‘Garbage Truck of the Future’ Project Sparks Innovation – Waste Advantage Magazine
Thirty-six graduate students — 18 studying business at the W. P. Carey School of Business and 18 studying industrial design at the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University — worked from August to December last fall incubating ideas that could transform Republic Services’ garbage collection trucks into models of 21st-century safety and efficiency.
Each team included a mix of design and business students, who worked together to ensure that designs met engineering requirements and were economically feasible. At the end of the project, teams presented their ideas to Republic Services, one of the nation’s largest recycling and waste disposal companies. “It was a terrific program, and the students gave us some interesting results,” said Brett Beitzel, Republic’s director of fleet and asset management. The company plans to evaluate the ideas and include them as part of its strategic technology road map.
Republic Services, which is headquartered in Phoenix and regularly recruits at ASU, approached the university after learning it had a cross-functional program bringing together teams from different schools to work on real-world projects.
The program is designed to give students the experience of working with other disciplines, said Kevin Dooley, a professor of supply chain management at the W. P. Carey School of Business. Projects always have a corporate or government sponsor, adding a valuable real-world dimension. In 2018, students partnered with the city of Mesa to collect food waste from restaurants, hotels and grocery stores, and turn it into compost and fuel. The city is currently evaluating the plan.
In 2019, Republic wanted a fresh set of eyes to improve its truck design, which is standard across the industry. “We were looking for a partner to help us improve efficiency and make the job less strenuous for drivers,” Beitzel explained, adding that the company consults with equipment vendors who supply its trucks. “But we wanted to think differently than we normally do. We’re so close to the subject that we get locked in our linear path.”
To understand the problems Republic wanted to solve and generate solutions, the students spent weeks poring over customer and driver survey data that the company had shared, as well as conducting internet research. They also followed garbage truck drivers around to observe their motions and talked to former drivers about pain points on the job.
The ideas that emerged were anything but linear, with many incorporating the kind of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technology used by autonomous vehicles. “The theme was making trucks smarter so that drivers don’t have to do as much,” Dooley said. Reducing the possibility of human error improves safety, and easing demands on drivers reduces stress and makes training faster.