Sample Screen from
the Manufacturing System Development Game
Peter L. Jackson, John A. Muckstadt, John M. Jenner
School of Operations Research and Industrial Engineering
Cornell University
Sample Screen from
the Manufacturing System Development Game
Sponsored in part by the National Science Foundation Synthesis Coalition for Engineering Education.
(Updated from text of paper delivered at ASEE Conference, June 1993)
This document describes a group learning, experiential course in the design of manufacturing systems. It is intended for senior and graduate engineering students to provide them with exposure to manufacturing issues and to give them practice in applying methodologies for manufacturing system design and operation. The curriculum focuses on a selection of group learning modules. These modules are characterized by realistic situations supported with large databases and supplemented with software games and tools. Workshops are available for instructors interested in implementing these modules.
Two fundamental needs within engineering education motivated our development of a course entitled Manufacturing System Design:
Firstly, if U.S. manufacturing is to compete successfully in the global marketplace in the coming decades, it must be supplied with engineers who are broadly trained to excel in bringing innovative, high-quality products and services to market quickly. For this to happen, there is a pressing need within engineering schools to refocus attention on manufacturing and to provide engineering students with experiences that emphasize the design of manufacturing systems.
Secondly, learning styles vary. Not all students are well served by the serial, abstract presentation style and emphasis on individual performance that characterizes most engineering programs. Some students need a context in order to grasp topics and these students flourish in problem- oriented, experiential, group learning situations. Furthermore, the working world into which the students will enter is increasingly emphasizing team organization as the most effective structure for accomplishing complex tasks quickly.
Engineering students are likely to hear many lectures on the importance of thoughtful, coordinated design and the role that teamwork plays in successful manufacturing companies. They take on faith the claim that the analytical techniques they learn in methodology courses have practical application. For most students, however, it is not until they have undertaken a significant design project with a group of their peers that they appreciate the difficulties of the design process, the lack of communication in large groups, the need for leadership, and the rewards of analysis. The purpose of the Manufacturing System Design course is to immerse the students in the design process while at the same time providing a structure to illustrate a variety of design principles.
There is a wide variety of tools and techniques available for understanding the behavior of manufacturing and distribution systems, for designing such systems, for planning the flow of material, and for scheduling the activities of resources in such systems. Yield learning curves, rough-cut capacity analysis, Gantt chart scheduling, factory simulation, bill-of-materials explosion, production planning, integer- linear programming, computer-aided process planning, computer-aided drafting, and life cycle cost estimation are only a few of the long list of techniques available to designers. Engineering students in the Manufacturing System Design course apply these and other techniques naturally to solve different aspects of the design problem.
The design of manufacturing systems is a large scale effort that involves engineers and other professionals from many different functional areas (product design, process design, manufacturing, accounting, marketing, and legal). It therefore calls for a high level of management and communication skills to successfully motivate, direct, and persuade all the individuals engaged in the process, to communicate critical design parameters between design groups, and to document the rationale and results of design decisions. Engineering students in the Manufacturing System Design course develop an appreciation for this process of information flow and the dynamics of group activity; they practice formal techniques of oral and written presentation; and they receive critiques of their management and presentation styles.
The curriculum of the Manufacturing System Design course is based on a collection of group learning modules. The essence of our group learning modules is that students work in groups to solve realistic manufacturing design and operational problems and apply a variety of analytical techniques in this process. There are few lectures in the course; faculty time is devoted to meeting with the student groups discussing design issues.
The teaching and enhancement of these modules requires extensive collaboration on the part of faculty. Typically, these modules will be administered by a team of instructors. The differing or complementary viewpoints these instructors naturally bring to the discussions enriches the student experience. These modules are being implemented at other universities in such a way that faculty in different courses build upon the experiences.
These modules could be distributed throughout the whole engineering curricula. Some of the modules can be used effectively at any level of a student's program: freshman through graduate study. Current use is at the senior and graduate design elective level.
In this paper, we will summarize four group learning modules in active use within our curriculum for the design of manufacturing systems:
The Manufacturing Operations Game is an experience in running the day-to-day operation of an existing factory for one production month (20 days). It is played by groups of 10- 15 students who work as the management team fulfilling the roles of engineering, manufacturing, production, and quality control, reacting to a broad set of typical problems that arise and managing the flow of material through the process to achieve effective results. This exercise takes approximately eight hours including the orientation lecture. This basic exercise introduces the student to team play, provides a language for manufacturing, and explores the relationships between material flow and line capacity. It is most effectively used as the introductory group learning module at the beginning of the Manufacturing System Design course.
The Manufacturing System Development Game is a comprehensive experience in developing a system for the manufacture of a new generation of multi-panel printed circuit cards. Figure 1 summarizes the process flow. It explores a broad range of design and operational issues, requires extensive team effort and coordination on the part of the students, and employs a variety of microcomputer-based analytical and information management programs. In the course of the game, students:
Because a key objective of the course is to relate issues that arise in different functional areas, the game has been designed to avoid deep technical issues in any particular area. Consequently, provided that students have expertise in some of manufacturing engineering and operations, they should be able to contribute to the activities and discussions of any of the functional areas. The game is intended, in part, to broaden the experience and outlook of the students.
Students are required to submit a report covering the following design dimensions:
The format of the Manufacturing System Development Game is typically as follows. Students are organized into fifteen member groups or "enterprises." A class of thirty students thus has two enterprises designing a system with the same baseline specifications. Students receive a one hour orientation lecture and two two-hour training sessions in the design database and supporting software. Each enterprise is then further organized into smaller teams of three students with specific responsibilities in the planning and design process. The enterprises then conduct their design activity over a span of three weeks. The students need extensive access to a microcomputer laboratory during this process. Each enterprise presents an oral progress report near the midpoint of this activity. Finally, each enterprise submits their design in a final written report, presents a summary of the design in a half-hour presentation to the whole class, and responds to questions from a panel of faculty members and industrial representatives.
The Manufacturing System Development Game is the winner of the 1990 EDUCOM/NCRIPTAL Higher Education Software Award for Distinguished Curriculum Innovation. We have had considerable teaching experience with the game: it has been offered eight times in a variety of formats ranging from a one-week short course to a seven-week in- depth treatment. It has been offered to classes of undergraduate engineering students, graduate engineering and business students, and to groups of practicing professionals.
Figure 1. Process Plan for Multi-Panel Line
Llenroc Plastics is a comprehensive experience in redesigning the manufacturing and distribution system of a medium-sized manufacturer of high pressure decorative laminates. The company under study is presented as trailing the market leader in both cost and customer service performance. Llenroc Plastics must re-engineer its business in dramatic ways if it is to reassert itself in the marketplace. This redesign must take place at a detailed operational level consistent with a broad strategy of integrating the functions of manufacturing and distribution.
Students, working in teams, are guided through the redesign process in a series of modules that address specific aspects of the overall system:
The next series of modules focus on redesigning critical aspects of the factory:
Students should see from these modules the opportunity for dramatic reductions in manufacturing lead time and, therefore, significant payoffs in both cost reduction and customer service improvement within the distribution system. The last module, module seven, requires the students to articulate their plan for integration of these functions.
Figure 2. Press 7 Schematic for Llenroc Plastics
The Llenroc Plastics series of modules is intended for senior and graduate students, as well as professionals, in industrial engineering and operations management. It assumes the students have a background in production planning, inventory theory, linear/integer programming, discrete-event simulation, economic analysis, and applied probability. By skipping or simplifying some of the assignments, however, it could be used at lower levels of an engineering or business curriculum to motivate the study of these more advanced topics.
The typical format for teaching using the Llenroc Plastics modules is to allow students, working in teams of four, between one and two weeks per module. The workload associated with each module demands a team effort. Each of the modules is accompanied by extensive data and requires the use of some form of analytical or game software. Two lectures are required: a general introduction and a tour, via 35 mm. slides, of the factory. Student teams are required to submit a written report for each module. Each team meets with a faculty member at least twice for each module: once for a progress report and once for a final oral report. These meetings tend to last about half an hour each.
The Velocity Manufacturing Company is described as a second tier supplier in the U.S. hydraulic hose and fittings market with annual sales of $10 million. The case describes in detail the products, the markets, the competition, the financial situation, the manufacturing process, the inventory control system, and the distribution channels for Velocity Manufacturing. The scenario described is that the company has recently completed implementation of a just-in-time manufacturing philosophy and has achieved significant gains in cost and inventory reduction, and in customer service and quality improvement. The investment required to achieve these gains was essentially financed by the inventory reductions. However, problems remain and competitive pressures continue to mount. Strategic decisions in targeting markets, selecting investments, and reorganizing manufacturing and distribution systems must be made to ensure survival of the company.
Students are presented with extensive data to analyze the Velocity Manufacturing Company. Furthermore, they are exposed to the details of the production process through a full physical simulation. The physical simulation employs cardboard mock-ups of the product components, microcomputer simulations of individual operations, and a complete planning and control information system. Students assume different functional positions within the manufac- turing company. Figure 3 illustrates some of these positions. They are then assigned to teams with the responsibility to refocus the company. Specifically, they must create the following:
The case is designed to take 5 weeks to complete. An abbreviated version has been used effectively in one-week industrial education programs.
Figure 3. Backroom Operations of the Velocity Manufacturing Company
Three workshops focused on the group learning modules have been held at Cornell University in 1992 and 1993. The workshops were attended by faculty from thirteen universities. On the basis of these workshops, several of the group learning modules have been adopted for use at other universities. Llenroc Plastics has been implemented in the curricula of Auburn University, Carnegie Mellon University, Purdue University, and the University of Iowa. Plans have been made to implement Llenroc Plastics at Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley. The Velocity Manufacturing Company has been implemented at Purdue University. All of the modules are in use at Cornell Unversity and the Velocity Manufacturing Company is used at the University of Michigan.
Workshops have proven to be the most effective means of transferring these course materials to other universities. On a compressed timetable, workshop attendees are given the task of solving the same problems faced by the students. Solutions and teaching strategies are reviewed in discussion sessions. In this way, prospective instructors acquire a student's view of the group learning experience and, at the same time, master the software and teaching objectives associated with the modules.
It is our experience that use of these modules practically requires team teaching. Consequently, we recommend that two instructors from the same institution, or at least one instructor and a teaching assistant, attend the workshop. The next workshop is scheduled at Cornell Unversity for August 1-3,1994. Current details of this and future workshops may be obtained from the Center for Manufacturing Enterprise, Cornell University, 106 Engineering and Theory Center, Ithaca, NY 14853-3801 (Tel. (607) 255-7757).
One of the hurdles to overcome in the wider dissemin- ation of this curriculum is the intensive involvement of faculty required to teach these materials. This involvement is evidenced by the fact that nearly every implementation of this curriculum has required team teaching. It is unlikely that we can eliminate this requirement (it is, in fact, one of the virtues of the approach) but we are making investments to minimize the faculty and teaching assistant time required to administer the mechanics of the course. Multimedia tutorials are in development to introduce students to the problem settings and to guide students in the use of software for the modules. The faculty-student discussions which characterize this curriculum will not be replaced by this technological approach. What will be saved is the time spent teaching software and basic concepts.
The multimedia materials are being aimed at a less technical audience than that for which the full curriculum of the Manufacturing System Design course is intended. Since the prime goal of these materials is to cover a basic understanding of the curriculum, there is a potential to use these materials at the high school or freshman level with a minimum of faculty involvement.
Additional group modules are under development. A recently completed module is called the Nova Manufacturing Company. The purpose of this module is to look at a multinational, multiproduct company with manufacturing and distribution centers in several countries. The issues addressed in the game are the problems of coordinating production scheduling and distribution policies in the presence of high demand variation across product lines and geographical location. Exchange rate variation complicates the problem.
Comprehensive design experiences help students synthesize multi-disciplinary approaches in manufacturing engineering. Students completing such experiences will be better prepared to approach large-scale projects in a systematic way. The Manufacturing System Design course described in this paper uses group learning modules to achieve these educational goals.
Development of the Manufacturing System Design course has been funded by the IBM Corporation, by the TRINOVA Corporation, by the Aeroquip Corporation, by A.T&T., by the National Science Foundation, by the Sloan Foundation, and by the Hatfield Fund for Undergraduate Education in Economics.
1. Jackson, P.L., J.M. Jenner, and J.A. Muckstadt, "The IBM Manufacturing System Development Game," Technical Report No. 865, School of Operations Research and Industrial Engineering, Cornell University, September 1989.
2. Jenner, J.M. , and D. Anderson, "The IBM Manufacturing Operations Game," IBM Manufacturing Technology Institute, 500 Columbus Avenue, Thornwood, NY., 1980.
3. Muckstadt, J.A., and P.L. Jackson, "Llenroc Plastics: Market-Driven Integration of Manufacturing and Distribution Systems," Technical Report No. 898, School of Operations Research and Industrial Engineering, Cornell University, March 1990.
4. Muckstadt, J.A., and D. Severance, "Velocity Manufacturing Company," Technical Report No. 996, School of Operations Research and Industrial Engineering, Cornell University, March 1992.
