Process Thinking in Engineering Education

摘要

More and more organizations are seeking to adopt organization and management models oriented to their key processes rather than the traditional functional orientation. However, as organizations are seeking to become more process-oriented, numerous gaps and difficulties are recognized at the level of analysis, modelling, management and improvement of processes. The issues surrounding processes are not properly understood and internalised, leading to increased difficulties in implementation and management by processes. There is thus a clear need for expertise in this area of knowledge. In response to this growing demand, in last year’s we identify several universities and engineering schools incorporating specific curricular units in their teaching offer. This paper presents some education courses and specialized programs of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, specifically oriented to analysis, modelling, management and improvement of processes (engineering and business processes). Firstly, the concept of process and process thinking is presented. It will then present the approach followed in some curricular units incorporated in three Master of Science programs and also provides the design of a specialized program oriented to more experienced participants.