An Example Mapping of the Four Pillars of Manufacturing Engineering onto an Existing Accredited Program

The four pillars of Manufacturing Engineering have been devised to provide direction to undergraduate curricula. The headings of the pillars are taken from the ABET program criteria for “Manufacturing and Similarly Named Engineering Programs”. The fifth program criterion requires that instruction include laboratory exercises with substantive intellectual content. This paper will map the four-plus-one pillars construct onto an existing accredited program in Manufacturing Engineering. The results of this comparison will be used as part of the documentation offered for a forthcoming re-accreditation evaluation. The overlay of the four pillars highlights some needed improvements, and directions for implementation of those refinements are discussed. The method applied here suggests more general application for identifying areas of needed continuous improvement in undergraduate Manufacturing Engineering and Manufacturing Engineering Technology programs. Historical Foundation: Manufacturing Engineering at North Dakota State University is offered within a combined Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Department, co-existing side-byside with a sister program in Industrial Engineering and Management. The Manufacturing Engineering program at NDSU was first separately accredited in 2000. In that same year, graduate study in the discipline was inaugurated, and separate BS and MS degrees are offered in both Manufacturing Engineering and Industrial Engineering and Management, with the doctorate being in the combined disciplines -Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering. Program Philosophy: From the start, NDSU Manufacturing Engineering has been focused on the production of products, articulated in the mantra that ... at the end of the day, manufacturing is about production of goods. Manufacturing engineers are called upon to make decisions about technology, machines, people and money -all related to the production of tangible goods. The primary responsibility of the manufacturing engineer is to assure that the products are created with the functionality intended by their designers and at a level of quality that will satisfy and delight customers. Close on the heels of that primary responsibility comes focused concern for time and money. In order to be successful -indeed, to remain in business, manufacturing enterprises must get new products to the marketplace quickly and must produce goods at costs that permit adequate profit while satisfying customers’ needs for value purchasing. Manufacturing Engineering is a bottom-up discipline, based upon a strong foundation of science and mathematics. The linchpin is comprehensive understanding of the science of the interactions between tool and workpiece. The production system of the factory is built on this foundation, with all design and operating decisions emanating from fundamental principles of the physics and chemistry (and more recently, the biology) of materials processing. Manufacturing Engineering is also a design profession, where practitioners are required to make decisions to create processing plans and production systems based on both fundamental analysis and the Page 25158.2 often-conflicting exigencies of the imperative to produce goods -at needed quality and functionality and with timely and cost-effective delivery to the customer. Establishing and Refining Program Objectives: Based upon this mantra, program objectives have been established for the undergraduate NDSU Manufacturing Engineering program. Initially, the program learning objectives were defined within the structure determined by repeated examinations in workshops, conferences and forums sponsored by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers over the two decades preceding the founding of the NDSU Manufacturing Engineering program. This structure has been reported extensively, and has been summarized into six core knowledge stems: Figure 1: The Six Core Knowledge Stems in Manufacturing Engineering Decisions were made quite early in the program’s history that instruction should be integrated -i.e., that separate courses ought not to be offered for separate elements of the core knowledge stems, but that fundamental concepts should be integrated throughout the curriculum. This attitude led directly to an orientation towards a concentration on relevant aspects of engineering -i.e., based on the fundamental characteristics of engineers as problem-solvers and designers of products and processes. The result was a focus on four basic aspects of manufacturing engineering ... product engineering; process engineering; quality engineering; production engineering. This was quickly compressed by integrating quality issues within the engineering of products, processes and production systems. In addition, laboratory experiences were adopted as a central feature of all coursework in the Manufacturing Engineering major. The standard course format is three-credits, which includes two lecture hours and three laboratory hours per week. There are occasional variations to more or less laboratory content in certain of the elective courses. A Manufacturing Engineering capstone has evolved that is centered around the broad concept of ‘product realization’, taking senior students through a comprehensive experience that encompasses all of the knowledge stems for the discipline and touches each of the program accreditation criteria. As the NDSU Manufacturing Engineering program matured through its first re-accreditation evaluation, the curricular threads woven through the core courses, the six core knowledge stems and the accreditation program criteria became more thoroughly integrated. ABET program a The principal events were: Workshop on Minimum Content for Manufacturing Education Programs, Heuston Woods, July 1985; Curricula 2000 Workshop, Southfield, July 1990; Curricula 2002 Workshop, Orlando, March 1995. P ge 25158.3 criteria for ‘manufacturing and similarly named engineering programs’ have been conceptually stable for about two decades -materials and manufacturing processes; product, process and assembly engineering; manufacturing systems and operations; manufacturing competitiveness; laboratory experience. The curricular threads have become defined as the core competencies of a Manufacturing Engineer from North Dakota State University -product engineering; process engineering; production engineering. In this visage, ‘product engineering’ encompasses detailed analysis of the product and all component parts, as well as an assessment of customer demand in both qualitative and quantitative terms. Quality requirements stem from identification and analysis of those characteristics of component parts that [a] are necessary for acceptable functionality of the completed product and [b] are measurable during manufacturing. ‘Product engineering’ also includes make-versus-buy decision-making, detailed specification of dimensional requirements for all manufactured parts (including fits, tolerances and surface finish) and explicit specification of raw materials (e.g., for metals, alloy, condition and mill form). ‘Process engineering’ includes the traditional manufacturing engineering activities of tool specification, fixture selection or design, machine tool specification and selection, process planning and machine-tool-level performance prediction (cycle time, tool consumption, raw material utilization). Particular emphasis is placed on [a] analytical modeling of the applicable manufacturing process(es), starting from fundamental variables (e.g., for machining processes, cutting conditions) and [b] complete process mapping and operations planning. ‘Production engineering’ incorporates fundamental quality engineering analysis and the essentials of cost engineering. The focus of ‘production engineering’ is the design of a production system for serial manufacture of selected tangible goods -and then, the estimation of performance of the designed production system in terms of throughput, inventories and operating costs. Also incorporated are basics of market analysis -for estimating production demand. The interactions amongst these the perspectives, competencies, knowledge stems and program criteria have been diagrammed to illustrate the strategy for delivering curricular content in fulfillment of objectives and criteria. Figure 2: Correlation of Curricular Core Competencies, Core Knowledge Stems and Accreditation Program Criteria P ge 25158.4 The program-wise learning objectives have recently been slightly re-cast into the format that is becoming known as the ‘Four Pillars’ of manufacturing engineering. This format evolved from the series of forums sponsored by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers from 2008 to 2010. In addition to the event proceedings , the principal output of those forums was a comprehensive document defining a four-year plan for manufacturing education -known as Curricula 2015. The four-pillar concept emerged from that intensive effort, and it is a very useful tool for planning, describing and managing manufacturing curricula in both the engineering form and in engineering technology. Program Description in ‘Four Pillars’ Terms: The Four Pillars have a foundation in the program accreditation criteria for Manufacturing Engineering. As previously noted, these criteria have been in effect for ABET engineering accreditation for roughly two decades. During this time, the Manufacturing Engineering program criteria have been repeatedly reaffirmed through extensive dialogue amongst experienced faculty and critically-interested industrial practitioners -most recently in 2011. In the most recent refinement, these criteria are ... Curriculum: The program must demonstrate that graduates have proficiency, using statistical and/or calculus-based methods, in [a] materials and manufacturing processes: understanding the behavior and properties of materials as they are altered and influenced by processing in manufacturing; [b] process, as