1. MARC, Inc./East Catholic High School/Empire Industries Collaboration:
This pastNovember-January, MARC, Inc. partnered with East Catholic High School to design an adaptive
technology to assistindividualswith disabilities.Thehigh school SourceAmerica Design Challengeis a national
engineering competition that runs from August until February.The students were instructed to develop
technology for people with disabilities facingwork placebarriers.Theteam from EastCatholic has been working
together with the people served who work on U-bolts for Empire Industries (of Manchester, CT.) with an invention
to maximizeemployment success.
The students firstdecided to create a device for improvingthe U-bolt output. The team made several
visits to Marc,Inc.before deciding to focus their projecton Robert Noll.Although he was the focus person for this
project specifically,the device will ultimately beableto benefit any person working on U-bolts to be more
productive. The students chose to work with Robert primarily duehis being blind but also for his eagerness to work
and be more efficient. Among the barriers for Robert to improve his production was thathe had difficulty putting
the nut on the U-bolt and even more time consumingwas that he would screw the nut down until it could go no
further (Empire instructs their workers to screw the nuts roughly ¼” onto the U-bolt), requiringstaff to spend
significanttimeon quality control.
The device, called theR.U.D. (Robert’s U-Bolt Device), is designed as a Lazy Susan with clips thatholds 8
U-bolts at a time in an upright position thatis comfortablefor the hands and wrist.The R.U.D. is adjustableto
accommodate ½”, ¾”, 1” and 1 ½” U-bolts.It also has a stopper which halts the nut at the proper depth on the U-
bolt. Prior to usingthe R.U.D. Robert was ableto complete an average of between 18 to 24 units per hour but each
unit would need to be “fixed” by a staff member. Usingthe R.U.D. Robert was able to increasehis productivity
dramatically to 48 units per hour with staff only havingto load the Lazy Susan with the proper size U-bolt. This also
eliminated the quality control aspectof the job due to the fact that the nuts would reach the desired depth on the
U-bolt and then go no further. That equated to a 2x improvement with less supervision and quality checkingfrom
staff.
This partnership between MARC,Inc., Empire Industries and EastCatholic High School is a greatbenefit to
all and only increases whatarealready strong existingrelationships between each organization.ECHS, alongwith
Robert, his staff and representatives from Marc,Inc. attended the National Finalsin Washington D.C. in February
for the final rounds of the challenge where they finished in 4th Placeout of over 85 entrants. Each organization
received a monetary prizefor their accomplishments.
-Submitted by Benjamin Davies,MARC, Inc.- Employment Coordinator
Sources Consulted:
http://www.instituteforempowerment.org/design-challenge
http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/vMjdOfHB/1/6831225
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT0NeI1MrHM