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ELECTRONICS MANUFACTURING CURRICULUM: WHAT INDUSTRY WANTS

Elaine M. Cooney, Michael Bowman Purdue School of Engineering and Technology at IUPUI

BACKGROUND

Electronics manufacturing is a major industry, one of the largest in the United States. Even though the electronics industry is well established, industry representatives claim there is a lack of qualilled employees [1]. Many technical positions are fflled by people who have little or no preparation in manufacturing equipment, problems, and processes. Programs are needed to train and retrain people for this fast growing field, but few exist Traditional electronics curriculum focuses on circuit design, analysis, and proto-typing, but seldom includes manufacturing processes and quality control. Manufacturing curriculum does cover processes and equipment, but often focuses solely on metal working processes. This paper proposes a new curriculum that draws from both areas, as well as including material not covered in any other discipline.

Design and delivery of academic programs must aim for customer satisfaction and meet quality expectations the same as any other well designed, manufactured, and delivered product or service that industry requires. The design and implementation of an electronics manufacturing program is no different. The days when Henry Ford said, “Give them any color they want so long as its black:’ are gone from the automobile industry as well as the education process. In the development of this electronics manufacturing associate degree program, industry requirements and needs take top prion”~. Faculty must keep focused on the industry requirements as well as their own specifications. The Technology Accreditation Commission (TAC) of Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) criteria is necessary in today’s academic/industry community. But, as one industry respondent to a program said, “You have to insure high quality graduates. If ABET accreditation will help do that, then get it.” The equation for a quality designed and implemented program becomes:

Industry Needs + Faculty Requirements+ ABET Criteria=> Quality Program

Zndustry needs are established by surveys, face to face meetings, and continual monitoring of the course content and quality against their requirements. Faculty and academic requirements come from qualified and motivated faculty to create and deliver quality service to the students and to the industrial community. ABET criteria assist in the process by supplying third party standards.

?@xij 1996 ASEE Annual Conference Proceedings ‘7+,HYR,: .

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Bowman, M., & Cooney, E. M. (1996, June), Electronics Manufacturing Curriculum: What Industry Wants Paper presented at 1996 Annual Conference, Washington, District of Columbia. 10.18260/1-2--6012