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Lean Production has proved itself a worthwhile production strategy in many distinct industries across all regions of the planet by achieving higher levels of production efficiency. Several authors identified that Lean inadvertently has had significant environmental gains. Such achievements are considered of special relevance in a global and highly competitive economy which is progressively both tied-up and driven by an environmental agenda. The main goal of the present study is to enlighten the contribution of Lean for achieving a better environmental performance of production systems and identify this as an emergent business model for supporting eco-efficiency.

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Abstract:Purpose: Project-Based Learning (PBL) is considered to be an active learning methodology which can be used to develop both technical and transversal competences in engineering programs. This methodology demands a great deal of work effort from the students and also from the teachers and it requires a meticulous plan and a well-managed project as well. These activities go far beyond the normal activities in traditional lectures, enabling to outpace the difficulties that spur along the way that may be both complex and demotivating. This The aim of this paper is to identify and discuss the main difficulties of the implementation of PBL, mainly from the teachers' perspectives. Additionally, some effective strategies will be recommended to overcome such difficulties. Findings: Integration of courses in the project; student assessment; growing number of students in each team and the need of physical spaces for them; and compartmentalized knowledge has emerged as the main difficulties. To overcome these difficulties some key strategies were recommended.Originality/value: A new perspective based on course teachers' views and experiences will deepen the understanding of the problems and provide inputs for the development of strategies that may improve the effectiveness of PBL and introduce changes for its successful implementation. These strategies are intended to be transferable to other contexts, as most of the problems and constraints are common to other active learning approaches.

Lean Engineering learning should be compulsory on engineering curricula, and, particularly, on the Industrial Engineering field. Prior to the integration on the Industrial Engineering curriculum, Lean Engineering was already implemented by many organizations and, often, fostered by consulting companies. For this reason, if engineering students were taught about Lean Engineering, they would be better prepared to assume a leadership role in their organizations and/or to better communicate with Lean consultants. Based on a literature review and on the authors’ practice, this paper discuss some approaches that have been used for Lean Engineering learning. Some learning experiences implemented in an engineering master’s degree are presented which make use of effective educational tools based on active methodologies, such as hands-on simulation, Problem or Project-Based Learning (PBL), Conceive-Design-Implement and Operate (CDIO) initiative, among others. This paper also presents these tools and how they address Lean Engineering learning through the lens of Lean Thinking principles. Their advantages in Lean Engineering learning are discussed by gathering the academic and practitioners’ communities opinions. These are based on final year projects’ reports, feedback from students and from organization supervisors.

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The innovative learning methodology Project-based learning (PBL) has been functioning in the first semester of the first year of the Master Degree in Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM) at University of Minho, Portugal, since 2004_2005. This methodology was implemented by a team of teachers from the Department of Production and Systems of the Engineering School just before the Bologna process was adopted in Portugal. The process required substantial changes in the teaching/learning methods and methodologies and had a significant impact on students’ learning and motivation. The team of IEM teachers designed a full semester project based on the contents of four project-supporting courses (PSC), and formed a coordination team involving PSC lecturers, tutors and educational researchers. The latter aimed to accompany students’ teams, assess the learning process and evaluate the PBL experience at IEM. After nine editions of PBL in the first year, the IEM curricular structure has been reformulated to include a semester-wide project course in the first semester, recognizing PBL as a distinct part of the curriculum. It is therefore time to reflect on the past experiences and the merits of the PBL experiences. After presenting the overview of PBL based on the IEM specific context, its merit will be discussed through the analysis of surveys results and workshops organized at the end of last three PBL editions. This learning approach has put many challenges to the coordination team, brought discussion and triggered research that supported PBL along the way.

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