June 10, 2026• FAME USA

FAME Students Cut Emergency Downtime, Saving Employer Thousands 

2026-05-12 FAME National Conference 2026-05-12 FAME National Conference in Jacksonville, USA on May 13, 2026.
Triangle@2x

Brendan Gallagher, Jefferson Hymer and Cody Newsome were still students when they saved their employer, Niterra North America, nearly $5,000 a year. The West Virginia FAME Kanawha Valley Chapter trio took first place in the second-year FAME student Manufacturing Core Exercise (MCE) competition for cutting a machine’s emergency downtime by almost 10%. 

Brendan Gallagher, Cody Newsome and Jefferson Hymer (L-R) present their winning Manufacturing Core Exercise project at the FAME National Conference.

The project: The students targeted a machine that was losing 41.66 hours per week to emergency downtime. 2.7 of those hours were due to a particular chute filling up, which technicians could not safely fix while the machine operated. 

  • The students implemented safety measures to allow operator intervention as the machine runs, reducing emergency downtime for this chute by 94%. 
  • Their work decreased emergency downtime by 8.52%, leading to 140 hours of additional uptime per year. This increased parts production by 124,000 parts per year, saving Niterra North America nearly $5,000 annually. The project will see a ROI of under 18 months. 
  • Their solution was brought to other chutes in the plant, saving an additional 8.19 hours of downtime per week. 

We have a winner: This was one of three second-year projects selected from across the FAME USA network to compete at the FAME National Conference’s student MCE Competition.  In the final session, they were awarded first place in the second-year student competition. 

  • Judges scored each on professionalism, presentation content, MCE adherence and project impact. 

The power of MCEs: MCEs are a core component of FAME’s curriculum, designed to overcome common shortcomings in technical education. Every year, students identify, implement and present innovative solutions to MCE-related challenges in their actual workplaces. 

  • The five MCEs are safety culture, visual workplace organization, lean manufacturing, problem solving and machine reliability. 

Delivering impact: Gallagher, Hymer and Newsome made a measurable impact at Niterra North America before they even graduated. Multiply this project across the hundreds of FAME students nationwide and the picture becomes clear. The FAME model enables students to actively improve manufacturing today while becoming the highly skilled professionals of tomorrow. 

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