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Internship: Learning about manufacturing

Engineering student Downing Koestler helped improve the production and quality at nearby manufacturer

Downing Koestler

Over the summer of 2023, Downing Koestler – a junior mechanical engineering major from Oxford – interned at CITE Armored in Holly Springs, MS.

CITE is a leading armored vehicle manufacturer, securing everything from cash-in-transit vans to SWAT/police units to personal protection vehicles. They also offer products for physical buildings such as security doors and windows.

They asked me to take my knowledge and try to improve production and quality – basically give them my two cents,” Koestler said. “I was looking for areas where value wasn’t being added to the company.
– Downing Koestler

As Koestler further explained, “if there was a truck sitting there not being worked on at all; that’s not good. Or if people have to walk across the facility to do something and then walk back – that takes five minutes. So that’s 10 minutes lost that you’re not doing any work.

“Armored vehicles are very large, so it took time to capture everything that was happening at one time,” he said. “There were a lot of moving parts and different problems to solve every day.”

Koestler is also part of the Center for Manufacturing Excellence (CME). He said that CME courses helped him have an eye for that sort of thing. He provided his recommendations to the company for their consideration.

Downing has helped me with several different time studies, creating work instructions and helping create quality documents.
– Jason Reel, general manager of CITE Armored

Robert M Hearin Foundation grant

Downing’s internship was made possible by a Robert M. Hearin Foundation grant.

The grant allows CME students to spend their summer solving real-world problems for Mississippi-based manufacturers. The participating companies are small-to-medium in size, with limited funding for summer internships.

“The support of the Hearin Foundation has provided an outlet to expose our students to the wealth of career options here in Mississippi while highlighting our smaller manufacturing firms which are so crucial to the economic health of our region,” said Scott Kilpatrick, CME executive director.

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