The Design of Engineering Education as a Manufacturing System

In recent years there has been great concern over what many are calling the “tuition bubble� in American higher education. Baumol and Bowen, in 1966, observed that personally delivered services, like a professor teaching in a university, are difficult to scale, which causes a continuing and compounded rise in real cost. Additionally, universities, in competing for students, tend to invest in expensive assets. The resulting cost of the education and the amount of student debt threatens to rise beyond the intrinsic economic value of a US college degree, especially in the face of equivalent substitutes. The overall objective of this research is not only to analyze but also to design, or re-design, some of the essential aspects of engineering education systems. A new design is proposed using principles from manufacturing, industrial engineering and axiomatic design. The proposed system is able to operate at lower costs while producing high-caliber engineers. The approach presented relies on the decomposition of the functional elements of engineering education as well as defining a quantum of learning as an inventory unit. Methods used include a value-added analysis, and value stream mapping, computer simulation and financial analysis. The results show that the net present value (NPV) for the student increases over the interval from [t start to t graduation] as the time to employment post gradation decreases for a given discount rate. This is due to receiving employment income sooner during the cash flow. Engineering schools might benefit economically from reduced costs and higher tuition revenue resulting from greater system capacity

Challenges in the Better, Faster, Cheaper Era of Aeronautical Design, Engineering and Manufacturing

Starting in the 1990s, the aerospace industry was challenged to produce products and systems Better, faster, Cheaper. In this paper, we examine some of the underlying reasons for BFC and offer some thoughts to help frame the thinking and action of aerospace industry professionals in this new era.Lean Aerospace Initiativ

Challenges in the Better, Faster, Cheaper Era of Aeronautical Design, Engineering and Manufacturing

“Better, Faster, Cheaper” (BFC) emerged in the 1990s as a new paradigm for aerospace products. In this paper, we examine some of the underlying reasons for BFC and offer some thoughts to help frame the thinking and action of aerospace industry professionals in this new era. Examination of literature on industrial innovation indicates that aeronautical products have evolved to a “dominant design” and entered the “specific phase” of their product life cycle. Innovation in this phase centers on: incremental product improvement, especially for productivity and quality; process technology; technological innovations that offer superior substitutes. The first two of these are aligned with BFC objectives

Process Improvement at Source International

The objective of this Major Qualifying Project was to help Source International to optimize their manufacturing process for the Modular product line while reducing costs, non-value added time, and employee motion within their work area. The methods used to accomplish this included axiomatic design matrix, Lean Methodologies comprised of value stream map, spaghetti diagram, DMAIC, 5S methodology, 7 Wastes, and Arena® Simulation. The team’s recommendations included implementing these Lean Methodologies tools in order to improve the Modular product line. In conclusion, the application of Lean Analytic tools would yield substantial savings in time and money, and increasing efficiency of the manufacturing process that Source International uses

Lean manual assembly 4.0: A systematic review

In a demand context of mass customization, shifting towards the mass personalization of products, assembly operations face the trade-off between highly productive automated systems and flexible manual operators. Novel digital technologies—conceptualized as Industry 4.0—suggest the possibility of simultaneously achieving superior productivity and flexibility. This article aims to address how Industry 4.0 technologies could improve the productivity, flexibility and quality of assembly operations. A systematic literature review was carried out, including 234 peer-reviewed articles from 2010–2020. As a result, the analysis was structured addressing four sets of research questions regarding (1) assembly for mass customization; (2) Industry 4.0 and performance evaluation; (3) Lean production as a starting point for smart factories, and (4) the implications of Industry 4.0 for people in assembly operations. It was found that mass customization brings great complexity that needs to be addressed at different levels from a holistic point of view; that Industry 4.0 offers powerful tools to achieve superior productivity and flexibility in assembly; that Lean is a great starting point for implementing such changes; and that people need to be considered central to Assembly 4.0. Developing methodologies for implementing Industry 4.0 to achieve specific business goals remains an open research topic

Value Stream Mapping for Formation of Product Families

Customers tend to have various needs, desires, and manufacturers are looking for ways to respond to these multiple needs efficiently and effectively. They try to offer their customers multiple products with the shortest delivery time and minimum cost while maintaining customers’ desired quality. One of the strategies that help manufacturers meet their customers\u27 needs is customization. However, to manage this strategy\u27s downsides, manufacturers need to maintain a particular variety level to reduce production costs and time. There are many methodologies to manage the variety. One of the most important ones is creating product families, that is possible to form through many different approaches; From considering BOM to process sequences. This research believes value stream is an effective means to form product families. This thesis, studies different family forming methodologies, and moves through investigating the value stream map of some products, then forms the families within a case study. Manufacturing data was collected from the past year and it was processed by process flow analysis, value stream maps and rank order clustering methods. Then, this research recognized the variants and calculated the similarity and volume coefficients to form product families. Finally, learning curve analysis evaluated the results of formed product families. The formed product families can help the manufacturer reduce waiting times and improve process cycle times

Improving order-to-delivery process : Case study:Company X

Improving companies’ processes is one of the core ways to gain competitive advantage in today’s markets. Identifying the problem areas and finding solutions for them is an essential part of companies’ survival and therefore companies are investing in process improvement even more especially when they are preparing themselves for changes. Improving the company’s operations in engineer-to-order environments differs from the other manufacturing strategies due to the lack of standardization in the order-to-delivery process. The purpose of this research is to discover the issues that engineer-to-order manufacturing companies are struggling with and to find ways to improve the case company’s order-to-delivery process. This research also considers the ways that the process and its practices can be standardized in the engineer-to-order environment. The aim is to provide information of the company’s current process and its problems and find solutions for those issues to improve the overall performance of their order-to-delivery process. At the beginning of this research there is a literature review which contains the basic phases of process improvement, the stages and characteristics of the order-to-delivery process in engineer-to-order environment and the common methodologies for process improvement. The information from the literature review is used to form common themes for the empirical part of the research. The empirical part is a single case study where the data is collected through a workshop, interviews and observations. The data is analyzed with fishbone diagrams, five whys tool and with a value stream map. The results from the analysis are used to evaluate the company’s process and to create solutions for the company to implement afterwards. Based on the results, many of the problems in the engineer-to-order environment can be derived from the lack of standardization in the process and its practices. Bad communication practices are creating several other problems and creating better, more standard, ways to communicate and document all actions and data in daily bases is critical for the company’s process performance to be improved. Many phases, as well as the products, can be standardized in some way, but making those changes requires time and resources that must be saved and relocated from the on-value adding activities that are currently done. Measuring the process provides valuable information about the performance and helps identifying problem areas. Managements participation and employees’ proactive attitudes are incredibly important for the process to be successfully improved. This is a single case study for a small company in a very specific business field, and therefore the generalization of the results can be questioned. The results are used to improve the case company’s performance but other SME companies working in engineer-to-order environment can use the results as guidance in their own process improvement projects

Energy and Carbon Dioxide Impacts from Lean Logistics and Retailing Systems: A Discrete-event Simulation Approach for the Consumer Goods Industry

abstract: Consumer goods supply chains have gradually incorporated lean manufacturing principles to identify and reduce non-value-added activities. Companies implementing lean practices have experienced improvements in cost, quality, and demand responsiveness. However certain elements of these practices, especially those related to transportation and distribution may have detrimental impact on the environment. This study asks: What impact do current best practices in lean logistics and retailing have on environmental performance? The research hypothesis of this dissertation establishes that lean distribution of durable and consumable goods can result in an increased amount of carbon dioxide emissions, leading to climate change and natural resource depletion impacts, while lean retailing operations can reduce carbon emissions. Distribution and retailing phases of the life cycle are characterized in a two-echelon supply chain discrete-event simulation modeled after current operations from leading organizations based in the U.S. Southwest. By conducting an overview of critical sustainability issues and their relationship with consumer products, it is possible to address the environmental implications of lean logistics and retailing operations. Provided the waste reduction nature from lean manufacturing, four lean best practices are examined in detail in order to formulate specific research propositions. These propositions are integrated into an experimental design linking annual carbon dioxide equivalent emissions to: (1) shipment frequency between supply chain partners, (2) proximity between decoupling point of products and final customers, (3) inventory turns at the warehousing level, and (4) degree of supplier integration. All propositions are tested through the use of the simulation model. Results confirmed the four research propositions. Furthermore, they suggest synergy between product shipment frequency among supply chain partners and product management due to lean retailing practices. In addition, the study confirms prior research speculations about the potential carbon intensity from transportation operations subject to lean principles.Dissertation/ThesisPh.D. Sustainability 201