An interdisciplinary curriculum model for extended lean enterprise systems education: addressing the changing workplace and labour market

Abstract

The primary objective of this paper is to present an innovative enterprise systems education curriculum model for Information (IS) and Production/Operations Management (POM) students. To lay the groundwork, this paper first identifies four important trends in enterprise systems design, along with the associated educational challenges facing the current education programmes of IS and POM. Responding to these educational challenges, an interdisciplinary curriculum model called the Interdisciplinary Extended Lean Enterprise Systems (IELES) model is developed. Incorporating several critical enterprise management principles (e.g. lean thinking), the IELES model provides a viable framework for designing cross-disciplinary enterprise systems courses and laboratory projects. The IELES curriculum model will have a significant impact on the educational advancement for both IS and POM students. Ultimately, the proposed IELES curriculum model will create a new class of graduates, referred to as IELES Professionals, who are trained to thrive in lean-driven horizontal corporations.