Specifics of teaching electrical engineering course to international students

To have the “right” competence for a specific work task has become very important in a world of high competition, continuous developments and fast changes. Without the necessary skills to handle a task the future for an enterprise can easy become uncertain. Since time is limited the process of acquiring relevant competence has to be efficient. There are many ways to build up knowledge in a new field. A common practice is to let the employees take courses in house or outside the company. The knowledge providers for these activities are typically learning institutes, educational companies or universities. The WBL-IE project presents a model that focuses on SMEs Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and work based learning, where tailor made learning activities play an important role. This model tries to pin- point the key educational areas of interest for the actual company. The start point is to find out the specific needs that the enterprise has and what complimentary skills and competences are necessary to strengthen, broaden and make better use of the knowledge that already exist within the company. The WBL-IE project target SME with less than 250 employees. Characteristic for these companies are that they have slimmed organisations and often no real focus on Continuous Engineering Education (CEE). Education activities are therefore closely linked to short term requirements and actions. The SME´s are acting on a high competitive market and often need to make very prompt decisions based on strategic choices. The WBL-IE work is based on earlier research in education modes in industrial engineering. One of the most interesting findings came from an interview campaign regarding continuous education in SMEs active in industrial engineering. Very few of the companies if any had a plan for their competence development to present. But at a deeper analysis you could find an important number of learning activities going on. There was in fact an unwritten competence development plan.  This means that SMEs already have a competence development process going on. With this observation in mind a new approach to the implementation of education activities in SMEs was developed, the WBL-IE concept.  The WBL-IE concept starts with an interview session with a number of stakeholders in the company organization. The interviews are made after a guide especially developed by WBL-IE with the goal the give a realistic and complete picture of the many different learning processes going on in the organization. The role of WBL-IE is both to introduce the concept and implement and maintain it. The role means to have resources for analysing, proposing and supporting the competence development in SMEs active in industrial engineering. One of the most important factors in the implementation is the facilitator. The facilitator is a person with the ability to enhance the different learning processes in the company. The concept of WBL-IE model involves creating a learning environment that promotes focused learning in different settings. To meet the stakeholder on her/his home arena gives a deeper understanding of the companies’ situation and in which direction they are aiming at. A thorough understanding of the current state will help the stakeholder and the facilitator to pin point key issues to address and together develop a plan that will be beneficial for the company. A program for pilot tests is running and findings/results will be reported.QC 20160525</p

Selvitys kontinlastauksen automatisointimahdollisuuksista

Tämän työn lähtökohtana on ollut automaatiotekniikan alalla toimivalle yritykselle tehty esiselvitysprojekti. Toimeksiantona oli selvittää sekä teknologiset että kaupalliset edellytykset automaattisen kontinlastauslaitteen suunnittelun aloittamiselle. Tämä diplomityö on samalla koko projektin loppuraportti. Tutkimuksen aikana selvitettiin kirjallisuuden, kaupallisen aineiston ja paperinkuljetusalan asiantuntijoiden haastattelujen avulla paperin vientikuljetuksissa tällä hetkellä käytössä olevat menetelmät ja laitteet, sekä asiakkaiden kiinnostus automaatiojärjestelmän käyttöönottoon. Nykyistä lastaustapaa analysoimalla selvitettiin ne ydintoiminnot, joista kehitettävän lastauslaitteen on suoriuduttava. Prosessissa havaittiin olevan mukana myös toimintoja, joiden automatisoiminen nykyisen kaltaisina ei välttämättä ole kannattavaa. Yhteen kolliin saattaa nykyisen paperinkuljetusketjun aikana kohdistua jopa viisitoista trukkitartuntaa, joista jokainen sisältää tuotteen vaurioitumisriskin, lisäksi työvoiman tarve on suuri. Ratkaisuna näihin ongelmiin nähdään paperiteollisuuden piirissä siirtyminen konttien ja muiden suuryksiköiden tehokkaampaan hyödyntämiseen. Automaattisten varasto- ja kuormanmuodostusjärjestelmien käyttöönotto sekä kappaletavaran että suuryksiköiden lastauksessa on useilla tehtailla edessä lähitulevaisuudessa. Lähettämöiden automaatiojärjestelmien toimivuuteen vaikuttaa oleellisesti kollien tunnistusmenetelmien kehittyminen. Tällä hetkellä yleisimmin käytetyt menetelmät eivät pysty kovin pitkiin lukuetäisyyksiin varsinkaan epäsuotuisissa olosuhteissa. Lisäksi ne asettavat vaatimuksia kollien asennolle. Ratkaisua näihin ongelmiin toivotaan jo lähivuosina sähköisistä tunnistusmenetelmistä. Ongelmalliseksi koettu rullien pystylastaus konttiin on teknisesti ratkaistavissa useallakin tavalla, joskin se tulee vaatimaan jonkin verran innovatiivisuutta. Menetelmien valintaan vaikuttaa oleellisesti automaation piiriin otettavat muut toiminnot, eli käytännössä se sidotaanko kuorma kontin sisä- vai ulkopuolella. Investointina lastauslaite tulee aina kannattavimmaksi laajemman automatisoidun kuljetusten esikäsittely- ja lastausjärjestelmän osana, mutta sen käyttöön myös itsenäisenä laitteena tulee olla mahdollisuus

Work-based Learning – in Industrial Engineering

The development of employees’ skills and competence has become the keydriver of economic growth in the developed world. It is widely recognised that it is only through enhancing people’s skill and competences that future competitive advantage will emerge. Consequently companies need to be able to identify precise areas where they have, orcanbuild,distinctive competences that will enable them to compete effectively.However skill and competence development aimed at especially post-graduate employees is still an area of great potential of progress. Nowadays with the European Qualification Framework (EQF) the tool to accredit such sills and competences is available - even if they (the skills and competences) have been achieve through in-formal or non-formal learning. A partnership of seven industrial engineering institutes from Ireland, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Finland have set out to develop and test a model for skills and competence development for employees within a company context. Inspired by the concept of Work-based learning (Boud, 2001) and a facilitating approach to learning (Kolmos et al., 2004)), the partnership will develop a Work-based learning model aiming at industrial engineering – a WBL-IE model, which will be pilot tested in the seven partner countries and the learning out-come will be matched against the EQF. The intention with the research is to bring new knowledge and models to the filed on continuing education primarily within an industrial engineering context The research approach is inspired by action research, which is defined by a participatory process concerned with developing practical knowledge in an attempt of improving e.g. life of human beings (Lewin, 1946; Reason et al., 2003) and a case studies methodology (Flyvbjerg, 2006, 2011) This paper will provide insight into the results of the pilot cases; how the competence need are recognised; how the learning objectives are identified; how the learning program is designed and how the learning out-comes are assessed and matched to the EQF.QC 20160621</p

An innovative approach in implementation of work based learning for industrial engineering

To have specific knowledge and competence directly related to a company´s key business area are important for the well-being and future of an enterprise. Informal knowledge that has been acquired through practical experience or task solving is often a hidden treasure and a resource that is not used with full capacity in many companies. To recognise, facilitate and make better use of this unexplored competence that the staff has and combine it with other relevant knowledge can be very beneficial for internal work based learning activities, especially in the industrial engineering sector. The Life Long Learning/ Leonardo da Vinci project, WBL-IE (Work Based Learning-Industrial Engineering) target this area and presents an innovative approach on how to implement work based learning in an efficient way for industrial engineering. The WBL-IE project team and its members have gathered experiences and knowledge from previous projects. In the Experience Transfer Model (ETM) project a platform for exchange of experiences among people active in industry was developed. The ETM concept was well accepted by the participants and the cross disciplinary activities were seen as beneficial for both problem solving and strategy proposals. PHASE (Processer til håndtering af skræddersyede efteruddannelsesforløb) is another project that has contributed with experiences. Focus in PHASE has been on how education providers can meet the need for knowledge and updates in industry, in which forms the education should be delivered and how education can be tailor made to meet the needs from companies, especially SME´s. The evaluation showed that the Worked Based Learning (WBL) concept was considered to have a high potential and that all of the interviewed companies ranked tailor made CE-activities high. The ongoing learning processes in engineering organizations are very powerful and can be further enhanced by actions which are time and cost effective. In order to make use of this possibility it is important to create awareness about the existence of these learning processes. Some of the processes are self-supporting but others can be effectively enhanced. Example of the first is contact with colleagues, look for previous experiences. Other process as for instance learning by mistake, searching for information and contacts with outside experts can be effectively supported. The WBL-IE concept takes a holistic view on the learning for both individuals and the organization.  Mapping of the learning situation show the potential improvement areas and give possibilities to plan for actions. The WBL-IE concept includes both support of on-going processes and introduction of new tailor made activities. The intention of the WBL-IE concept is to improve the possibilities for slimmed and work loaded organization to increase their skill and knowledge. Experiences from the introduction of the concept and how it is received are presented. This part of the implementation is very crucial to the development of the support program. Examples of the facilitator function is given and also how to secure the continuation of the program. The future work includes development of the support function and its financing possibilities. More feedback from experiences will be used for both the introduction process and development of tailor made activities.Qc 20160530The Life Long Learning/ Leonardo da Vinci project, WBL-IE (Work Based Learning-Industrial Engineering

WBL-IE, a new approach to on site learning in Industrial Engineering

To have the “right” competence for a specific work task has become very important in a world of high competition, continuous developments and fast changes. Without the necessary skills to handle a task the future for an enterprise can easy become uncertain. Since time is limited the process of acquiring relevant competence has to be efficient. There are many ways to build up knowledge in a new field. A common practice is to let the employees take courses in house or outside the company. The knowledge providers for these activities are typically learning institutes, educational companies or universities. The WBL-IE project presents a model that focuses on SMEs Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and work based learning, where tailor made learning activities play an important role. This model tries to pin- point the key educational areas of interest for the actual company. The start point is to find out the specific needs that the enterprise has and what complimentary skills and competences are necessary to strengthen, broaden and make better use of the knowledge that already exist within the company. The WBL-IE project target SME with less than 250 employees. Characteristic for these companies are that they have slimmed organisations and often no real focus on Continuous Engineering Education (CEE). Education activities are therefore closely linked to short term requirements and actions. The SME´s are acting on a high competitive market and often need to make very prompt decisions based on strategic choices. The WBL-IE work is based on earlier research in education modes in industrial engineering. One of the most interesting findings came from an interview campaign regarding continuous education in SMEs active in industrial engineering. Very few of the companies if any had a plan for their competence development to present. But at a deeper analysis you could find an important number of learning activities going on. There was in fact an unwritten competence development plan.  This means that SMEs already have a competence development process going on. With this observation in mind a new approach to the implementation of education activities in SMEs was developed, the WBL-IE concept.  The WBL-IE concept starts with an interview session with a number of stakeholders in the company organization. The interviews are made after a guide especially developed by WBL-IE with the goal the give a realistic and complete picture of the many different learning processes going on in the organization. The role of WBL-IE is both to introduce the concept and implement and maintain it. The role means to have resources for analysing, proposing and supporting the competence development in SMEs active in industrial engineering. One of the most important factors in the implementation is the facilitator. The facilitator is a person with the ability to enhance the different learning processes in the company. The concept of WBL-IE model involves creating a learning environment that promotes focused learning in different settings. To meet the stakeholder on her/his home arena gives a deeper understanding of the companies’ situation and in which direction they are aiming at. A thorough understanding of the current state will help the stakeholder and the facilitator to pin point key issues to address and together develop a plan that will be beneficial for the company. A program for pilot tests is running and findings/results will be reported.QC 20160525</p