Anabela Alves | Universidade do Minho (original) (raw)
Papers by Anabela Alves
IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, 2021
Lean Production has been documented in the last decades as a management methodology that brings m... more Lean Production has been documented in the last decades as a management methodology that brings many benefits. Nevertheless, many companies faced difficulties in implementing it and in having success. This happens due to the existence of some barriers to its implementation. This fact also occurs in the multinational company studied in this paper. Applying a case study methodology, research on the potential barriers for Lean and pull system implementation in a company that adopted Lean around two decades ago was made. To collect data for the case study, 17 interviews at different hierarchical levels in the organization were performed. The results of interviews analysis show that Lean and pull requires an integrated implementation of several dimensions.
This paper presents an analysis of the assessment model used in an interdisciplinary Project-Led ... more This paper presents an analysis of the assessment model used in an interdisciplinary Project-Led Education (PLE) process implemented in the Integrated Master Course on Industrial Management and Engineering (IME) at University of Minho. PLE is an innovative educational methodology which makes use of active learning, promoting higher levels of motivation and students' autonomy. The assessment model is based on multiple evaluation components with different weights. Each component can be evaluated by several teachers involved in different Project Supporting Courses (PSC). This model can be affected by different types of errors, namely: (1) rounding errors, and (2) non-uniform criteria of rounding the grades. A rigorous analysis of the assessment model was made and the rounding errors involved on each project component characterised. This resulted in a global maximum error of 0.308 on the individual student project grade, in a 0 to 100 scale. This analysis intended to improve not only the reliability of the assessment results, but also teachers' awareness to this problem. Recommendations are also made in order to improve the assessment model and reduce the rounding errors as much as possible.
Ix Congreso Internacional Galego Portugues De Psicopedagoxia 2007, 2007
Este artigo relata a experiência de acompanhamento tutorial na Aprendizagem Baseada em Projectos ... more Este artigo relata a experiência de acompanhamento tutorial na Aprendizagem Baseada em Projectos Interdisciplinares (Project Led Education, PLE), em 4 edições semestrais ao longo de 3 anos lectivos consecutivos, na Escola de Engenharia da Universidade do Minho. O acompanhamento tutorial foi realizado essencialmente por docentes, das unidades curriculares de apoio directo ao projecto, a grupos de alunos do 1º ano de Engenharia e Gestão Industrial. A existência da figura de tutor, na Aprendizagem Baseada em Projectos Interdisciplinares adoptada neste curso, fundamentou-se na necessidade de: (1) estabelecer uma maior proximidade com os respectivos grupos de projecto; (2) monitorizar o andamento dos projectos; (3) identificar problemas organizacionais do grupo; (4) veicular informação relevante ao grupo; e, (5) apoiar a equipa de coordenação PLE na avaliação individual dos membros do grupo. Este artigo inclui uma revisão bibliográfica sobre o papel do tutor na Aprendizagem Baseada em Projectos, apresentado-se uma súmula das diversas visões encontradas. Expõem-se igualmente resultados da avaliação desta experiência de três anos de acompanhamento tutorial e ainda uma análise crítica à luz das várias visões encontradas na revisão bibliográfica.
This paper describes the improvement of the setup process of a mechanical press machine in the me... more This paper describes the improvement of the setup process of a mechanical press machine in the metal-mechanic area of an elevators company. The work results from a master thesis project conducted during a period of five months. The Single-Minute Exchange of Die (SMED) methodology and other Lean Production tools (5S, Visual Management and Standard Work) were applied to reduce the setup times observed at the beginning of the project. With the developed solutions it was possible to reduce setup times, work-in-process (WIP) and distances travelled by operators. Additionally, the setup operations were standardized and consequently the process has become more fast and intuitive for the operators. These improvements allowed the reduction of energy and materials consumption and, consequently, a decrease on the Greenhouse Gases' emissions.
iv v AGRADECIMENTOS A presente dissertação não seria possível sem o apoio de algumas pessoas e nã... more iv v AGRADECIMENTOS A presente dissertação não seria possível sem o apoio de algumas pessoas e não faria sentido se não recordasse e reconhecesse com elevado apreço todos os que contribuíram para a sua concretização.
Third International Conference on Group Technology Cellular Manufacturing, Jul 3, 2006
This paper presents a procedure for the detailed design and redesign of manufacturing systems wit... more This paper presents a procedure for the detailed design and redesign of manufacturing systems within a framework of constantly fitting production system configuration to the varying production needs of products. With such an approach is achieved the design of Product Oriented Manufacturing Systems -POMS. This approach is in opposition to the fitting, before hand, of a production system to all products within a company. In this case is usual to adopt a Function Oriented Manufacturing System -FOMS, which, rarely require reconfiguration and apparently can deal with such a variety. The detailed design depart from conceptual manufacturing cell configurations and develops from there, through conceptual cell instantiation, the required detailed manufacturing system configuration needed for efficiently and effectively manufacture a product or a family of similar products. Therefore manufacturing requirements of products, based on available or accessible human resources and technology, i.e. manufacturing resources and know-how, as well as production demand are essential inputs to the design of suitable manufacturing configurations for the range of products to manufacture in a given period.
Work (Reading, Mass.), Jan 16, 2014
Lean Production Systems (LPS) have become very popular among manufacturing industries, services a... more Lean Production Systems (LPS) have become very popular among manufacturing industries, services and large commercial areas. A LPS must develop and consider a set of work features to bring compatibility with workplace ergonomics, namely at a muscular, cognitive and emotional demands level. Identify the most relevant impacts of the adoption of LPS from the ergonomics point of view and summarizes some possible drawbacks for workplace ergonomics due to a flawed application of the LPS. The impacts identified are focused in four dimensions: work pace, intensity and load; worker motivation, satisfaction and stress; autonomy and participation; and health outcome. This paper also discusses the influence that the work organization model has on workplace ergonomics and on the waste elimination previewed by LPS. Literature review focused LPS and its impact on occupational ergonomics conditions, as well as on the Health and Safety of workers. The main focus of this research is on LPS implementat...
This paper presents a project developed in an elevators company, in the framework of a master the... more This paper presents a project developed in an elevators company, in the framework of a master thesis at University of Minho. The main objective of this work was to analyse the production system of one assembly section of the company and to implement some proposals that would improve its performance. This objective was achieved by applying Lean Production tools and techniques namely, 5S, Visual Management and Standard Work. With the proposed improvements it was possible to increase the shop floor area, to reduce errors and nonconformities, to reduce the number of required operators and to improve the organization of the production system. These results promoted the reduction of energy and material consumption, mainly due to the decrease of defects and reduction of rework, which are some of the requisites for a company to become eco-efficient.
Cellular production is usually seen as a hybrid approach between job-shop and flow-line paradigms... more Cellular production is usually seen as a hybrid approach between job-shop and flow-line paradigms, reducing the major disadvantages of these two paradigms: the low productivity of job-shops and the low flexibility (in terms of products' variety) of the flow-lines. This paper describes the implementation of a production cell in a production unit of woodframed pictures and mirrors, which was originally configured as a traditional job-shop, without losing the necessary flexibility to face market demand and simultaneously increasing the production unit's performance. By implementing a highly flexible cell, very significant improvements were expected for the system's overall performance and the quality of the products. These expectations were met, and the implementation was successful, as demonstrated by the results presented.
A Product Oriented Manufacturing System is designed for the manufacture of a product or a family ... more A Product Oriented Manufacturing System is designed for the manufacture of a product or a family of similar products. POM may be seen as a development of traditional Cellular Manufacturing and tends to involve more than one cell. A POMS may either be physically organized in a single place or be made of distributed manufacturing or servicing units, thus comprising a virtual system. To be efficient, the POMS design should identify design phases and point to the data, methods and tools that should be used to obtain good design solutions. In this paper, one such methodology is proposed, together with an analysis of the conceptual configuration of the cells that are the building blocks of POM systems.
IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, 2010
Lean Production has proved itself a worthwhile production strategy in many distinct industries ac... more Lean Production has proved itself a worthwhile production strategy in many distinct industries across all regions of the planet by achieving higher levels of production efficiency. Several authors identified that Lean inadvertently has had significant environmental gains. Such achievements are considered of special relevance in a global and highly competitive economy which is progressively both tied-up and driven by an environmental agenda. The main goal of the present study is to enlighten the contribution of Lean for achieving a better environmental performance of production systems and identify this as an emergent business model for supporting eco-efficiency.
Volume 2B: Advanced Manufacturing, 2013
ABSTRACT This paper presents a protocol used in case studies with the objective to validate a Lea... more ABSTRACT This paper presents a protocol used in case studies with the objective to validate a Lean Production methodology in Textile and Clothing Industry (TCI) in North of Portugal. The methodology was developed under a Doctoral Program on Industrial Engineering and Systems. During the development of the methodology, the TCI contextualization was studied in parallel with the development of a survey applied to the TCI companies. The development of the methodology (structured in three phases) was followed by its validation in case studies.Thus, this paper objective is to describe and explain the case study designed and conducted to attain feedback from companies. These case studies demanded a protocol constituted by an overview of the project, the field procedures (meetings and visits, interviews, questionnaires and checklist form), the preliminary questions of the project and the guide for the reports from the case studies. From the field procedures, the interviews was the first instrument used and it allowed the identification of the needs of change, the workers and management role in this change, the expected and achieved results. These preliminary results are presented in this paper. The questionnaire, adapted from others studies, would be used for a better context in the national framework and it would be applied in a following phase as the checklist. It will enable the data and metrics collection related with several aspects, namely work ergonomic conditions. This protocol will allow the knowledge of the work environment for a good implementation of the Lean Production.
This paper describes the improvement of the quick changeover process of a painting line in a wood... more This paper describes the improvement of the quick changeover process of a painting line in a wooden frames factory. The well-known SMED technique (single minute exchange of die) was applied. However the characteristics of the setup operations (those characteristics also occur in other industrial changeover scenarios) have revealed the possibility of advantageous utilization of resource constrained project scheduling methods. The application of one of these methods represents an innovative contribution to the quick changeover area, allowing (when applicable) the scheduling of the involved setup operations, considering their duration, precedence relations and resources' need, in order to achieve a reduced setup time.
Volume 5: Education and Globalization, 2013
ABSTRACT Globalization has permeated our personal and professional lives and careers over the pas... more ABSTRACT Globalization has permeated our personal and professional lives and careers over the past two decades, to a point where communication, product development, and service delivery now are globally distributed. This means that the globalization of engineering practice is in effect. Large corporations tap into the global market for recruitment of engineers. However, the education of engineers occurs within the context of individual Higher Education Institutions. Engineers are educated with varying pacing and scoping of higher education programming with varying methods and pedagogy of higher education teaching. The expectations for engineering practice normed from the corporate side within the engineering marketplace, therefore, often do not match the widely dispersed educational experiences and outcomes of engineering education delivery. This gap brings challenges for all stakeholders, employers, higher education and the engineering graduate. But particularly, university education systems which traditionally are slow to respond to shifting market trends and demands, are expected to realign and restructure to answer this shortfall.A response to this shortfall has been prepared independently in different regions and countries. This paper discusses the response from Europe, USA, South Africa and Philippines. The European Commission started building a European Higher Education Area (EHEA) with the intention of promoting the mobility and the free movement of students and teachers in European tertiary education. US universities are introducing a design spine and strengthening students’ systems thinking and problem solving competencies. Philippines is trying to be aligned with ABET system from US. South Africa universities are evolving to a solid core undergraduate engineering curriculum with a limited set of electives available to students which include project-based learning. This is intended to address the education-workplace gap as well.This theoretical paper will provide a comparison study of the differences between the Engineering Education in USA, EU, Philippines and South Africa. The authors will compare current trends and initiatives, aimed at improving the readiness and competitiveness of regional engineering graduates in the workplace. Given that several worthwhile initiatives are underway, it is possible that these initiatives will remain as disparate responses to the need for the globalization of engineering education. Lean performance management systems are widely used in engineering practice internationally and represent one possible rallying concept for the globalization of engineering education in order to address the education-workplace gap. Therefore, this paper examines whether the introduction of a Lean Engineering Education philosophy is a worthwhile global curricular innovation for engineering courses.
Volume 12: Systems and Design, 2013
ABSTRACT Lean Engineering has come a long way from its first conception in the 1940s. What starte... more ABSTRACT Lean Engineering has come a long way from its first conception in the 1940s. What started as a production philosophy to enable manufacturing in Japan under severe resource constraints has developed into a globally adopted, widely aspired, often misinterpreted, and sometimes poorly understood, way and means of “doing business”. Short-sighted implementations of lean engineering in industrialized countries in a first wave in the 1970s were quickly accompanied by the slogan ‘lean is mean’ because of the focus on short-term financial gains at the expense of a complete understanding of the entire production and value chains. In a second wave in the 1990s, the focus of lean engineering implementations shifted to the core objective of lean engineering philosophies, the establishment of flow in the value chain through standardization. In parallel, Systems Engineering has continuously developed as a discipline which has moved away from the integration of components and subsystems, to the co-development of such units and building blocks of engineering and engineered products. This continued development of Systems Engineering as a discipline reflects the growing demand for systems thinking competency, to challenge the complexity of manufacturing and operations in an environment where product development, production and distribution is spread over large, not co-located teams on all continents.In this paper, the authors tie together the developments, tools and methodologies of Lean Engineering and Systems Engineering, and they show the growing similarity of both disciplines. In fact, these disciplines often describe the same effects, processes, and challenges in the workplace. The similarity has grown to a level where value streams in production or service delivery are analyzed and described in terms of one engineering discipline, while following methodologies and applying tools stemming from the other engineering discipline. The authors advocate that the debate should therefore not be over which engineering discipline to follow, but what tools and methodologies are most appropriate to enhance systems thinking competency, and to understand complexity in systems.
Volume 5: Engineering Education and Professional Development, 2011
High pressure natural gas pipeline companies conducting in-line magnetic flux leakage (MFL) corro... more High pressure natural gas pipeline companies conducting in-line magnetic flux leakage (MFL) corrosion inspection operations had to significantly reduce gas throughput velocity to accommodate MFL corrosion tool inspection speeds.
Project Approaches to Learning in Engineering Education, 2012
International Journal of Online Engineering (iJOE), 2009
This paper analyzes the rounding errors that occur in the assessment of an interdisciplinary Proj... more This paper analyzes the rounding errors that occur in the assessment of an interdisciplinary Project-Led Education (PLE) process implemented in the Integrated Master degree on Industrial Management and Engineering (IME) at University of Minho. PLE is an innovative educational methodology which makes use of active learning, promoting higher levels of motivation and students' auton-
IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, 2021
Lean Production has been documented in the last decades as a management methodology that brings m... more Lean Production has been documented in the last decades as a management methodology that brings many benefits. Nevertheless, many companies faced difficulties in implementing it and in having success. This happens due to the existence of some barriers to its implementation. This fact also occurs in the multinational company studied in this paper. Applying a case study methodology, research on the potential barriers for Lean and pull system implementation in a company that adopted Lean around two decades ago was made. To collect data for the case study, 17 interviews at different hierarchical levels in the organization were performed. The results of interviews analysis show that Lean and pull requires an integrated implementation of several dimensions.
This paper presents an analysis of the assessment model used in an interdisciplinary Project-Led ... more This paper presents an analysis of the assessment model used in an interdisciplinary Project-Led Education (PLE) process implemented in the Integrated Master Course on Industrial Management and Engineering (IME) at University of Minho. PLE is an innovative educational methodology which makes use of active learning, promoting higher levels of motivation and students' autonomy. The assessment model is based on multiple evaluation components with different weights. Each component can be evaluated by several teachers involved in different Project Supporting Courses (PSC). This model can be affected by different types of errors, namely: (1) rounding errors, and (2) non-uniform criteria of rounding the grades. A rigorous analysis of the assessment model was made and the rounding errors involved on each project component characterised. This resulted in a global maximum error of 0.308 on the individual student project grade, in a 0 to 100 scale. This analysis intended to improve not only the reliability of the assessment results, but also teachers' awareness to this problem. Recommendations are also made in order to improve the assessment model and reduce the rounding errors as much as possible.
Ix Congreso Internacional Galego Portugues De Psicopedagoxia 2007, 2007
Este artigo relata a experiência de acompanhamento tutorial na Aprendizagem Baseada em Projectos ... more Este artigo relata a experiência de acompanhamento tutorial na Aprendizagem Baseada em Projectos Interdisciplinares (Project Led Education, PLE), em 4 edições semestrais ao longo de 3 anos lectivos consecutivos, na Escola de Engenharia da Universidade do Minho. O acompanhamento tutorial foi realizado essencialmente por docentes, das unidades curriculares de apoio directo ao projecto, a grupos de alunos do 1º ano de Engenharia e Gestão Industrial. A existência da figura de tutor, na Aprendizagem Baseada em Projectos Interdisciplinares adoptada neste curso, fundamentou-se na necessidade de: (1) estabelecer uma maior proximidade com os respectivos grupos de projecto; (2) monitorizar o andamento dos projectos; (3) identificar problemas organizacionais do grupo; (4) veicular informação relevante ao grupo; e, (5) apoiar a equipa de coordenação PLE na avaliação individual dos membros do grupo. Este artigo inclui uma revisão bibliográfica sobre o papel do tutor na Aprendizagem Baseada em Projectos, apresentado-se uma súmula das diversas visões encontradas. Expõem-se igualmente resultados da avaliação desta experiência de três anos de acompanhamento tutorial e ainda uma análise crítica à luz das várias visões encontradas na revisão bibliográfica.
This paper describes the improvement of the setup process of a mechanical press machine in the me... more This paper describes the improvement of the setup process of a mechanical press machine in the metal-mechanic area of an elevators company. The work results from a master thesis project conducted during a period of five months. The Single-Minute Exchange of Die (SMED) methodology and other Lean Production tools (5S, Visual Management and Standard Work) were applied to reduce the setup times observed at the beginning of the project. With the developed solutions it was possible to reduce setup times, work-in-process (WIP) and distances travelled by operators. Additionally, the setup operations were standardized and consequently the process has become more fast and intuitive for the operators. These improvements allowed the reduction of energy and materials consumption and, consequently, a decrease on the Greenhouse Gases' emissions.
iv v AGRADECIMENTOS A presente dissertação não seria possível sem o apoio de algumas pessoas e nã... more iv v AGRADECIMENTOS A presente dissertação não seria possível sem o apoio de algumas pessoas e não faria sentido se não recordasse e reconhecesse com elevado apreço todos os que contribuíram para a sua concretização.
Third International Conference on Group Technology Cellular Manufacturing, Jul 3, 2006
This paper presents a procedure for the detailed design and redesign of manufacturing systems wit... more This paper presents a procedure for the detailed design and redesign of manufacturing systems within a framework of constantly fitting production system configuration to the varying production needs of products. With such an approach is achieved the design of Product Oriented Manufacturing Systems -POMS. This approach is in opposition to the fitting, before hand, of a production system to all products within a company. In this case is usual to adopt a Function Oriented Manufacturing System -FOMS, which, rarely require reconfiguration and apparently can deal with such a variety. The detailed design depart from conceptual manufacturing cell configurations and develops from there, through conceptual cell instantiation, the required detailed manufacturing system configuration needed for efficiently and effectively manufacture a product or a family of similar products. Therefore manufacturing requirements of products, based on available or accessible human resources and technology, i.e. manufacturing resources and know-how, as well as production demand are essential inputs to the design of suitable manufacturing configurations for the range of products to manufacture in a given period.
Work (Reading, Mass.), Jan 16, 2014
Lean Production Systems (LPS) have become very popular among manufacturing industries, services a... more Lean Production Systems (LPS) have become very popular among manufacturing industries, services and large commercial areas. A LPS must develop and consider a set of work features to bring compatibility with workplace ergonomics, namely at a muscular, cognitive and emotional demands level. Identify the most relevant impacts of the adoption of LPS from the ergonomics point of view and summarizes some possible drawbacks for workplace ergonomics due to a flawed application of the LPS. The impacts identified are focused in four dimensions: work pace, intensity and load; worker motivation, satisfaction and stress; autonomy and participation; and health outcome. This paper also discusses the influence that the work organization model has on workplace ergonomics and on the waste elimination previewed by LPS. Literature review focused LPS and its impact on occupational ergonomics conditions, as well as on the Health and Safety of workers. The main focus of this research is on LPS implementat...
This paper presents a project developed in an elevators company, in the framework of a master the... more This paper presents a project developed in an elevators company, in the framework of a master thesis at University of Minho. The main objective of this work was to analyse the production system of one assembly section of the company and to implement some proposals that would improve its performance. This objective was achieved by applying Lean Production tools and techniques namely, 5S, Visual Management and Standard Work. With the proposed improvements it was possible to increase the shop floor area, to reduce errors and nonconformities, to reduce the number of required operators and to improve the organization of the production system. These results promoted the reduction of energy and material consumption, mainly due to the decrease of defects and reduction of rework, which are some of the requisites for a company to become eco-efficient.
Cellular production is usually seen as a hybrid approach between job-shop and flow-line paradigms... more Cellular production is usually seen as a hybrid approach between job-shop and flow-line paradigms, reducing the major disadvantages of these two paradigms: the low productivity of job-shops and the low flexibility (in terms of products' variety) of the flow-lines. This paper describes the implementation of a production cell in a production unit of woodframed pictures and mirrors, which was originally configured as a traditional job-shop, without losing the necessary flexibility to face market demand and simultaneously increasing the production unit's performance. By implementing a highly flexible cell, very significant improvements were expected for the system's overall performance and the quality of the products. These expectations were met, and the implementation was successful, as demonstrated by the results presented.
A Product Oriented Manufacturing System is designed for the manufacture of a product or a family ... more A Product Oriented Manufacturing System is designed for the manufacture of a product or a family of similar products. POM may be seen as a development of traditional Cellular Manufacturing and tends to involve more than one cell. A POMS may either be physically organized in a single place or be made of distributed manufacturing or servicing units, thus comprising a virtual system. To be efficient, the POMS design should identify design phases and point to the data, methods and tools that should be used to obtain good design solutions. In this paper, one such methodology is proposed, together with an analysis of the conceptual configuration of the cells that are the building blocks of POM systems.
IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, 2010
Lean Production has proved itself a worthwhile production strategy in many distinct industries ac... more Lean Production has proved itself a worthwhile production strategy in many distinct industries across all regions of the planet by achieving higher levels of production efficiency. Several authors identified that Lean inadvertently has had significant environmental gains. Such achievements are considered of special relevance in a global and highly competitive economy which is progressively both tied-up and driven by an environmental agenda. The main goal of the present study is to enlighten the contribution of Lean for achieving a better environmental performance of production systems and identify this as an emergent business model for supporting eco-efficiency.
Volume 2B: Advanced Manufacturing, 2013
ABSTRACT This paper presents a protocol used in case studies with the objective to validate a Lea... more ABSTRACT This paper presents a protocol used in case studies with the objective to validate a Lean Production methodology in Textile and Clothing Industry (TCI) in North of Portugal. The methodology was developed under a Doctoral Program on Industrial Engineering and Systems. During the development of the methodology, the TCI contextualization was studied in parallel with the development of a survey applied to the TCI companies. The development of the methodology (structured in three phases) was followed by its validation in case studies.Thus, this paper objective is to describe and explain the case study designed and conducted to attain feedback from companies. These case studies demanded a protocol constituted by an overview of the project, the field procedures (meetings and visits, interviews, questionnaires and checklist form), the preliminary questions of the project and the guide for the reports from the case studies. From the field procedures, the interviews was the first instrument used and it allowed the identification of the needs of change, the workers and management role in this change, the expected and achieved results. These preliminary results are presented in this paper. The questionnaire, adapted from others studies, would be used for a better context in the national framework and it would be applied in a following phase as the checklist. It will enable the data and metrics collection related with several aspects, namely work ergonomic conditions. This protocol will allow the knowledge of the work environment for a good implementation of the Lean Production.
This paper describes the improvement of the quick changeover process of a painting line in a wood... more This paper describes the improvement of the quick changeover process of a painting line in a wooden frames factory. The well-known SMED technique (single minute exchange of die) was applied. However the characteristics of the setup operations (those characteristics also occur in other industrial changeover scenarios) have revealed the possibility of advantageous utilization of resource constrained project scheduling methods. The application of one of these methods represents an innovative contribution to the quick changeover area, allowing (when applicable) the scheduling of the involved setup operations, considering their duration, precedence relations and resources' need, in order to achieve a reduced setup time.
Volume 5: Education and Globalization, 2013
ABSTRACT Globalization has permeated our personal and professional lives and careers over the pas... more ABSTRACT Globalization has permeated our personal and professional lives and careers over the past two decades, to a point where communication, product development, and service delivery now are globally distributed. This means that the globalization of engineering practice is in effect. Large corporations tap into the global market for recruitment of engineers. However, the education of engineers occurs within the context of individual Higher Education Institutions. Engineers are educated with varying pacing and scoping of higher education programming with varying methods and pedagogy of higher education teaching. The expectations for engineering practice normed from the corporate side within the engineering marketplace, therefore, often do not match the widely dispersed educational experiences and outcomes of engineering education delivery. This gap brings challenges for all stakeholders, employers, higher education and the engineering graduate. But particularly, university education systems which traditionally are slow to respond to shifting market trends and demands, are expected to realign and restructure to answer this shortfall.A response to this shortfall has been prepared independently in different regions and countries. This paper discusses the response from Europe, USA, South Africa and Philippines. The European Commission started building a European Higher Education Area (EHEA) with the intention of promoting the mobility and the free movement of students and teachers in European tertiary education. US universities are introducing a design spine and strengthening students’ systems thinking and problem solving competencies. Philippines is trying to be aligned with ABET system from US. South Africa universities are evolving to a solid core undergraduate engineering curriculum with a limited set of electives available to students which include project-based learning. This is intended to address the education-workplace gap as well.This theoretical paper will provide a comparison study of the differences between the Engineering Education in USA, EU, Philippines and South Africa. The authors will compare current trends and initiatives, aimed at improving the readiness and competitiveness of regional engineering graduates in the workplace. Given that several worthwhile initiatives are underway, it is possible that these initiatives will remain as disparate responses to the need for the globalization of engineering education. Lean performance management systems are widely used in engineering practice internationally and represent one possible rallying concept for the globalization of engineering education in order to address the education-workplace gap. Therefore, this paper examines whether the introduction of a Lean Engineering Education philosophy is a worthwhile global curricular innovation for engineering courses.
Volume 12: Systems and Design, 2013
ABSTRACT Lean Engineering has come a long way from its first conception in the 1940s. What starte... more ABSTRACT Lean Engineering has come a long way from its first conception in the 1940s. What started as a production philosophy to enable manufacturing in Japan under severe resource constraints has developed into a globally adopted, widely aspired, often misinterpreted, and sometimes poorly understood, way and means of “doing business”. Short-sighted implementations of lean engineering in industrialized countries in a first wave in the 1970s were quickly accompanied by the slogan ‘lean is mean’ because of the focus on short-term financial gains at the expense of a complete understanding of the entire production and value chains. In a second wave in the 1990s, the focus of lean engineering implementations shifted to the core objective of lean engineering philosophies, the establishment of flow in the value chain through standardization. In parallel, Systems Engineering has continuously developed as a discipline which has moved away from the integration of components and subsystems, to the co-development of such units and building blocks of engineering and engineered products. This continued development of Systems Engineering as a discipline reflects the growing demand for systems thinking competency, to challenge the complexity of manufacturing and operations in an environment where product development, production and distribution is spread over large, not co-located teams on all continents.In this paper, the authors tie together the developments, tools and methodologies of Lean Engineering and Systems Engineering, and they show the growing similarity of both disciplines. In fact, these disciplines often describe the same effects, processes, and challenges in the workplace. The similarity has grown to a level where value streams in production or service delivery are analyzed and described in terms of one engineering discipline, while following methodologies and applying tools stemming from the other engineering discipline. The authors advocate that the debate should therefore not be over which engineering discipline to follow, but what tools and methodologies are most appropriate to enhance systems thinking competency, and to understand complexity in systems.
Volume 5: Engineering Education and Professional Development, 2011
High pressure natural gas pipeline companies conducting in-line magnetic flux leakage (MFL) corro... more High pressure natural gas pipeline companies conducting in-line magnetic flux leakage (MFL) corrosion inspection operations had to significantly reduce gas throughput velocity to accommodate MFL corrosion tool inspection speeds.
Project Approaches to Learning in Engineering Education, 2012
International Journal of Online Engineering (iJOE), 2009
This paper analyzes the rounding errors that occur in the assessment of an interdisciplinary Proj... more This paper analyzes the rounding errors that occur in the assessment of an interdisciplinary Project-Led Education (PLE) process implemented in the Integrated Master degree on Industrial Management and Engineering (IME) at University of Minho. PLE is an innovative educational methodology which makes use of active learning, promoting higher levels of motivation and students' auton-