A virtual factory teaching system in support of manufacturing education

Journal of Engineering Education, Oct 1998 by Dessouky, Maged M, Bailey, Diane E, Verma, Sushil, Adiga, Sadashiv, Et al

ABSTRACT

To accommodate increasing product specialization, modern factories are increasingly becoming more flexible. Much of this flexibility is achieved by integrating the components of the manufacturing system (e.g., design, production, purchasing, etc). To be successful in this new manufacturing environment, an engineering college graduate must understand the total business process from design to production to delivery in order to develop a holistic view of manufacturing systems. Yet, traditional pedagogical tools are ill-equipped to develop this holistic view in students. In this paper, we describe a Virtual Factory Teaching System, VF"TS, now under development to provide a tool to illustrate the concepts of factory management and design in a realistic setting. The focus ofthis paper is to present our pedagogical approach of the VFTS, the development of the prototype, and its use in a senior-level industrial engineering class.

I. INTRODUCTION

Success in today's business environment requires that an engineering graduate understand the total business process from design to production to delivery, so as to develop a holistic view of the manufacturing process.l Chisholm2 contends that many manufacturing engineering curricula overemphasize theoretical scientific content, rather than deeper learning of the total manufacturing environment. Courses on factory topics such as inventory control, production planning, and operations scheduling emphasize mathematical models based on simplifying assumptions, ignoring many factors that exist in real factories such as machine breakage and demand surge.3

Traditional tools for hands-on learning are ill-equipped to handle the complexity of the modern factory. Manufacturing education has traditionally required laboratories. However, factory experimentation through full-scale, on-campus laboratories is not feasible because of their large development and maintenance expense. Furthermore, traditional methods serve only a single site, inhibiting the creation of "virtual" teams whose members are not co-located. Increasingly, engineers must function on virtual teams that may span continents.45

In this paper, we describe a National Science Foundation-funded project to develop a Virtual Factory Teaching System (VFTS), i.e., a multi-media collaborative learning network that illustrates the concepts of factory management and design in a realistic setting. To assess the viability of a VFTS for manufacturing education, we developed a prototype that aids students in learning a specific manufacturing topic, factory scheduling. This paper describes the prototype VFTS and its use in the Fall 1997 Semester in a senior-level industrial engineering class at the University of Southern California.

II. LITERATURE REVIEW

Numerous studies show the potential value of computer-based learning tools as aids to classroom instruction.6-9 Such tools have been designed for courses in engineering and the sciences, for example, work by Price in CAD," Samaan and Sutano in electrical engineering," Hoburg in electromagnetics,12 and Smith in nuclear engineering.l3

While many computer-based tools are designed for use on individual computers, applications designed for network use are increasing. Harasim et al.14 document a wide array of learning networks. Face-to-face classroom learning is generally assumed to be superior to learning over networks, but Harasim et al. argue that no evidence exists to support this view; in fact, on-line environments were found to provide learning outcomes equal or superior to those gained in traditional settings.ls"l7 Bailey and Cotlar" outline the benefits of using the Internet to stimulate deeper learning from extended interaction. Several universities have developed network educational tools for instruction (see, e.g., references 1, 19, 20, and 21).

Learning networks have disadvantages; more preparation time is generally required than for lecture-based courses, and some material is ill-suited for network learning.'4 Darby2 notes that the adoption of computer learning technologies is hampered more by organizational constraints, such as the failure of universities to utilize existing materials, than it is by technical issues. For instance, Sweeny and Oram23 found that while information technologies aided distance learning among MBA students, their instructors failed to use those same technologies to communicate with students outside the classroom.

Tomlinson and Henderson24 highlight the issues of value, viability, and development of distributed computer-supported collaborative learning software. Blair, Coulson, and Davies outline some technological requirements for a distributed multimedia application.

A few efforts have been made to re-vamp entire educational programs through integration of learning networks and computer tools with traditional course material. For example, Sheater, Martin, and Harris" describe such a program leading to a Bachelor of Manufacturing Management at the University of Technology, Sydney.