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J Intell ManufDOI 10.1007/s10845-009-0329-z

Automotive engineering curriculum development: case studyfor Clemson University

Laine Mears · Mohammed Omar · Thomas R. Kurfess

Received: 5 May 2008 / Accepted: 20 February 2009© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2009

Abstract The automotive manufacturing industry has1

transitioned in the past 20 years from a central technical focus2

to an integrated and globally distributed supply chain. As car3

makers outsource not only a greater portion of their manufac-4

turing, but also their technical design responsibility, a more5

thorough understanding of both design and manufacturing6

changes’ effect on total vehicle and total production system7

performance and cost is critical. The distribution of tech-8

nical responsibility in automotive manufacturing has moti-9

vated the development of a specific curriculum in Automotive10

Engineering at Clemson University in South Carolina, USA,11

with core focus on the interaction between systems, both12

in design and manufacturing. In this development, a detailed13

survey of automotive Original Equipment Manufacturers and14

major suppliers was carried out. The differences in perceived15

need between these organization types is explored, and the16

incorporation of these perceived needs to a new Automotive17

Engineering curriculum is presented.18

Keywords �19

Introduction20

The motor vehicle industry is the largest manufac-21

turing industry in the United States. No other single22

industry is linked so much to the US manufacturing23

sector or directly generates so much retail business24

L. Mears · M. Omar · T. R. Kurfess (B)Campbell Graduate Engineering Center,International Center for Automotive Research, Clemson University,343 Campbell Graduate Engineering Center, 4 Research Drive,Greenville, SC 29607, USAe-mail: [email protected]

L. Mearse-mail: [email protected]

and employment. (Center for Automotive Research 25

(Economics and Business Group) 2003) 26

The automotive manufacturing industry has transitioned in 27

the past 20 years from a centralized technical focus to an 28

integrated and globally distributed supply chain. As car 29

makers outsource not only a greater portion of their man- 30

ufacturing, but also technical design responsibility, a more 31

thorough understanding of both design and manufacturing 32

changes’ effect on total vehicle and total production system 33

performance and cost is critical. An understanding of sys- 34

tems integration, or focus on the interfaces between sys- 35

tems, is essential for the future success of automotive 36

manufacturing. 37

The automotive sector specific to the United States is in 38

transition as well. The market for automobiles produced by 39

international manufacturers is increasing, as shown in Fig. 1 40

(Automotive News 2008). 41

International auto makers, employing a “build where they 42

buy” philosophy bring to the manufacturing market new 43

products, methods and cultures that must interface with local 44

labor and suppliers. This cultural level of systems integration 45

presents another dimension of understanding for the interface 46

of systems. 47

Additionally, consideration must be given to the geog- 48

raphy of plant construction and regional trends of automo- 49

tive manufacturing. In the 1990s, the total population of 50

Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennes- 51

see, and Texas (the six southern automobile manufactur- 52

ing states), increased by 7.5 million people or 19.7%, while 53

that of the Northern automobile manufacturing states (Illi- 54

nois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, and Wisconsin) 55

increased by only 3.6 million people or 7.7% (Hill and 56

Brahmst 2003). In the period from 1998–2001, the number of 57

vehicle registrations in the South Atlantic states increased by 58

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Fig. 1 North American sales of light vehicles by international firmswith US production facilities. This sales trend continues to increase asmore US plants are constructed by foreign firms. 2007–2009 data wereforecast. (Automotive news)

Fig. 2 Automobile manufacturing employment by region. Over5 years, southern employment increased by 26%, while Northernemployment declined by 10% (Hill and Brahmst 2003). This trend con-tinues today

2.7%, while the Northern states’ share of total registrations59

dropped by 3.4% (Hill and Brahmst 2003). Due to high cost60

of transporting vehicles regionally to sales markets, these61

figures translate directly to an increase in automotive manu-62

facturing employment in the South. Figure 2 shows a regional63

increase in the number of manufacturing employees in South-64

ern states.65

Today we see a need for educating tomorrow’s automo-66

tive engineers through an industry with such profound effect67

on the global economy. The increasing need for understand-68

ing systems integration, the widening of the culture within69

the automotive industry, and the regional trend of increased70

automotive manufacturing in the South has motivated the71

development of a new Automotive Engineering curriculum72

at Clemson University.73

In the following sections, we present a motivation for74

the study of Automotive Engineering as a systems integra-75

tion practice by studying the need for quality improvement76

and current trends of availability and use of information in77

furthering flexibility and reconfigurability in manufacturing78

enterprise. A case study is presented of development of a new79

graduate program curriculum built on the concept of systems80

Fig. 3 Progressive sheet stamping process using intelligent program-ming. The intelligent system with no prior process knowledge outputessentially the same process that had been developed through years ofexperience

integration, with input from industrial original equipment 81

manufacturers and suppliers. Engineering design tools are 82

applied to develop a technical, business and cultural frame- 83

work of a curriculum to educate the next generation of auto- 84

motive industry leaders. 85

Recent manufacturing developments in the automotive 86

industry 87

Intelligent quality improvement 88

One platform upon which to consider study of the concept 89

of systems integration is in the analysis of quality uniformity 90

across different suppliers to the automotive OEM, and appli- 91

cation of intelligent manufacturing systems to ensure this 92

quality consistency. Vosniakos et al. (2005) apply intelligent 93

logic programming for process planning in the automotive 94

domain of progressive-die sheet metal forming. The system 95

generates and makes use of stored knowledge to check manu- 96

facturability, plan the phases of the process, and to verify 97

tooling designs; process validation output is shown in Fig. 3. 98

This approach is part of a new technological direc- 99

tion in manufacturing to incorporate design considerations 100

directly and automatically in the process. Another applica- 101

tion of information use in providing quality uniformity is 102

Balic’s intelligent programming of computer numerical con- 103

trol (CNC) turning (Balic et al. 2006). The system augments 104

part computer-aided design (CAD) data with a genetic algo- 105

rithm tool selection and cycle planning routine. This is an 106

evolution of earlier work in expert system development using 107

GA (Balic and Abersek 1997). Intelligent process planning 108

is also addressed by Wang through the integrated intelligent 109

process planning system (IIPPS) (Wang 1998). Results of 110

such work are applicable across the supply base in a flexible 111

manufacturing framework, insuring better quality supplier to 112

supplier as designs evolve and market demands change. 113

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Fig. 4 Communication architecture for manufacturing health. Legacysystems such as programmable logic controllers (PLCs), CNCs androbotics are interfaced across a common object linking and embed-ding for process control (OPC) network which may utilize Microsoft

message queuing (MSMQ). Such a structure enables interoperabilityof systems with different data formats. Data are managed through aStructured Query Language (SQL) database, and analysis applicationsinterface through reporting services

An intelligent approach to quality uniformity in the area114

of materials is given by Brezocnik et al. (2002). They sim-115

ilarly use genetic programming to derive the flow stress of116

steel in bulk forming. Based on experimental data, a model of117

forming efficiency evolves, yielding accurate material prop-118

erties that can be fed back to the process for improved quality119

consistency.120

Tolerance is another area to address when dealing with121

quality uniformity. Berruet et al. (1999) address tolerance122

evaluation for flexible manufacturing systems (FMS). This123

work evaluates the potential for failure in FMSs, and pre-124

scribes the addition of flexible elements to the system in areas125

of failure sensitivity. This approach not only addresses qual-126

ity consistency, but also supply chain reliability.127

Rokach and Maimon (2006) present a new data mining128

algorithm for discovering patterns in complex manufactur-129

ing processes. Traditional data mining techniques are more130

difficult to apply to manufacturing data due to unbalance dis-131

tribution of the target value and small training sets. The new132

algorithm is applied to manufacturing quality improvement,133

and can be used as an enabling tool to improve quality con-134

sistency across suppliers for both α (producer) and β (con-135

sumer) risks. Te-Sheng et al. (2006) also address data mining136

for assessment of manufacturing yield rate for a semicon-137

ductor operation. This approach is warranted due to process138

complexity and interaction between operations.139

A fuzzy selection algorithm for quality-based invest-140

ments by suppliers is presented by Gungor and ArIkan141

(2007) in order to obtain the highest quality value. Fuzzy set142

theory is used to select investments from engineering, mar-143

keting, supply quality, quality certification, inspection, tech-144

nology and training. Such a system supports consideration of145

poorly-defined or linguistic considerations when selecting a 146

quality investment. In all of these cases, a broader under- 147

standing of systemic interaction effects is warranted. 148

Digital technology in the manufacturing enterprise 149

The ease of information generation and its use in the man- 150

ufacturing process has been enabled by advances in digital 151

technology. Filos and Banahan (2001) review digital tech- 152

nology development in research and technological develop- 153

ment organizations, and the importance of properly using 154

these technologies to leverage the interlinked relationships 155

of information and knowledge to both research and econ- 156

omy. The “unforeseen opportunities” that access to this infor- 157

mation stream allow support intelligent manufacturing in 158

the form of interoperability standards between suppliers and 159

automotive OEMs. These include both open internet stan- 160

dards for new information generation as well as middleware 161

standards to interface legacy systems. 162

Digital technologies applied to workflow management in 163

manufacturing are also becoming better formalized. Supply 164

chain logistics and factory-level monitoring systems are able 165

not only to report workflow data, but also to diagnose defi- 166

ciencies and monitor overall manufacturing system health. 167

Architectures such as the factory throughput analysis system 168

in Fig. 4 are enabled by advances in information management 169

technology. 170

Cenesiz and Esin (2004) treat protocol analysis for net- 171

working intelligent devices within the manufacturing sys- 172

tem via controller area network (CAN) bus. This bus 173

system, originally developed by Robert Bosch Corpora- 174

tion for automotive in-vehicle communication is shown to 175

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Fig. 5 Activity and data flow in manufacturing. Design, process planand production activities can benefit from a neutral data model (Feng2003)

be useful as a highly-reliable and low-cost alternative in176

factory communication systems, and is amenable to network-177

ing multiple real-time systems.178

The National Institute of Standards and Technology179

(NIST, US Dept. of Commerce) has been deeply involved180

with standardization of communication methods and proto-181

cols among software, design, manufacturing and production182

planning systems. Feng (2003) highlights the criticality of183

the data incompatibility problem as design and manufactur-184

ing systems become more global and more highly vertically-185

integrated. A process planning activity model is developed186

to create a framework context to identify deficiencies in data187

flow and requirements at different process levels; high-level188

relationships are represented in Fig. 5.189

The process planning activity model is exemplified on190

data flow for a CNC machining process. Such a standard191

also promotes interoperability of supplier software systems192

and leads to improved quality consistency. López-Ortega also193

addresses machining-specific common language using STan-194

dard for Exchange of Product data (STEP) data standard195

implemented in Java classes (Lopez-Ortega and Ramirez196

2005). This standard allows process planning in the context197

of resource sharing in flexible systems. Typical resources to198

be managed in an automated flexible system are given in199

Table 1.200

Process planning systems are also treated by Hsieh201

and Wu (2000) in analysis of error sensitivity in classical202

computer-integrated deterministic production planning mod- 203

els. Information always contains uncertainty, and this effect 204

can be directly accounted for in planning if it is accessible. 205

Treatment using probabilistic methods in a production exam- 206

ple shows improved planning performance. 207

Intelligent support of manufacturing flexibility 208

A further development supported by digital technology 209

enablers is flexibility in manufacturing. The flexible man- 210

ufacturing system (FMS) offers benefits over traditional pro- 211

cesses by their capability to respond to changing market, 212

volume and demand conditions with minimal quality, cost 213

and delivery (QCD) impact. Mehrabi et al. (2002) offer a 214

comprehensive review of trends and outlooks for this devel- 215

oping area of manufacturing systems. Over 60% of man- 216

ufacturing experts in this study claim that the FMS is not 217

living up to expectations; a primary opinion is that training, 218

software and communications are areas for improvement for 219

FMSs and for the new generation of reconfigurable manu- 220

facturing system (RMS). An aim of the Clemson AEP is to 221

develop technical skill and expertise in the area of flexible 222

systems. 223

Wang and Deng address the FMS as a system of machin- 224

ing centers with material handling and automatic storage 225

incorporating real-time decision making under a formal 226

architecture (Jiacun and Yi 1999). Such an architecture offers 227

scalability in FMS design. Rahimifard and Newman (1999) 228

note the evolution of information systems in manufacturing 229

and their role in enabling flexibility. 230

Hauser and De Weck (2007) argue that demand fluctu- 231

ations and component specification changes have exposed 232

the need for embedding more flexibility in manufacturing 233

systems and processes. This is greatly prevalent in the 234

automotive manufacturing industry, where the market is 235

characterized by fragmentation, volatility and product plat- 236

forming. A qualitative comparison of representative manu- 237

facturing processes is given in Fig. 6. 238

Table 1 Automated resources of a FMS

Flexible manufacturing resource Acronym Description

Automated guided vehicle AGV Battery-powered, automatically-steered vehicles that follow definedpathways in the floor. They are used to move unit loads between loadand unload stations

Automatic storage and retrieval system ASRS A storage system that performs storage and retrieval operations withspeed and accuracy under a defined degree of automation

Computer numerical control CNC Numerical control machine tools whose operation is based on adedicated computer.

Robot none General-purpose, programmable machine possessing certainanthropomorphic characteristics, the most obvious of them is themechanical arm

Resources are effectively allocated when production plans are made on a common data system such as STEP (Lopez-Ortega and Ramirez 2005)

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Fig. 6 Manufacturing flexibility space. Processes are compared forflexibility on scales of changeover time, productivity and variable vs.fixed costs (Hauser and De Weck 2007)

Such comparison can be quantitatively used for process239

selection and identification of areas for new process devel-240

opment.241

Human factors in manufacturing development242

Ultimately, the described areas of manufacturing develop-243

ment are driven in the automotive industry by the coupled244

evolution of digital technology advancement (knowledge245

availability), flexible manufacturing, and increased global246

competition. Zargari et al. (1999) completed a detailed survey247

of Society of Manufacturing Engineers College Fellows and248

awardees to ascertain the collective expert opinion regard-249

ing current state of US Manufacturing curricula. The first250

point noted by the study is that manufacturing expertise and251

domestic manufacturing capability are vital to the economic252

stability of the United States. The pool of qualified manu-253

facturing employees as a whole is decreasing due to both254

reduced involvement in Manufacturing Engineering (slow-255

ing of the “runner” in the competitive race) and increasing256

complexity of technological systems (receding finish line). 257

Almost 90% of responding Outstanding Young Engineer a- 258

wardees believe that there is a lack of competency because of 259

the distance between education and real world applications 260

(Zargari et al. 1999). The expert consensus was that engi- 261

neering graduates need not only a technical background, but 262

also have the ability to communicate clearly and positively, 263

and to manage complex interrelated systems. 264

This recognized need motivates the education of a new 265

class of integration engineer, familiar with intersystem 266

effects among design, manufacturing and market, as well as 267

the effective use of knowledge in automotive development. 268

Automotive engineering program at Clemson University 269

The Automotive Engineering Program (AEP) at Clemson 270

University is a graduate-level engineering program founded 271

on the needs of the automotive industry. The master of sci- 272

ence (MS) program responds to the professional needs of 273

the industry, while doctoral research programs contribute to 274

the economic future of the industry in the state, nation and 275

world through advancements in automotive and manufac- 276

turing technology. Primary goals of the AEP are to develop 277

students’ communication, leadership, project management, 278

business and critical-thinking skills, ethical judgment, global 279

awareness, and scientific and technological knowledge as it 280

relates to the automotive sector. 281

The guiding vision of the AEP is to be thePremier research 282

and education program for automotive engineering and mo- 283

torsports. This vision is supported through a dedicated satel- 284

lite campus known as the Clemson University-International 285

Center for Automotive Research, a 330-acre research park 286

housing automotive industry research centers and the home 287

of the AEP, the Campbell Graduate Engineering Center 288

(CGEC, see Fig. 7). 289

Fig. 7 Campbell graduate engineering center (Clemson University). The automotive engineering program is housed in this 90,000 ft2 research andeducation center

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To achieve and support this vision, the program will290

adhere to the primary theme Interdisciplinary research291

and education focused on complex systems integration292

using the automobile and its manufacturing environment293

as a platform. The theme is characterized by the following294

principles:295

• Interdisciplinary Character,296

• Industry Involvement,297

• International Orientation / Participation,298

• Student development / accomplishment mentorship,299

• Delivering exceptional value to sponsors,300

• Responsibility and contributions to society,301

• Supporting economic development in South Carolina,302

and303

• Contributing to Clemson’s vision and goals.304

The program is developed in order to address the afore-305

mentioned needs, particularly the understanding of the306

relationships between design, manufacturing and quality,307

ability to leverage process intelligence with process inter-308

operability, and establishing the fundamental framework for309

the automotive engineer to think and design at the systems310

level.311

Critical factors312

The interaction studies for the needs of the automotive indus-313

try resulted in a number of key critical factors lacking in the314

automotive engineer. These were taken from both OEM and315

Supplier interviews, and the results differed greatly in terms316

of technical versus organizational competence.317

Critical factors: original equipment manufacturers318

The major classes and subjective areas highlighted by OEMs319

are given in Table 2. These areas are representative of auto-320

motive-specific subjects perceived by the OEMs to be lacking321

in graduates from traditional engineering programs.322

These subjects encompass not only technical knowledge323

and ability, but also proper use of these technical tools given324

production volumes, market conditions and maturity of tech-325

nology. Integration of technologies and systems is a key326

theme.327

Critical factors: major automotive suppliers328

The suppliers perceived a much greater need in the area of329

organizational “soft skills” for interacting with OEMs and330

providing smooth service within the supply chain. In this331

context, the term “soft skills” represents interpersonal, crea-332

tive and positive non-technical abilities, not to be confused333

Table 2 Automotive OEM perceived education need areas

Vehicle development: process and integration tools and methods

Vehicle architecture

Development process and tools

Vehicle testing

Problem solving methods and tools

Quality methods

Cost structures

Manufacturing: process, tools and development: focus on OEMmanufacturing

Supplier integration

Flexibility in manufacturing

Quality methods in manufacturing

Launch: preparation, management, project cost justification

Manufacturing technology integration

Management of cross-functional teams, synchronicitydisciplines+schedules

Financial evaluation of manufacturing+development projects and totalvehicle business cases

Electronics: from integration into vehicle to service and MMI

System integration for electronics

Board-net, test diagnosis and analysis in development+manufacturing+service

Electronics component manufacturing

Communication electronics, MMI (incl. ergonomics of vehicleoperation)…

Software design and logistics

Quality in software development

Development of controls

Subsystems: from functions to component, materials+manufacturingprocesses: prepares mainly to work for a parts supplier

Parts design and manufacturing (Why use castings?)

Subsystems/ components materials (basic and advanced)

Manufacturing processes depending on the volume

Combustion+fundamentals of power trains+power integration

Alternative energy

Vehicle market concepts technology concept evaluation

Vehicle+market customer behavior

Vehicle business cases

Vehicle dynamics simulations

Body and suspension simulations

Aerodynamics simulations

The automotive interests are organized roughly by developmental stageof the vehicle

with soft computing in intelligent systems. Supplier per- 334

ceived needs are presented in Table 3. 335

These perceived needs are highly organizational and man- 336

agement-oriented with virtually no technical content. Based 337

on the major topical areas, an implicit need for integra- 338

tion capability is shown, but never explicitly voiced by the 339

suppliers. 340

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Table 3 Automotive SupplierPerceived Education NeedAreas. The supplier interests areshown by organizationalcategory

Communication Multi-cultural issues

Report writing—presentations well integrated Multi-cultural management

Teaching how to communicate through people How product is used across cultures

Communication through layers of management Collaboration tools—work together

Communicate orders and why they were given Policies

How to present and sell Liability issues—Risk assessment

Future modes of communication Social issues related to the vehicle

Effective modes of communication Economics of public choice

Communication—transmitting and receiving Policy—trade, regulation, environment

Effectively communicating Navigating policy and financial issues

Communication as a means for cultural diversity Business

Use of technology in communication Negotiation

How to create an environment such thatcommunication can occur effectively

Who is the customer? internal vs. externalcustomers

Writing skills: technical and creative Thinking out of the box—whole picture

Assertiveness (when to speak—how to be heard) Look beyond the car—but at total impact

Ability to define customer needs clearly Look at it as a business

Leadership Design and mfg. effects on society

Leadership/team skills Honor code, ethics

Listening skills Problem solving

Cultural aspects/differences Balance the how and why issues

Internal marketing Sustainable development

Interpersonal dynamics Creativity

Presenting ideas in a non-confrontational manner Solution is only one step—must keep going

Money is the best motivator How to think and how to learn

Negotiation skills Problem solving methodology

Leadership roles Integration tools

Pre-selling, internal marketing Systems view

Project management Critical thinking skills

Project management (keeping on schedule) Life cycle issues

Innovation and entrepreneurship Diversity in problem solving

Innovation is a value proposition Quality tools such as six sigma

Concepts related to innovation Design to cost/value

How to think about innovation Rapid design/rapid experimentation

Value of innovation Ability to function in uncertain conditions

Critical factors: comments on disparity between OEM and341

supplier perceived need342

It is interesting to notice that “Supplier Integration” is only343

a single item in the OEM educational strategy, though sup-344

plier issues represent a significant portion of OEM effort345

and cost. The OEM main focus is on technical integration346

of vehicle architecture, electronics, software, simulation and347

production systems.348

Alternatively, the Supplier needs approach is highly349

organizational and management-oriented. These types of350

skills are not typically core to an engineering curriculum,351

and the effect in the supplier workplace is demonstrated.352

Interestingly virtually no technical needs are given, even353

as the current market trend of vehicle development and 354

manufacture is putting a higher technological burden on the 355

supplier. 356

The different perceived needs of OEM and supplier have 357

driven the development of a holistic Curriculum incorpo- 358

rating hands-on practical experience, research, and a set of 359

courses that address integration of technical and organiza- 360

tional needs for producing the next-generation Integration 361

Engineer to serve the Automotive industry. This engineer 362

will be an individual capable of specializing in a few key 363

areas, but with the understanding of the effects that his deci- 364

sions have on the system as a whole from the standpoints 365

of functional performance, environmental robustness, total 366

system cost, business strategy, and marketability. 367

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Incorporation of intelligent methods to satisfy368

perceived needs369

In the Clemson AEP, needs in particular areas are addressed370

with an emphasis on intelligent methods, specifically product371

development planning/realization and manufacturing sys-372

tems education. In product design and planning, systems-373

level needs identified by the OEM are addressed using digital374

manufacturing tools such as and ergonomic analysis. These375

tools give a modeled view approximating reality without the376

cost of prototype development and testing. This digital anal-377

ysis is incorporated to the product development and launch378

aspects of the curriculum.379

Similarly, intelligent approaches are included in instruc-380

tion and practical projects in the manufacturing area to381

address needs identified by both OEM and suppliers such382

as flexible and reconfigurable manufacturing system design,383

use of product and process information in inspection design,384

and system robustness to uncertain conditions. Additionally,385

digital representations of manufacturing processes are used386

for process planning, force and power analysis, and develop-387

ment of interactive cost models.388

Application of design tools to curriculum development:389

background and current state390

A new curriculum must be approached systematically if it is391

to be successful. Miller (1998) highlighted the problem of392

lack of “real-world” preparation of new engineering gradu-393

ates going to industry, and points to a number of factors con-394

tributing to the disparity. Curricula have traditionally been395

slow to respond to industry needs, and have not kept pace396

instructionally with technological advances, particularly in397

manufacturing programs. Of primary importance in incor-398

porating industrial internships in the field of study to provide399

practical knowledge and understanding not attainable in the400

classroom. Additionally, Miller notes a lack of instruction in401

necessary “soft skills” necessary for functioning in an indus-402

trial environment, but not typically taught in traditional pro-403

grams. Primarily noted:404

• opportunities for students to interact on teams,405

• explicit instruction on communication skills,406

• explicit teaching of process skills such as creative prob-407

lem solving and project management,408

• application of skills to engineering problems,409

• better understanding of interaction effects in both com-410

plex products and organizations (seeing the big picture),411

and412

• ability to question current practices.413

A methodology for curriculum development using design414

tools was proposed by Shea and West (1996), who applied415

Table 4 Areas of engineering curriculum importance (Shea and West)

Rating (/ 5.00)

Topical areas

Engineering economics 4.13

Quality management 4.04

Design process 4.03

Statistics 4.03

Planning and control 3.99

Critical attributes

Communication skills 4.60

Problem solving skills 4.45

People skill 4.45

Commitment to objective 4.13

Continuous improvement 4.12

High ethical standard 3.83

IME topics 3.72

Business operations 3.64

Design skills 3.38

Engineering fundamentals 2.92

multi-objective programming to satisfy educational objec- 416

tives while meeting the university, college, accreditation and 417

course sequence constraints of the engineering curriculum. 418

They developed a multi-objective model, then identified five 419

of nineteen topical areas and ten critical attributes decided as 420

important for graduates. These are shown in Table 4. 421

Note that “soft” skills not traditionally taught explicitly 422

in engineering are most highly rated. Shea used a simpli- 423

fied weighting scheme to develop test curricula emphasizing 424

different areas. 425

Shih (1994) identified global competition, increasing tech- 426

nology and the need for agility as motivators for improving 427

the manufacturing engineering curriculum. This led to his 428

development of the integrated manufacturing systems engi- 429

neering (IMSE) discipline, where some program focus is 430

given to tools and techniques for managing integrated sys- 431

tems, namely: 432

• Computer-Integrated Manufacturing (CIM), 433

• Concurrent Engineering (CE), 434

• Total Quality Management (TQM), and 435

• Reengineering. 436

These tools have been integrated to the instructional curricu- 437

lum at Clemson University, and were also used themselves to 438

take a scientific approach in development of the curriculum 439

itself. Though the described tools are outmoded today, the 440

methodology can still be successfully applied. 441

Thom et al. (2002) also apply design tools such as weigh- 442

ted objectives, Quality Function Deployment, and func- 443

tional decomposition directly to curriculum development at 444

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Purdue University. They cite the benefits as being able to445

improve complex and coupled organizational systems such446

as curricula using a structured methodology. The curricu-447

lum is treated as analogous to a complex manufactured prod-448

uct. This approach overcomes a number of challenges for449

traditional curriculum reviews, namely implementation of a450

systematic approach and having a quantitative measure of451

curriculum success.452

Previously at Clemson University, Beasley et al. (1995)453

created and applied a design optimization approach for454

undergraduate scientific curriculum development. Such a455

curriculum requires optimization of course offerings subject456

to external constraints such as ABET requirements, bud-457

gets, facilities available, faculty time and industrial advi-458

sory board recommendations. A curriculum was developed459

first by identifying key organizational elements across the460

4-year window, then through iterative identification and461

topical coverage development for individual courses. This462

approach was expanded to include quality-related continu-463

ous improvement concepts applied to develop a systematic464

framework for assessing and improving existing engineering465

curricula (Beasley et al. 1996). These techniques continue466

to be used in Clemson University Mechanical Engineering467

today, and will be applied in periodic reviews of the Auto-468

motive Engineering curriculum.469

More recently, Lerman (2008) has pointed to the need for470

critical analysis of targeted skills in education programs. He471

points out that programs which continue to assume a needed472

skill set based on data of decades ago cannot compete in473

today’s competitive business environment where foci such as474

agility and flexibility have replaced traditional success val-475

ues. The conclusion is that skills required for a given market476

must be actively studied with the industry of that market to477

provide an occupation-focused education plan.478

Borthwick et al. (2000) undertook a study in the Australian479

automotive service industry to identify skill shortcomings to480

be addressed through education programs. The data were col-481

lected through focus groups with industry representatives to482

the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI),483

the Australian Industry Group (AIG) and the Business Coun-484

cil of Australia (BCA). They also examined the impact of485

training through hands-on apprenticeship and higher educa-486

tion class work on the resultant skill set.487

Emadi and Jacobius (2004) give a detailed review of a cur-488

riculum development for automotive electric power drives at489

the Illinois Institute of Technology. This undergraduate pro-490

gram places teams of students in the role of design teams491

for electric power integration to vehicles. This need of iden-492

tifying and practicing issues with integration of new sys-493

tems to existing platforms was also cited as a critical need in494

our curriculum development study. Education development495

for adapting and maintaining electrical systems to conven-496

tional vehicles was also addressed by Oklahoma’s Mid-Del497

Technology Center (Lee and Stephens 2004). Curriculum 498

developers formed partnerships with businesses and Depart- 499

ment of Defense facilities for input on areas of education for 500

electric vehicles. Additionally, partnerships resulted in dona- 501

tions of Toyota Prius, Honda Insight and GM EV-1 vehicles 502

to be used as practical study subjects. 503

McGrath (2007) highlights the important role of global- 504

ization in motivating higher-skill-set curricula, particularly 505

for the automotive industry. He uses the case of automotive 506

globalization and resultant commercial proliferation within 507

South Africa as a prime motivator for improved higher 508

education curriculum development in partnership with this 509

important industry. Van Der Linde (2000) also addresses 510

the relationship of education and employee marketability in 511

South Africa, stressing the need for education programs to 512

be sensitive to changes in national industry, and to adjust 513

curricula as needed to continue providing viable employees. 514

Much as the automotive industry competes in an arena of 515

agility today, so must education programs be actively seek- 516

ing information and reinventing their programs in response 517

to change. 518

Guerra-Zubiaga et al. (2008) highlight the importance of 519

collaborative learning methods (i.e., integration of education 520

with industrial or practical influences) to improve engineer- 521

ing education. The case study undertaken is that of collab- 522

orative design tools such as those in the product lifecycle 523

management (PLM) class of tools emerging as a necessary 524

approach for managing automotive developmental informa- 525

tion. They specifically point out deficiencies of programs 526

that do not elicit feedback from the end customer (automo- 527

tive industry), specifically: 528

• Inability to generalize new knowledge from previously 529

known concepts; 530

• Inability to recognize variations of previously known con- 531

cepts, when taken out of the context in which they were 532

learnt; 533

• Inability to apply known methodologies to ‘open-end’ 534

problems, i.e., when the specific question to be answered 535

is unfocused. These problems arise frequently in engi- 536

neering design; 537

• The available channels for receiving information are 538

almost restricted to audio-visual, associated to short-term 539

memory and poor insight; 540

• Essential life-enduring skills such as creativeness, 541

reflexiveness, abstractiveness, etc., remain undeveloped 542

(Guerra-Zubiaga et al. 2008). 543

The conclusion of this review is that application of tradi- 544

tional learning environments (i.e., classroom and textbook) 545

do not address the specific needs of open problem require- 546

ments development, integration of complex systems, and 547

the creativity required to address these problems. These 548

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newly-defined required skills have been taken to heart in the549

design of the Clemson University Automotive Engineering550

program. The AEP was originated through extensive interac-551

tive workshops with automotive industry OEM and supplier552

partners beginning in late 2003. The primary activities were553

undertaken to answer the question “what is lacking in the554

engineers you hire from traditional Mechanical Engineering555

and Electrical Engineering programs?”556

Application of design tools to curriculum development:557

Clemson University558

For the Clemson University graduate Automotive Engineer-559

ing Program, a number of program requirement ideation tools560

and metrics were used, including decision matrices, affinity561

diagrams, and most notably the Quality Function Deploy-562

ment matrix (Kogure and Akao 1983). This tool correlates563

end user (automotive OEMs and suppliers) requirements564

with specific program features (classes, education tracks and565

research areas).566

To develop the QFD for the Automotive Engineering pro-567

gram, a series of interviews over the period 2000–2002 were568

conducted to elucidate the perceived requirements of grad-569

uates for industry. The interviews were undertaken with a570

major Original Equipment Manufacturer, BMW AG, as well571

as Tier-1 and Tier-2 suppliers, most notably Michelin North572

America and The Timken Company. Results of these inter-573

views were grouped by capability class and used to drive574

program development. An example of the QFD tool used for575

program evaluation is shown in Fig. 8.576

As shown by this table, the capability requirements identi-577

fied through OEM interview and focus groups are addressed578

by different courses. The tool is used to verify that all required 579

capabilities are addressed in the curriculum (all rows should 580

have one or more entries), and that no extraneous offerings 581

are included (no columns should be blank or sparse). An 582

equivalent activity was undertaken for the input offered from 583

interaction with primary automotive supplier partners. Pro- 584

gram educational structure is described in Sect. ??. 585

Program structure 586

The AEP consists of core offerings as a requirement for all 587

graduates, and a variety of technical and business offerings 588

that allow the student freedom to specialize in certain areas 589

while achieving the identified objective outcomes. 590

Core classes 591

Core education requirements are embodied in a set of base 592

courses, covering fundamental skills identified during the 593

requirements embodiment phase of program development. 594

These primary skill sets imparted by the core class 595

requirements are as follows. 596

• Project Management for Design and Manufacturing. Pro- 597

ject management is an essential skill for ability to operate 598

in the automotive design and manufacturing environment; 599

• Overview of Automotive Systems. Students are presented 600

with an overview of major automotive systems, their func- 601

tions, constituent components and interfaces with the envi- 602

ronment. Particularly stressed is functional decomposition 603

of systems and a study of the interfaces between systems. 604

Fig. 8 QFD for deployment of OEM capability requirements to automotive engineering curriculum. The first two categories of capability studyare shown; 8×× designation represents the catalog course numbers

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This study of interfaces and interactions leads directly to605

the concept of systems integration;606

• Systems Integration Concepts and Methods. A critical607

explicit approach to the study of interactions between sys-608

tems and subsystems is undertaken to provide the student609

with foundational knowledge of the effect decisions have610

on the system as a whole. Exemplary case studies are pre-611

sented that embody the integrated nature of the modern612

vehicle;613

• Applied Systems Integration. The concepts learned dur-614

ing the overall course of study are applied in a laboratory615

course, where students are presented with an open-ended616

design problem spanning multiple domains of specializa-617

tion. The emphasis is on global system design optimization618

in an open design space; both vehicle and manufacturing619

systems are treated.620

Technical emphasis: track courses621

Technical breadth and depth is introduced to students through622

a number of courses grouped by focus tracks. The tracks and623

current planned courses are given in Table 5.624

Technical track courses in Manufacturing Processes are625

presented on a product platform. Representative automotive626

components and their function are presented as a context for627

manufacturing process selection and analysis. Automation,628

supply chain and intelligent manufacturing concepts are pre-629

sented, and all concepts are reinforced with industry interac-630

tion (tour or in-class discussion).631

Previous treatment of interdisciplinary manufacturing632

instruction with involvement of industry was presented by633

Deisenroth and Mason (1996) in design of an aerospace634

manufacturing course with the aircraft, its subsystems and635

components as the platform of study. They also integrated636

transition of instruction from a process focus to a manufac-637

turing systems focus, and included cost drivers and manu-638

facturing selection topics for an integrated approach.639

Technical emphasis: function and system approaches640

The Master’s degree professional program has two major641

“stems” or directions of study based on the student inter-642

est and final employment objective. The Function stem643

is designed primarily to meet the needs of the automo-644

tive tier 1 and tier 2 suppliers for individuals with knowl-645

edge and skills to integrate two or more technical areas.646

The System stem primarily meets the needs of automotive647

OEMs for individuals having knowledge and skills to man-648

age and integrate people, technologies, and suppliers at dif-649

ferent stages of the vehicle development/production process650

chain.651

Table 5 Technical track courses in the AEP

T1 vehicle materials and structures mechanics

AuE 853: Crash analysis methods and crashworthiness

AuE 855: Structural/thermal analysis methods forautomotive structure, systems, and components

AuE 866: Advanced materials for automotive applications

T2 vehicle electronics, mechatronics and computer systems

AuE 825: Automotive sensors and actuators

AuE 826: On board diagnostics and reliability

AuE 827: Automotive control systems design

T3 vehicle design and integration, methods and tools

AuE 846: Tire behavior and its influence on vehicle performance

AuE 847: Vehicle suspension systems design and analysis

AuE 848: Vehicle braking systems

AuE 849: Automotive chassis design

AuE 875: Vehicle development and realization

AuE 876: Mass customization design for vehicles

AuE 877: Light-weight vehicle systems design

AuE 884: Body and interior design

AuE 885: Vehicle layout engineering and ergonomic design

T4 vehicle manufacturing and production

AuE 867: Vehicle manufacturing processes I

AuE 868: Vehicle manufacturing processes II

T5 vehicle performance (vehicle physics)

AuE 850: Automotive stability and safety systems

AuE 805: Ground vehicle aerodynamics

AuE 886: Vehicle noise, vibration and harshness

AuE 887: Methods for vehicle testing

T6 vehicle power systems and transmission

AuE 816: Engine combustion and emissions

AuE 817: Alternative energy sources

AuE 828: Fundamentals of vehicle drivelines and power trainintegration

Courses for tracks T1–T6 that are shown in italic have been developedand taught; others are either in development or planned for development

• Function Stem. The function stem emphasizes technical 652

competence in two or three specialization areas as noted 653

in the defined technical tracks; 654

• System Stem. The system stem replaces two technical 655

track courses with courses chosen from the following: 656

AuE 831: New Vehicle Conception, Market and Technol- 657

ogy Identification, Concept Validation 658

AuE 832: Vehicle Development and Integration Processes, 659

Methods and Tools 660

AuE 833: Automotive Manufacturing Process Develop- 661

ment, Methods and Tools 662

AuE 834: Automotive Production Preparation, Manage- 663

ment and Launch 664

AuE 835: Vehicle Electronics Integration—A Process 665

Chain Perspective 666

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The objective of Systems-stem courses is to provide the667

students with a more detailed knowledge and experiences668

as related to various stages in the vehicle development/669

production process chain.670

Business emphasis671

To provide the students with the foundations of business,672

economics, policies etc. as pertinent to the automotive indus-673

try, a requirement of two business courses is imposed. One674

is chosen from a traditional business school offering, while675

a second business course specific to the automotive indus-676

try has been developed through Clemson’s Spiro Center for677

Entrepreneurial Leadership. This course, titled Autovation678

is designed to engage graduate-level engineering students679

in emerging trends and technologies in the automotive sec-680

tor. The first semester provides an introduction to emerg-681

ing automotive competition and modern market demands;682

emphasis is placed on the development of economically via-683

ble alternative fuel sources (primarily hydrogen fuel cells).684

The second semester focuses on applying the lessons from685

the first semester; students design products and detailed busi-686

ness plans addressing these issues. Both courses are centered687

around teams of students working to understand and develop688

entrepreneurial skills.689

This two-course approach requires the student to be690

founded in business concepts while exploring the latest busi-691

ness aspects and considerations within Automotive Engi-692

neering. The curriculum does allow flexibility, so students693

can specialize in a number of traditional business areas while694

being exposed to entrepreneurship and new automotive mar-695

ket developments and trends.696

Incorporation of practical experience to curriculum697

An additional program need identified through industrial698

partner input is graduates with practical experience and699

knowledge. This need is addressed from two directions. First,700

a program requirement of 2 years of industry experience is701

imposed. This allows education of the student at a higher702

level of understanding. Common terminology, professional703

relationship ability, and an understanding of the industrial704

environment serve as practical prerequisites for the program.705

A second approach to this need is an underlying theme706

throughout courses of hands-on involvement with equipment707

and systems under study, as well as interaction with indus-708

trial partners through guest speaking, plant tours, internships709

and a required industrial internship.710

Jiles compares curriculum development incorporating711

integrated practical education with the traditional final cap-712

stone project approach, identifying “common deficiencies”713

of traditional graduates as noted by industry (Jiles et al.714

2002):715

• poor understanding of manufacturing processes, 716

• a desire for more “high tech” solutions, 717

• lack of design capability, 718

• lack of appreciation for alternatives, 719

• lack of knowledge of value engineering, 720

• lack of appreciation for variation, 721

• poor perception of the overall project engineering pro- 722

cess, 723

• narrow view of engineering and related disciplines, 724

• weak communication skills, and 725

• lack of experience working in teams. 726

These needs have traditionally been treated by a single “cap- 727

stone” course at the end of the curriculum, an approach which 728

has merit but is not effective in preparing students for indus- 729

try as these needs increase and new practical needs identified 730

(e.g., design of flexible systems). Jiles developed the “VID” 731

approach, which parallels that of R&D teams in industry, and 732

applies it to a Materials Science curriculum incorporated to 733

Nondestructive Evaluation center sponsored by the National 734

Science Foundation (NSF). 735

Another education area in need of integrated practical 736

instruction is process instrumentation and control. Amadi- 737

Echendu and Higham (1997) describe an approach to curric- 738

ulum development in this area, transitioning the technology 739

from an “artisan” approach given by employers after hire to 740

a more scientific treatment obtained in the educational pro- 741

gram. The program collaborates with industry and profes- 742

sional society to offer instruction in practical, usable areas. 743

Schneider et al. (2005) address the practicality of instruc- 744

tion for development of a software engineering curriculum. 745

Industry input is solicited specifically from working gradu- 746

ates of the curriculum under development to find deficien- 747

cies, particularly software training that was required after 748

employment. Additionally, soft skill deficiencies were noted 749

as shown in Table 6. Though this data is from the software 750

industry, it highlights the perception of graduates from pro- 751

grams of complex system study as needing additional prac- 752

tical training after graduation. This is the same case with 753

the complex mechanical, electrical and software systems of 754

the automotive industry, motivating industry-based practical 755

input in the curriculum. 756

Mativo (2005) describes curriculum development in a 757

materials-based curriculum where the previous practice of 758

highly theoretical instruction was eschewed in favor of a bal- 759

anced approach of theory and practical experience with dif- 760

ferent materials in manufacturing. The addition of instruction 761

in current software used in industry develops graduates that 762

enter the workforce with a strong combination of knowledge 763

and skill. Tapper (2001) additionally noted the importance of 764

involving industry directly in engineering curriculum devel- 765

opment, particularly where laboratory equipment will be 766

highly utilized. 767

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Table 6 Curriculum participant soft skill self-evaluation

Very little (%) Not much (%) Neutral (%) Much (%) A great deal (%)

Project management 14 5 38 33 10

Quality assurance 5 0 19 57 19

Teamwork 5 0 19 33 43

Risk management 10 33 33 24 0

Design 5 19 24 38 14

Requirements elicitation and documentation 0 5 19 38 38

Coding 0 0 10 33 57

Conflict resolution 14 29 38 10 10

Graduates of a software curriculum generally rated soft skill development in their education program as low, requiring additional development afteremployment

Fig. 9 Web-based instruction on electro-discharge machining. Current research results are demonstrated graphically, with time-based trend ofcritical process parameters. This is an on-demand web application (Yao et al. 2005)

The AEP curriculum developed at Clemson incorporates768

the hands-on “profound” experience described by Tapper,769

with the ability to be flexible to changing technology require-770

ments of industry. Knowledge that is today obtained by771

automotive engineers during their first years of employment772

is instead offered within the graduate curriculum, reducing773

learning time after graduation and making graduates imme-774

diately more usable to industry.775

Incorporation of parallel research to curriculum776

Research within an academic program is the impetus driving777

new technology development. As new areas of technology778

become increasingly important. It is necessary to begin edu-779

cation of these technologies and methods as they are being780

realized; development of the student and development of the781

technology will run in parallel.782

Yao et al. (2005) describe an example of this concept783

applied to an integrated research and education program in784

non-traditional manufacturing (NTM) methods. In addition785

to teaching of recent research results, digital technologies786

are also incorporated, both enriching the educational expe-787

rience and disseminating information to a broader audience.788

Examples of web-based technologies incorporated include789

Java applets, Shockwave animations, VRML animations, and 790

QuickTime movies to demonstrate concepts. The essence of 791

this program is its multidisciplinary nature, covering the inte- 792

gration aspects of mechanical, electrical, chemical and bio- 793

logical domains. An example of digital instruction materials 794

is given in Fig. 9. 795

Current state of development 796

As of this writing, the Master’s graduate education program 797

with 30 students has been realized for three full semesters. 798

Additionally, 20 Ph.D. students have been involved for over 799

2 years; these students will be the first students to obtain a 800

doctoral degree in the field of Automotive Engineering from 801

an American university. 802

There are a total of 50 students and 10 full-time fac- 803

ulty, and together we occupy the newly-constructed Camp- 804

bell Graduate Engineering Center. AuE course plans have 805

been vetted through focus groups with industrial partners 806

and Mechanical Engineering faculty as described; the first 807

year of courses is complete and the next is set to begin. Fur- 808

thermore, the faculty focus groups review the offered courses 809

in light of the students’ response, which is collected through 810

written student surveys and one on one discussions with the 811

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program student association. Also, the faculty discuss any812

new additions to the current offerings in light of new gov-813

ernmental regulations, new technologies or changes in the814

industry operating environment.815

The current course offerings focus on four different816

core areas; automotive manufacturing processes and sys-817

tems, vehicle performance, vehicular electronics and auto-818

motive power-train systems and technologies. The courses819

that support these foci are sequenced to couple with the820

core course offerings. The program is expected to gradu-821

ate its first generation masters students in the summer of822

2009.823

Industry focus824

There is heavy industrial involvement with the program, not825

only through course development input, but also direct con-826

tributions to courses in the forms of guest lectures, sponsored827

factory tours and in-kind equipment and software donations.828

Additionally, the industrial collaborators provide real-life829

case studies for the students to analyze and propose solutions;830

such activities include past and current challenges within the831

automotive industry.832

Additionally, an aligned intelligent manufacturing rese-833

arch plan is being carried out with industrially-sponsored834

projects. A number of consortia are also forming around835

the program, including the Clemson University Vehicular836

Electronics Consortium and the newly forming Automotive837

Industrial Partner Consortium, where manufacturers can join838

to drive research directions and take advantage of open results839

while maintaining intellectual property rights.840

Cultural awareness841

A final aspect of the curriculum unique to an Automo-842

tive Engineering graduate program is a cultural immer-843

sion requirement, whereby every student will be involved844

in a 6-month foreign residence internship with a partner845

company or international government research laboratory.846

While students get practical industrial research experience,847

they are also exposed to international culture and “learn by848

doing” cultural integration within the automotive environ-849

ment. This international internship also entails a language850

requirement, either previously spoken or through an intensive851

summer learning program. The cultural education side helps852

the students to operate effectively within a global environ-853

ment through improving their communication skills across854

different cultures and their understanding of the different855

habits and traditions across the world. Plans to improve the856

cultural educational aspect within the program is to incorpo-857

rate a cultural seminar series.858

Comments on curriculum 859

The Automotive Engineering graduate curriculum at Clem- 860

son University has been designed to incorporate exposure to 861

the practical aspects of a career in Automotive Engineering. 862

Particularly stressed is the integration of top-down systems- 863

level instruction exemplified on practical industrial projects, 864

and exposure of students to international cultural experience 865

in a technical environment. The curriculum is developed with 866

input from OEM and supplier representatives of the automo- 867

tive industry, highlighting needs that depart from traditional 868

technical instruction, such as business-product relationships 869

and interpersonal skills in a multicultural environment. 870

Additionally, the role of intelligent systems is included in 871

the curriculum design. Digital product design and the inter- 872

operability of digital systems in the product development 873

process are included in the product realization area. Intelli- 874

gent tools included in the manufacturing systems area include 875

intelligent inspection, information use between inspection 876

and manufacturing process, and digital representations of 877

manufacturing processes used for process analysis, planning 878

and control. 879

Conclusions 880

In this paper, we present a critical need for education of sys- 881

tems-level thinkers in the global automotive industry, evi- 882

denced by the relatively recent transformation of vehicle 883

manufacturing from a centralized function to a widely-dis- 884

tributed supplier network. The influx of international auto- 885

motive makers with a “build where you buy” philosophy has 886

increased the need for global and cultural understanding of 887

manufacturing and business processes in the North Amer- 888

ican sector. A growing area for automotive manufacturing 889

and resultant global technical understanding is in the South- 890

east US. This understanding is manifested in the increased 891

management and use of information for improving process 892

quality and flexibility. The greater availability of this product 893

and process knowledge, coupled with the fact that there is a 894

decrease in the number of advanced manufacturing gradu- 895

ates, has motivated a new program focused on systems-level 896

thinking for the global automotive industry. 897

The Automotive Engineering Program under development 898

at Clemson University—International Center for Automotive 899

Research is a comprehensive degree program designed under 900

the theme of systems integration, a concept that transcends 901

traditional integration studies such a Design for Manufac- 902

turing or Functional Decomposition techniques. The new 903

era of systems integration focuses on development of the 904

Integration Engineer, a graduate that analyzes and makes 905

decisions with innate knowledge of those decisions’ effect 906

on aligned systems. This skill is applied not only across 907

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manufacturing systems integration within design, but also908

functional integration of design as systems become more909

complex, supply chain integration as technical responsibility910

becomes more distributed, and cultural integration as infor-911

mation-enabled collaboration links geographically-disparate912

organizations.913

The contributions that this paper highlights are914

• The contrast in perceived needs of automotive original915

equipment manufacturers vs. those of suppliers to the916

OEMs. OEM needs were for more technical thinkers able917

to understand the effect of decisions in one domain on the918

performance in another. Supplier issues centered mainly919

on need for leadership, interpersonal and communication920

abilities;921

• Development of a graduate-level program addressing922

both systemic technical issues, and education of technical923

leaders able to function in an interpersonal and intercul-924

tural global automotive environment;925

• Incorporation of intelligent concepts in manufacturing926

to the curriculum, focused on product development and927

manufacturing systems areas. For product development,928

information from the digital design model is shared to929

dynamic analysis and manufacturing planning functions.930

In the manufacturing systems area, intelligent tools are931

exercised in the areas of inspection design and planning,932

digital process modeling and application to process plan-933

ning and control.934

As evidenced by interviews and interactions with vehicle935

manufacturers and suppliers, this approach is greatly needed936

in today’s automotive manufacturing environment. As vehi-937

cle development and manufacturing becomes more frequent938

with shorter lead times, coupled with increased competitive939

pressures, the understanding, knowledge and use of integra-940

tion techniques will define the automotive technical leaders941

of tomorrow.942

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