Olin students spent part of their summer learning about the departments, processes and machinery at Draper Knitting.  Caitrin Lynch, Professor of Anthropology at Olin, brings engineering students from the school to choose a "project" to work on together.  They brainstorm and put into place something they believe will bring higher efficiency to our manufacturing mill. 

Our students in summer of 2017 were Zach Davenport, Max Dietrich, Andrew Holmes and Maggie Roshner.  They were joined for the photo by Aaron Hoover, Mechanical Engineering Professor (back middle) who helps the students through the engineering  aspects of the project, and Caitrin Lynch (far right) who acts more like a mentor to the students on a daily basis in the mill.

The students chose a project that was literally a hole in the floor - a chute where fabric slides from the upstairs mending area to the shear lines downstairs in the finishing department. They evaluated and redesigned how the menders move the fabric, how it gets into the chute, and the materials that make up the chute.  The result was a new way to look at changing how "things have always been done."  Once again, having young excited eyes look at the manufacturing processes can bring fresh ideas into our mill.  This relationship with the school certainly has benefitted both the students and Draper Knitting.  We love having them here!

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