A project-based teaching experience for simulation and optimization education

Abstract

Project-based teaching is a widely acknowledged methodology for education in engineering. Realistic working experiences enhance students' motivation and develop skills for practice. However, case studies based on real industry problems are usually time consuming and often request a deeper knowledge of the circumstances than it is achievable within a standard course. This paper covers the design and implementation of a laboratory manufacturing line for teaching in process simulation and optimization. Industrial engineering students of the third year in the Quantitative Methods for Industrial Engineering subject at the Universidade da Coruna were offered a project-based evaluation plan consisting of the modeling, simulation and optimization of a manufacturing line in which they worked as labors. The experimental unit provided with an ad hoc designed process in which relevant issues in simulation could be demonstrated.

Durchführung eines Simulationsprojektes im Simulationspraktikum

“…Martin [13] präsentiert ein reales Fallbeispiel in Zusammenarbeit mit einer Firma. Pereira et al [27] wählen ein Fallbeispiel, das mit einem realen Experiment gekoppelt ist, so dass die Simulationsergebnisse von den Studierenden direkt verglichen und bewertet werden können. Byrkett [28] beschreibt ein Fallbeispiel, bei dem der Lehrer die Rolle eines realitätsnahen Projektkunden einnimmt, es aber kein real gekoppeltes Experiment gibt.…”

The Skateboard Factory: a teaching case on discrete-event simulation

“…However, using case studies for teaching simulation has some shortcomings: (a) they do not allow the practice of data collection; (b) by being a standard project, there is less opportunity for the occurrence of different and unexpected questions; and (c) it is potentially not as motivating for the students as the use of a real case (Pereira et al, 2011).…”

“…Furthermore, educators need to deal with the limited time available in undergraduate programs to present simulation as a practical tool to solve real-world problems (Greenwood & Beaverstock, 2011;Pereira et al, 2011).…”

“…The use of real-life problems is a desirable approach when teaching simulation concepts and methods (Greenwood & Beaverstock, 2011;Pereira et al, 2011). Simulation projects with business cases give the opportunity for students to pass through all steps of a simulation project, such as defining and delimiting the problem, collecting data, developing, verifying and validating the model, making experiments and analyzing the results (Freimer et al, 2004).…”

“…In the literature, there are numerous PBL applications in different domains of Production Engineering Education, such as: Mathematics, Sciences and Programming (Alves et al, 2016); Logistics (Grasas & Ramalhinho, 2016); Operations Management (Bamford et al, 2012;Mesquita et al, 2017;Vivas & Allada, 2006); Lean and Six Sigma (Kanigolla et al, 2014); Product Development (Jaeger et al, 2013); and Modeling and Simulation (Pereira et al, 2011).…”