Proposed Budget
All of the parts ordered were purchased from the McMaster Carr website and local steel distributors. Any possibility for a recycled part from previous projects will be used and annotated. Due to the budget constraint and high cost of parts, there will not be any back up or otherwise additional experimental parts purchased; what is manufactured and purchased will be final.

Labor, Outsourcing Rates and Cost Estimates

There is no labor or outsourcing rates, as manufactured parts will be created by the student and the entirety of the project will be assembled by the student with aid from faculty. Therefore, the only labor hours being used are by the student and faculty. The total cost estimate for this project was approximately 500 dollars. Cheaper parts and alternative methods were conducted in order to maintain cost efficiency a priority. As a result, the total manufacturing cost was approximately $200.

 

Funding Source

The main funding source was through a club membership for the electrical vehicle, dubbed "EV Club". By forming a club between all the engineering students working on the EV, the club was be able to receive up to $750 for the vehicle from the club senate. An additional $750 dollars were also requested and collected from student government senate. It was to be divided up accordingly between all sections of the EV, although it ended up being first come first serve and overall cost per section; some needed more than others. In the end  however, every section was taken care of and there is no financial burden on the project from any of the students. If any more money is needed then, it will be paid out of pocket by the student requiring the part. The budget for the chain drive and part list is shown in Appendix C.

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Gantt Chart

As shown in the Gantt Chart, Fall Quarter was almost entirely designated for analyses and design while Winter Quarter was entirely manufacturing. As it turns out, it is easy to underestimate an analysis or a drawing, and something that should have taken one hour can easily take three or more. This chart will assist in time management and estimation. According to the Gantt Chart, a significantly large portion of the time was spent working analyses and drawings for the proposal, as well as manufacturing and acquiring parts. As a matter of fact, the build up to the proposal was not as work intensive as the final weeks leading to the end of the Fall Quarter. This is largely due to mismanagement of time. It is estimated approximately 165 hours were spent during the quarter on senior project.

 

Human Resources

Scheduling and conflict of ideas happens regularly when six students try and come together to engineer an electrical vehicle. Managing peers becomes harder and with everyone on a different path towards the same destination, it makes that much harder to depend on one another. Best source of human resources are the faculty in charge of the charge for when the team fails to come to an agreement or mutually fail all together.

 

Physical Resources

Although not in large abundance, there are some physical resources located around Houge Hall. Aluminum or steel are often seen around, different epoxies, and most of all recycled past senior projects. This makes it easier on the budget and can lead to more manufactured parts to work with. Otherwise, reaching out to plants or large industries and asking for their residue is not far out of the ordinary as-well.

 

Financial Resources

As stated before, the team created an EV club which allowed for $750 to be distributed and spent between the sections of the EV. If that does not suffice, the team members are part of another club which has the financial resources to cover the rest. The project should in no way, shape, or form even exceed $2000. Therefore, the EV team and chain drive section should be financially stable.