INNOVATION IN CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT FOR MANUFACTURING EDUCATION

To obtain a degree in manufacturing, students traditionally faced with a decision to either join a manufacturing engineering or manufacturing technology program. Normally they make their decision based on several factors such as: the employability at that time, degree of difficulties, the degree plan and its suitability to their current living style, etc. One of the main factor that has a large weight in making their decision is the amount of math. involved in each degree. Students with less desire to get involved in the theoretical engineering science normally join the technology track while the rest join the engineering track. In this research a new degree called manufacturing engineering Technologies is proposed. The purpose of the new degree is to produce a super quality graduate who is capable of handling both the theoretical and the practical aspects in the manufacturing environment. This degree is not intended to compromise between manufacturing engineering and manufacturing technology, it is rather intended to generate a higher quality graduate. Traditionally, manufacturing engineering education focuses on the theoretical, mathematics, and experimentation aspect while manufacturing technology focuses on how to use, mange, maintain the different engineering tools and systems. The proposed degree is intended to produce a graduate that is capable of handling the theoretical and the practical issues very well. The expected performance of this graduate is to be a leader in product and system R&D, cost reduction and innovation initiatives.