As a joint intern of the two companies, I was able to spend the first five weeks at the Boston Dynamics manufacturing facility in Waltham, Massachusetts. During this time, I was able to learn about the industry-leading products offered by BD and gain hands-on experience with the manufacturing processes behind these products. My primary project focused on analyzing standard and actual production times, identifying inefficiencies in robotic assembly, and exploring improvements to manufacturing methods, work instructions, and production layout

                                                                  Spot Demo @ BD! 

I then spent four weeks at Hyundai Motor Group in South Korea, where I gained exposure to high-volume automotive manufacturing and learned how HMG develops standardized manufacturing processes using tools such as MODAPTS and the 4M framework. Working alongside HMG engineers, I studied how these established practices could be adapted to the unique challenges of lower-volume, rapidly evolving robotic manufacturing. I also visited manufacturing and robotics facilities and gained a broader understanding of how design, manufacturing, automation, and production planning come together at scale.

                            Tour of Kia PV5’s high-automation manufacturing plant

I returned to Boston Dynamics for the final portion of my internship, where I applied what I had learned at HMG to my projects at BD and shared my findings with both organizations. Overall, the experience gave me a unique perspective on two very different manufacturing environments and taught me how engineering decisions in design, process development, and production can work together to improve manufacturability and prepare complex robotic products for higher-volume production.