IMSE student earns third place at IISE Conference for project that increased respirator production during pandemic

IMSE student, Anthony Garber, accepting the 2022 Outstanding Industrial and Systems Engineering Capstone Senior Design Project award.

Through drive and dedication, a West Virginia University student took a summer internship goal and transformed a production line—benefitting healthcare providers and the general public during the global pandemic.

Story by Tara Heffernan, Multi-Media Specialist
Submitted Photo

Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources

Anthony Garber, a graduating industrial engineering senior in the Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources, won third place for the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers’ Outstanding Capstone Design Project competition, held at the annual 2022 IISE Conference in Seattle.

This honor is awarded to students who design a project that will significantly impact an organization. His project was based on his internship at MSA Engineering Consultants—a leading manufacturer of safety equipment.

In the summer of 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Garber was scheduled to complete his third co-op rotation with MSA Safety. In that rotation, MSA ramped up production of Air Purifying Respirator equipment at their Jacksonville, North Carolina facility. Garber’s MSA mentor was tasked with meeting this goal and gave Garber the opportunity to work as the sole industrial engineer for the Powered Air Purifying Respirator production line. When Garber started his work at the facility, the line produced roughly 46 units/day with two operators.

Because of the rise in demand for equipment like this during the pandemic, the target goal for the summer was to increase the output to 800 units/day. MSA wanted to meet the market demand and, more importantly to the company, support the healthcare professionals working on the front lines against COVID-19. Both government entities and health networks would receive the products.

In order to meet this goal, Garber redesigned the production line and increased staffing and quality control for the products. By the end of the project, the line had a new maximum capacity of 830 units. Both production and performance improvement metrics were put in place to maintain a high level of quality for the line’s output.

“This project is a great example of a successful, real-world application of the industrial engineering tools I’ve learned at WVU,” Garber said. “Placing third in this competition was a great honor and I believe it is emblematic of the overall quality of our Industrial Engineering Program at WVU.”

“This was the first time that the IMSE department participated in the IISE Capstone competition,” said Ashish Nimbarte, chair of the IMSE department. “Anthony winning this award is a true testament to the quality of IE copestone projects. A majority of the IE copestone projects are based on student internships or co-ops that deal with real Industrial Engineering problems.”

Oscar Saenz, instructor of IE capstone project class, says “Winning third place is a remarkable accomplishment given that it was the only project developed individually, all others were developed by a team of students.”

After graduation, Garber will consider becoming an industrial engineer for a company in the manufacturing industry. In either a part- or full-time capacity he’ll finish the development of The Easy Leash, a product he invented as a student and received funding from the annual West Virginia Statewide Collegiate Business Plan Competition to continue his work on this product.

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