Premium
Quality Improvement Partnerships with Industry Using Student Teams
Author(s) -
Rust Jon P.,
Hamouda Hechmi,
Hewitt Elizabeth R.,
Shelnutt James W.,
Johnson Thomas
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
journal of engineering education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.896
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 2168-9830
pISSN - 1069-4730
DOI - 10.1002/j.2168-9830.1995.tb00144.x
Subject(s) - teamwork , engineering , project team , project management , quality (philosophy) , action research , quality management , general partnership , identification (biology) , engineering management , project based learning , process (computing) , operations management , psychology , business , management , pedagogy , computer science , philosophy , management system , botany , systems engineering , epistemology , finance , economics , biology , operating system
The 1993 Quality Challenge is a cooperative partnership between Milliken and Company, the National Science Foundation and three North Carolina Universities. The project goal was to activate a multidisciplinary team of students, faculty, and industry representatives in a real‐world quality improvement project. The 1993 project was an expanded follow‐up to the 1992 University Challenge Project, also sponsored by Milliken. Based upon past experience, project coordinators broke the 1993 project into three components: Preparation, Identification, and Action. Preparation included a preliminary course held in the Spring to teach students fundamental Total Quality Management tools, team building skills and communication skills needed in industry. A team of students was selected from the course to participate in the summer Identification and Action phases of the project. The Identification phase included introduction to project goals, team process training, specialized team formation and project focus. The Action phase of the project included process capability studies, shade variation studies, root cause trials and a statistical design of experiment on shade variables. The project resulted in many recommendations to improve the process and reduce shade variation. The overall project methodology and approach can be applied to industries other than textile manufacturing. Educational benefits for all participants included: team building and teamwork experience, enhancement of effective communication skills, experience in design of experiments, engineering design and practice, greater self confidence, and industrial experience with real‐world quality improvement opportunities.