Abstract
Globalization and rapid changes in modern product development and realization are creating gaps in engineering education systems around the world. The global economy has changed the way that engineering firms design, develop, and produce their products. Companies need to evaluate many options available worldwide, not just locally. The current trends are only likely to continue as the world economy becomes more competitive, interdependent, and characterized by global relationships among supply chain partners. This paper presents a plan for preparing engineering students for the new global sourcing environments and product realization processes. Infusions of supply chain management and project management skills into the curriculum are recommended, as well as use of university-industry partnerships, course portfolios, and study abroad programs.
Highlights
Engineering education today is facing an unprecedented array of challenges
We present a strategic plan for preparing engineering students for the new global sourcing environment
Consider what happened during the global financial crisis when thousands of project management professionals in Hong Kong were displaced by lower wage talent from China [11][18]
Summary
Engineering education today is facing an unprecedented array of challenges. Today’s continuously changing world, with ever increasing globalization, has upturned the environment in which engineers had traditionally operated. The new generation of engineers will need skills in areas such as supply chain management, technology evaluation, quality engineering and product testing, among others These engineers will become employees who know how to operate in the world of multiple simultaneous product lines, global sources, and extensive customer and partner interfacing. Boeing’s 7E7 program, for example, involved 30 companies and spanned 8 countries [10] It is within this global sourcing environment that engineering students must learn how to operate. These trends will only increase as the world economies become more interrelated, more competitive, and more interdependent In such an environment, engineers must regularly prepare specifications and sources sought documents, communicate specifications to potential partners and suppliers, conduct technical evaluations on the multitude of global solutions available to them, assess capabilities of suppliers and partners, develop testing plans, as well as operate in iJEP ‒ Volume 6, Issue 3, 2016. Their preparation should give them opportunities to master how to work in real life supply chain management
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