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Session 2455

Quality Assessment of an Engineering Management Program

Mel I. Mendelson Loyola Marymount University

Abstract

An assessment process is described for LMU's Engineering and Production Management graduate program. Six quality characteristics were defined and measured. The process utilized the tools of total quality management and statistics. Improvement was benchmarked using hypothesis testing of the mean results between 1994 and 1998 using six assessment methods. Quality improvement was evaluated by plotting the results on a radar chart.

I. Introduction

In 1993, Loyola Marymount University's (LMU's) College of Science & Engineering launched a new and unique graduate program leading to an M.S. degree in Engineering and Production Engineering (EAPM). This was a practice-oriented, part-time graduate program that combines both engineering and business. It was devoted to the management of technically competitive products for the 21st Century. The program emphasized integrated product development, project management, manufacturing and total quality.

Currently the goals of the EAPM program are: (1) to teach product design, manufacturing and teamwork, (2) to provide the integrated skills that will advance the careers of our students, (3) to offer a dynamic, industry-relevant graduate program. Since our mission states that our program "will provide the highest quality education for engineers and managers in the management of technically competitive products," it is important for us to assess quality education and its improvement.

An assessment process has previously been proposed [1], which was a modified version of the ABET 2000 engineering criteria [2, 3]. Since assessment has been an evolving process, the present paper will build on the above work to assess the quality of our program. The purpose of this paper is to: (1) define a quality assessment process, (2) establish a measurement of quality, and (3) to evaluate the quality improvement by benchmarking our performance in 1998 against that in 1994. Since this work is still in progress, a sample of the results will be presented.

II. Quality Assessment

An assessment process has been identified using the principles of total quality: being focused on stakeholder needs, creating a strategic plan, establishing relationships between quality and stakeholder needs, having a strategic plan, establishing relationships between quality and outcomes assessment, and measuring improvement. The quality assessment process that has been utilized is shown in Figure 1, which is similar to the process that has previously been reported [1].

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Mendelson, M. I. (1998, June), Quality Assessment Of An Engineering Management Program Paper presented at 1998 Annual Conference, Seattle, Washington. 10.18260/1-2--7377