Globalizing manufacturing engineering education

Abstract

The discipline of manufacturing engineering in the U.S. was established in the 1960s, a period when U.S. corporations and products dominated the global economy. Any form of engineering education that ignores the reality of multinational corporations, global supply chains, and international markets looks increasingly outmoded and provincial. The need to acknowledge the global aspects of engineering activity is beginning to be recognized in engineering education, and the need is especially acute in manufacturing engineering education. The shrinkage of the U. S. manufacturing sector portrayed by popular media is an supported by more intensive manufacturing engineering work in order to maintain the status quo of product value produced. The demand for well-educated manufacturing engineers worldwide is likely to increase in the long term. Very few U.S. manufacturing engineering programs explicitly recognize the global aspects of manufacturing at the course level.