Appendix IB. Course Syllabi

IE 441 Industrial Engineering Design

Catalog Description:
A large, open-ended design project related to industrial systems. Application of engineering design principles including problem definition, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Non-major graduate credit.

Prerequisites: IE 271, IE 305, IE 312, IE 313, IE 348

Text: None

Course Objectives:

1. Students will learn how to apply knowledge and skills they have studied throughout their IE curriculum to a real-world, open-ended, industrial engineering design problem.
2. Provide students with opportunities to learn and practice how to work in teams to solve industrial engineering design problems.
3. The students will practice and refine their oral and written communication skills.
4. Provide students with the opportunity to learn and practice how work in an industrial consulting type of environment.

Topics Covered:

1. Key team concepts.
2. Internal and external consulting concepts.
3. Topics specific to the particular semester project.

Class/Laboratory Schedule:
The class meets one time each week for 50 minutes (lecture) and two times each week for three hours (laboratory). The lecture period is utilized for informal presentations of topics presented above, as well as an opportunity to include guest speakers from industry. The laboratory is utilized by the students for design work, preparation of written and oral reports, visits to the industrial partner, and informal interaction with faculty and teaching assistants. Grades are based upon written and oral project proposals, milestone briefings, and written and oral final project reports.

Professional Component:
Students learn how to approach real-world, open-ended industrial design problems from problem definition to design recommendations. They learn how to work in an internal or external consulting environment.

Relationship to Program Objectives:

• Objectives 1, 3, 6 - Each design project requires the students to examine the appropriate mix of people, materials, machines and information. The projects require the students to design, analyze, and implement effective production systems.
• Objectives 2 and 7 - Projects require examination of both physical engineering design aspects and the interaction of the physical system with other business aspects of the company. The students must integrate the engineering and business processes when developing their design recommendations.
• Objectives 1, 2, 3, 6, 7 - Each project involves the integration of people, material, equipment, information, and control.
• Objectives 2 and 7 - Design teams need to explore the interactions of their particular plant floor function with various functional units, both within the plant and external to the plant.
• Objective 3, 5, and 7 - The design teams are made up of industrial engineering students, engineers of various disciplines from the industrial partner, and the hourly employees on the plant floor. The students learn to provide leadership within this team.

Prepared by: Douglas D. Gemmill

Date Prepared: December 17, 1999