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Title of the Paper: Manufacturing Enterprise Simulation as the Foundation Course and Synergistic Focus of Advanced Course Hands-On Application

Abstract

This paper describes the effective utilization and benefits of a hands-on laboratory-based production enterprise simulation course as the introductory foundation for subsequent IT or IET program major courses.

Using the Georgia Southern University B.S.-Manufacturing degree program’s nationally- recognized enterprise course as a model, the following key outcome-oriented benefits will be presented: “big picture” understanding of the industrial enterprise as a system; provision of a common base of experience which provides motivating synergy of upper-division course content; and a functioning production operation providing the capability to apply time studies, plant layout, lean concepts, tool design, ergonomics, automation and related studies in a tangible, hands-on basis to enhance major courses.

Background

At Georgia Southern University, the undergraduate course “TMFG 2131 - The Manufacturing Enterprise” was established in 1970 and has been utilized since to provide thousands of students with a synergistic insight to the organization, interrelationships, and tasks of the diverse functional elements of a business enterprise. In so doing, it has received national recognition three times, first in 1983 by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, and most recently the 2004 Leavey Award for Excellence in Private Enterprise Education, presented by the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge, which included a $7,500 cash award to the instructor.

The Manufacturing Enterprise course provides a hands-on activity-based simulation that involves each student in the roles of management, marketing, and production. A “factory” laboratory facilitates the manufacture of a product for actual profit which is divided among the students on a per-share basis.

The course attracts students from around campus who take it as a requirement for certain other majors, or as a preferred elective recommended by College of Business program academic advisors, or as a career exploration opportunity in that most popular major, “undecided”. A number of undecided students - and others who switched from a major outside the department – have been recruited as a result of their Enterprise experiences and concurrent exposure to the engineering technology and industrial technology academic programs.

The primary purpose of the course, however, has been to serve as an introduction and foundation experience for new majors in the NAIT (National Association of Industrial Technology)- accredited manufacturing degree program1, a unit of the Department of Mechanical & Electrical Engineering Technology. This baseline of manufacturing industry exposure, and the production

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Waldrop, P. (2008, June), Manufacturing Enterprise Simulation As The Foundation Course And Synergistic Focus Of Advanced Course Hands On Application Paper presented at 2008 Annual Conference & Exposition, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 10.18260/1-2--4124