
48 ISE Magazine | www.iise.org/ISEmagazine
case study
“a challenge that our talented R&D staff embraced and was
appreciated by our entire team as a way to use our skills and
resources to help during a challenging time.”
He added that working with Lawson and Swanson “helped
us both in product design as well as packaging efficiency. We
appreciated their abilities to contribute in 2D and 3D model-
ing as well as completing time-motion studies to help us opti-
mize packing of the finished products.”
Lawson and Swanson’s ISE consulting consisted of three
projects: a time study and linear analysis; product design; and
creating a package insert for the product’s filters.
The time study aimed to evaluate two things: the most effi-
cient way to package masks while limiting worker fatigue and
to calculate how to maximize the number of masks produced
– while maximizing profit – in a given week, depending on
the amount of time attributed to different processes of produc-
tion. Swanson said it was a direct application of the college
course Deterministic Models in Industrial Engineering.
For the second project, the duo tackled product design.
Swanson designed a plastic insert to hold the filter in place by
modeling in Fusion 360, the cloud-based CAD/CAM tool for
collaborative product development.
“By printing prototypes, we can finalize a patentable de-
sign with customer feedback and then work with an injec-
tion molding company to formulate a mold for production,”
Swanson said, adding that the project applied knowledge from
Foundations of Design and 3D Modeling for Engineers and
Product Development and Rapid Prototyping, two other
courses that prepared him for real life problem-solving.
Finally, the ISE students sought to create a package insert
for the non-woven filters that allowed users to easily slide the
filter between the masks’ double layers. Swanson used Fusion
360 for this as well.
Covington said that in bringing a new product to market,
there were certain key lessons: “Listen to the customer and
never stop improving.”
“The masks we are manufacturing today are significantly
improved from where we started in March, and just like with
our sock business, we continue to look for ways to improve
comfort, fit and performance,” Covington said.
Lawson said that, “while there are numerous masks on the
market,” she and Swanson sought to create a mask that maxi-
mized protection against COVID-19 exposure. To accom-
plish this, they designed the fabric to “create a seal around the
face and also have a place to hold an optional nonwoven filter.”
Swanson said it’s not enough for the masks “just to look
good. We want our masks to help keep us safe by reducing the
dose of viral particles. All our masks offer a two-layer design
for improved filtration, as well as the ability to add additional
filtration inserts between the mask’s two layers. Protection,
Eric Swanson and Katie Lawson watch as Harriss & Covington
workers package masks inside the mill in April.
‘Working and applying our industrial
engineering knowledge with Easy Masks
meant we collected the data ourselves,
looked at all the outside influencing
factors that are normally overlooked in
the ‘ideal setting’ classroom calculations,
and then had to interpret the data in
order to direct Easy Masks into the most
optimal direction.’
— Katie Lawson
Ready for packaging: A pile of “Apex” version Easy Masks.