Partnering With Students to Continuously Improve the Systems Engineering Engineering Management Program

摘要

Continuous improvement philosophy is a fundamental principle for creating a sustainable system and education is no exception. Engineering departments have been implementing continuous improvement processes as part of ABET accreditation requirements for many years. One of the main challenges, especially for small programs is to identify resources to carry on these continuous improvement initiatives along with the ongoing teaching and research activities. In this paper we present an innovative approach in which systems engineering students are involved in the improvement of the Systems Engineering & Engineering Management (SEEM) Program at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNCC). The initiative has been carried under the junior level Systems Design and Deployment course where project teams of systems engineering students were given the task of analyzing the processes of the program as a consultant would do. During the semester a streamlined version of the five phased six-sigma methodologies known as DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control) and DMADV (Define, Measure, Analyze, Design, and Verify) were taught and key deliverables of each phase were completed. The storyboards were presented to the key stakeholders within the SEEM program for approval to implement. The output of two projects resulted in redesigned websites, one for the undergraduate Systems Engineering program and the other for the Engineering Masters program. A third project team created process flow maps along with the methods and procedures to facilitate a supply chain game for the department's students. The fourth project developed flow charts for seven of the department's key processes and improved two of these by eliminating non value added steps. As a result of this approach the students were passionate about improving a program they care about while learning valuable Systems Engineering design and deployment skills. At the same time faculty and staff within the department were grateful to have four projects completed to improve the program. Our experience shows that both students and teachers can benefit from partnering together in their semester projects to design and deploy systems that improve their department. This approach to utilizing students to improve systems within the department could be replicated to other classrooms and universities in order to achieve similar results.