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2005-1961

STRATEGIC PLAN FOR AN NSF ENGINEERING RESEARCH CENTER EDUCATION PROGRAM – THE ERC FOR RECONFIGURABLE MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS ELIJAH KANNATEY-ASIBU, JR. Yoram Koren Lenea Howe

Engineering Research Center for Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109

Abstract The Strategic Plan of the Engineering Research Center for Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems (ERC/RMS) at the University of Michigan was established to streamline the Center’s educational activities thus enabling manufacturing engineers from industry to work with manufacturing faculty and students in both education and research. The Center has successfully developed an organization that can be responsive to both academic needs for process and to corporate needs for agility. The Education Strategic Plan integrates curriculum, culture and outreach. This paper provides an overview of each of the elements of this comprehensive effort.

Introduction

The vision for the Education Strategic Plan of the Engineering Research Center for Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems (ERC/RMS) was driven by the desire to give the UM manufacturing curriculum and outreach activities an identity which would capitalize on the uniqueness of the ERC/RMS research challenge. Typical courses on manufacturing strategies and processes, as well as typical courses on industrial control and machining design, analyze known situations and consider given design goals. By contrast, RMS methodologies are based on design for a future change and a future re- use of components. With the RMS, the essence of decision making involves a consideration of the future. The future is inherently unknown, and the forces conspiring to produce the future often lie well outside the conventional designer and manager purview. The essential question was how does one make engineering decisions in this context? The new decisions would depend on the following facts: • The forces shaping the future of a particular industry are not understood. • The rate at which these facts are emerging are not known.

Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright  2005, American Society for Engineering Education

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Howe, L., & Kannatey-Asibu, J. E. (2005, June), Strategic Plan For An Nsf Engineering Research Center Education Program The Erc For Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems Paper presented at 2005 Annual Conference, Portland, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--14738