FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Marlene Meissner
Phone: 503-540-1016
Email: Marlene.Meissner@state.or.us


When looking for innovative solutions, people are often advised to “think outside the box.” In the case of the Oregon Lottery®, you could say they decided to “think outside the dispenser.”

Last year, the Lottery’s Retail Sales Support department was looking for ways to enhance the visibility of their Instant Scratch-it games in 3,000+ retail locations where they are sold throughout the state.

“Our current dispensers are limited in size,” said Marianne Manning, Retail Sales Support Manager, “and we have continued to place more product inside.”

According to a 2006 Oregon Lottery player research report, ‘Overall, players find the current Lottery ticket dispensers to be ineffective for players to be able to fully view tickets and have the ability to read the different game features.’

“We know that our players want to see the Scratch-it^SM games that are available,” Marianne added, “so we are looking for ways to make the games more visible without increasing the ‘footprint’of our in-counter dispensers.”

In search of creative new ideas, Steve Green, Senior Retail Operations Manager at the Lottery, suggested that the team investigate college programs that focus students on solving ‘real-life’ engineering issues. The Lottery turned to an interesting program in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Oregon State University in Corvallis.

The MIME (Mechanical, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering) Senior Design Projects program is a required course for graduating seniors in these majors. The program involves partnerships with a diverse set of business, service and university organizations and individuals as project sponsors. Students are challenged to improve or develop new products or processes to improve efficiency or add new capabilities. Team members receive experience in solving real world problems and they are exposed to mentorship opportunities with the project sponsors.

The MIME program generally accepts about 40 projects each school year, with three students from mechanical, industrial or manufacturing engineering assigned to work on a project. The Lottery dispenser project was divided into two senior projects, one for three mechanical engineering students and one for three industrial engineering students.

The Lottery and Oregon State University entered into a formal agreement that specified project requirements related to security measures, physical dimensions, ease of use, and product visibility. The students, in turn, were asked to take a broad and innovative approach to reviewing the Lottery’s needs and developing a working dispenser prototype. The Lottery paid for the prototype and material costs, and the end-product is owned by the Lottery.

During the first half of the school year, the team conducted research and came up with a written design. After presenting the design and receiving the go-ahead from the Lottery, students spent the second half of year building and testing the new dispenser. Throughout the process, they met several times with Lottery staff to gain additional input and refine the product.

“Our students were excited about this project and it provided valuable ‘real world’ experience,” said John Parmigiani, Mechanical Engineering instructor and coordinator of the MIME program. “The dispenser redesign project was significant because it included both the mechanical aspect related to the construction of the device, as well as the industrial aspect, which involves the inventory tracking.”

Eric Coffman, a student member on the Industrial Engineering team, noted that the project gave him valuable experience working with other students who had studied Mechanical Engineering. In addition, he appreciated the opportunity to participate in a “real life” project that involved working with a variety of team members as well as meeting deadlines.

When the project was completed this spring, students presented an innovative new dispenser concept that involved a series of multiple locked draws and plastic-enclosed ticket facings that revolved on a roller system. While the Lottery is looking at additional refinements, the Lottery was very excited with the new concept and design created by the students.

“The team of mechanical and industrial engineering students gathered a lot of information and presented a thoroughly researched and constructed prototype,” said Marianne.

“The Oregon Lottery is very excited to work with OSU’s engineering students as part of this program,” added Marianne, “and we plan to work with a new Senior Project team in the coming year. The new team will be able to use the learning gathered from this project to continue and expand this work.”




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