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Design of a methodology to update the curriculum
contents in CIM technology in the Industrial Engineering
degree of Spain
Isabel M. Balderrama1, Dr. Guillermo Reyes2, Luis C. Rabelo, Ph.D.3
1 IQS, Ramon Llull University, Barcelona, Spain
2 IQS, Ramon Llull University, Barcelona, Spain, ( guillermo.reyes@iqs.edu )
3 IEMS, University of Central Florida, Orlando, USA
Abstract
Nowadays the curriculum contents design in Spanish universities considers only the didactic
vision of the faculty experts, and expects a successful output related with what they appreciate as
the employer’s needs. No assessment methodology has been performed to “listen” what employers
expect from graduates in the design of the studies of technological degrees.
The quick technological development, integration and globalization are causing changes in
industrial companies. Companies need changes in their systems of internal/external activities
management, organization and architecture. These transformations are based on 3 axes:
Technological, Quality improvement and Human Resources. CIM (Computer Integrated
Manufacturing) has arisen to allow the needed technological transformations; the improvement of
the planning processes, programming, production control and automation. CIM helps to achieve a
more flexible and advanced management of enterprise resources.
Many manufacturing companies have implemented CIM as a way to improve their
competitiveness. This implementation implies the human resources training and education.
Graduated Spanish Industrial Engineers could be destined to develop their activity on CIM plants,
and they should be able to demonstrate knowledge and abilities related with CIM. The staff
qualification demand in CIM industry should be completed, mainly, in universities and
professional training centres. The Curriculum design for engineers dealing with CIM should
consider customers needs (employers and students) and university vision.
The methodology described here is expected to guarantee a curriculum design taking into account
industry (employer) participation, besides university perception, so that the graduate has the
professional qualification expected by CIM Industry. It is intended to be the translator of demands
(industry, education) in curriculum contents suggested and prepared by faculty with didactic
criteria. It uses methodologies like QFD (Quality Function Deployment) and Delphi, and use
complementary tools like Surveys, Affinity Diagrams, AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process), etc.
Some results are presented after the study of real case: Curriculum Design for CIM Education in
Industrial Engineering Degree (Ramon Llull University –IQS, Barcelona), having considered
Bologna Process.
Keywords: Assessment methods, Curriculum design, CIM, QFD, Delphi.
1 INTRODUCCIÓN
The complexity of the manufacturing industry nowadays requires setting about its management and
organization around three main axes: technological development, quality improvement and the
organization of the human resources.
To allow the integration of the three axes, in the 80’s, CIM (Computer Integrated Manufacturing) arose.
CIM allows not only a significant improvement of the planning, programming and control processes, but
also the stock up, manufacturing and quality activities. When applied, CIM helps to obtain new
manufacturing processes more advanced and flexible than traditional ones.
Every new technology requires training and education of human resources dealing with its
implementation. Due to the characteristics of the CIM technology, engineering programs dealing with
manufacturing are expected to perform this education and training activity. But not always universities
design their engineering programs considering outer demands. Effective tools and methodologies are
needed to help those who take the decision of matters and contents in an engineering curriculum. That is
the main objective of the research work presented here: to design a methodology that considers students
interests, employers’ expectative and faculty vision of how to teach the matter.
The Curriculum design of a university degree is rather new in Spain. Often, this curriculum design is
made only with didactic and pedagogic criteria; with no, or little, quantification of industry requirements.
A methodology is proposed here to put up to date curriculum contents of what in Spain is called Industrial
Engineering. It has to be mentioned that Industrial Engineering in Spain is a wide program of five years
that is different from what is understood in other countries by this name. It is not only a management and
organization degree, but also involves mechanics, electrical, chemical, energy, transportation, project
management, and others. With the Spanish university undergoing the Bologna process, an opportunity to
assess the adaptation of the industry requirements (as employer) to the academic requirements arises.
As a practical case, the proposed methodology is applied to the curriculum contents assessment dealing
with CIM in the Industrial Engineering degree of the Higher Technical School IQS, University Ramon
Llull, Barcelona, Spain. The inputs are taken from IQS students, faculty from Ramon Llull and other
Spanish universities and CIM industry located in Spain.
1.1 CIM in the Spanish industry
Computer Integrated Manufacturing is a way of coordinating the elements participating in a
manufacturing process: PLM (Product Life Management) tools, management and organization methods
and technology applications (robots, flexible manufacturing cells). The objectives of CIM go further than
partial application of automation technologies; is a long term project of great complexity that involves
both technical and organizational structures. Its application produces proven benefits (qualitative and
quantitative), and that is why competitive manufacturing industries apply it.
In the 90’s, the Spanish government approved a group of incentive policies to improve the technological
innovation in the industrial enterprises established in the country; CIM has been the most demanded
improvement in manufacturing companies. The election of CIM responds to the benefits obtained after its
application. The quantitative benefits: efficiency, productivity, inventory management, materials flow
management, besides qualitative benefits: flexibility, better internal communications, better perception of
the company, innovation management, better quality management, etc.
Many of the companies that decided to implement CIM were asked to participate in this research work to
consider their perception of what should be taught at the university.
2 Design of the proposed methodology
The proposed methodology combines several methods and tools in order to obtain the required
information. Uses the following tools and methods:
Methods: Delphi, rotary Delphi, QFD (Quality Function Deployment), AHP (Analytic Hierarchy
Process).
Tools: affinity diagrams, Blitz ®, surveys, hierarchy diagrams, tree diagrams and statistics.
The objective of the design of the methodology is to suggest curriculum contents for the industrial
engineering degree to satisfy those requirements, referred to CIM and considered essential, that
companies expect from graduates. Besides, it takes into account the requirements of experts in teaching
matters related with topics dealing with CIM.
The proposed methodology “listen what the client has to say” interpreting the necessities of human
resources education that companies expect from the qualified staff dealing with CIM. A real case study is
presented to prove the convenience of the proposal.
Some outlined characteristics of the proposal are:
1. Objective of the research work: Design of a methodology to update curriculum contents.
2. Case of study: Updating of the curriculum contents, dealing with CIM, in the Industrial
Engineering grade of IQS, University Ramon Llull.
3. Product or service to which is applied: Curriculum of the Industrial Engineer graduate.
4. Beneficiaries: Companies applying CIM (external clients) and students (internal clients).
5. Transformation agents: Academic sector, that is in charge of preparing curriculum contents.
Topics 3, 4 and 5 of the previous list make a system inspired in that proposed by Akao [1], defined as
evaluators system, see figure 1
Fig. 1. Evaluators System (Akao, 2001)
According to the previous model, in this work a three stages development of the methodology is proposed
according with figure 2:
1. Stage I: Obtaining of information about the profile requested from industry.
2. Stage II: Information of curriculum contents.
3. Stage III: Correlation between stages I and II and results analyzing.
Fig. 2. Stages of the proposed methodology design
Stage I is intended to identify, define and characterize the requests of qualification that employers best
value in engineers dealing with CIM in industry. In this stage should be defined the characteristics of the
High school
Family
Students
Academic process
Self-assessment
Assessment
Assessment
internal group
Students
Faculty
Administrative
Staff
Assessment Assessment
Industry
comunity
Stage III
Correlation
Stage I and Stage II
Stage I
Information of the
p
rofile re
q
uest
Stage II
Curriculum contents
information
Stage III 2
Results
expected professional profile that employers need in engineers who will work in companies applying
CIM. The characterization is based upon future projection, development and relevance (economical,
social, strategic, etc) of the demanding sector.
Stage II has the objective of identifying, defining and characterizing what information the Industrial
Engineering degree should have, related with CIM. In this stage is studied the collected information of
what is taught, when the contents arises, how knowledge is measured, what perception has a student of
how much is learning and how does industry perceives the sufficiency of the knowledge of graduates.
Stage III makes a correlation between stages I and II to quantify how the qualification demand can be
satisfied with the supply of curriculum contents that ensures qualification of human resources at the
university. To make the mentioned correlation between stages I and II, QFD (7 matrices) and rotary
Delphi with industry and university experts participants are used.
Figure 3. shows de use of QFD and the definition of each one of the seven matrices that gradually
approximate the curriculum contents to what is expected. A brief description of the matrices follows here.
Matrix 1: Is intended to correlate knowledge, abilities and characteristics (valued by employers) in respect
with its education. Matrix 2 correlates the prioritized topics for learning contents and the goals of the
degree in which they will be taught. Matrix 3 should correlate the goals of the degree with the matters
related with the studied contents. Matrix 4 correlates matters with the way they should be taught. Matrix 5
correlates how to teach with when should be taught (in which year of the degree should be included the
topic). Matrix 6 correlates the sequence of appearance of the studied contents with the contents
themselves. Matrix 7 correlates contents and the deepness and concentration in which they should be
taught.
The 10 rows and 10 columns of the matrices are defined with questionnaires. Both, industry and academy
participants value the rows, but industry participants evaluate each one of the ten rows independently
(0…100% of importance) and academic participants use the same scale for the same group of rows, but
the sum of the 10 concepts should be 100%. Every questionnaire used to define concepts includes a field
to accept commentaries or suggestions.
Fig. 3. QFD 7 matrices to define curriculum contents
1
Which is the
professional
profile
demanded?
2
What should
be taught?
3
Which are the
goals?
4
In which
matters
should be
taught?
Curriculum
definition
(contents),
Curriculum
contents
update
7
specific
contents to
be taught
6
When should
contents be
taught?
5
How to
teach?
(activity and
needs)
Table 1 is a summary detailing the election of the tools selected to perform each activity of the present
research and the identification of the stages and phases in which they appear.
Phase
Phase
Name
Stage
Stage Name
Activity
Code
Activity Name Tool
11.1.1
Selection of product or service Affinity diagram
21.1.2
Listen the client's opinion Del
p
hi
(p
revious results
)
31.1.3
Detect necessities of client Blitz
41.1.4
Characterization of the kind of client (CIM industry,
familiy, student) Mapping of local industry
11.2.1
Identification of the specific studied needs (use and
needs of CIM technology in industry) Industry survey
21.2.2
Organization of needs AHP
31.2.3
Demand of qualification (professional profile required by
CIM industry) Affinity diagram
11.3.1
Determination of the current qualification (knowledge,
abilities, characteristics) Industry survey
21.3.2
Measurement of the contents oriented to qualification
(valuation of CIM in learning) Tree diagram
31.3.3
Measurement of the contents oriented to teaching
(valuation of CIM in teaching) Students survey
41.3.4
Priorization of contents (measured contents of CIM) Students survey
51.3.5
Comparison of theoretical needs (estimated) vs.
Surveys Faculty survey
12.1.1
Profile of the curriculum contents related with needs
demand (CIM contents taught in the current Industrial
Engineer degree) AHP
22.1.2
Organization of the studied curriculum contents (CIM
learning and teaching) TSC
32.1.3
Identification of convenience of appearance, oportunity
and didactic of CIM teaching QFD (7 matrices)
Correlation 1 3.1.1 Correlation between qualification needs and the way to
achieve them Rotatory Delphi (university
and industry)
2 3.1.2 Statistical treatment of the achieved results Dispersion, central
tendency markers
13.2.1
Interpretation of the results Graphics
23.2.2
Conclusions Resuming table
Results
Identification of
the product or
service
Study of
Needs
Validation of
the diagnostic
Curriculum
information
Information of the request
Information of
curriculum
contents
Correlation
1II
1
2
III
1
2
3
I
Table 1. Summary table of tools and methods proposed
The application of the presented methodology has allowed the articulation between the university point of
view as the supplier of the professional profile of CIM curriculum contents and the industry point of view
as the demander of human resources of industries applying CIM. In stages I and II, a characterization of
the supply (current curriculum contents referred to CIM) and demand (characteristics of the qualification
required by industry) has been done. The meeting point of both parts is the development of knowledge,
abilities and characteristics of the personality expected in graduates. For university, this meeting point
means contents of the curriculum, and for industry means qualification of the employed graduate. Figure
4 presents the idea of the previous sentences.
Fig. 4. Articulation between the university and industry points of view.
Engineer
employed
Educational
methodology Needs of the
employers
Human
resources
Contents or
Qualification
Curriculum Industry
Knowledege, habilities, characteristics of personality
University
Human
resources
Supply Demand
2.1 Results of the application of the methodology
The following results can be listed:
1. The polled companies have agreed that the proper way to maintain leadership is increasing
efficiency, as they are technological companies related with CIM.
2. Companies recognize the importance of human resources, and its training and education, in
achieving efficiency.
3. The polled Spanish CIM companies demand a graduate with a profile having the following
knowledge, abilities and personality characteristics:
a Knowledge: of computer assisted technologies (CAx), tools for decision making, integration
technologies (Flexible Manufacturing Systems, Enterprise Resource Planning, CIM).
b Abilities with: computer software applied in CIM, research methodologies, analysis methods
(quantitative and qualitative), communication techniques, problem solving methods.
c Personality characteristics: empathy and leadership, team integration, entrepreneurship,
development under stress conditions, critical analysis and creativity.
4. The topics that academics and employer consider most important in the education of the future
graduates in relation with CIM are:
• Manufacturing processes, resources management (human resources, materials, waste,
economics, etc),
• Manufacturing technologies.
• Infrastructure and resources organization,
• Machine tools management and control,
• Process planning and programming, etc (MRP, MRP II, 6Sigma, CAx, etc.)
• Engineering information, management and control.
• Industrial security.
• Maintenance management.
• Quality assessment, management and maintenance.
• Vertical and horizontal integration of Computer Assisted process in the company
• Manufacturing management.
• Management of the industrial organization.
5. The main goals that academics must manage to let the graduates obtain the professional profile
characteristics expected from CIM companies are:
a Knowledge: ensure general knowledge of science and engineering, knowledge of engineering
standards, problem assessment with systematic and interdisciplinary approach.
b Abilities to: reduce and compile information, analyze, reformulate and solve wrong formulated
problems, communicate and divulge technical information, solve problems integrated in a
team.
c Personality characteristics: creativity, self learning, professional ethics.
6 Matters, of the Industrial Engineering grade studied at IQS, that are most related with the goals
of CIM technology learning are: Manufacturing Technologies, Industrial Organization and
Companies Management, Projects, Applied Mechanics, Electronics, Advanced Manufacturing
Process, Regulation and Automation, Operations Management and Company Management and
Computer Aided Design. Both, academic and industry experts, agree with the selected matters.
7 According to industrial and academic experts related with CIM, matters mentioned above should
be taught through the use, combined or alone, of the following teaching methodologies: lecture,
conducted study, public presentation (made by the student), seminars, practices, case study,
project implementation, electronic learning, use of the new technologies of information and
communication, blended learning.
8 Topics distribution with their corresponding learning goals, according to academic and industrial
experts, should appear in the 3rd, 4th and 5th course. Thematic matters referred to CIM should go
further when studied in the minors of Manufacturing and Machines and Management of
Industrial Companies.
9 Finally, specific topics, suggested by academic and industry experts, to accomplish the required
education and training of CIM specialists are: theoretical knowledge of new manufacturing
processes, automation and integrated manufacturing, CAx, industrial communications,
programming and planning of manufacturing facilities and resources, robotics, control systems,
integrated systems of industrial management, quality management, infrastructure and software
and equipping for industrial automation.
3 Conclusions
1. CIM is one of the best valued technologies, by modern manufacturing companies in Spain, to
maximize their efficiency and competitiveness
2. The study carried out and presented here considers both: industry and academic points of view to
define curriculum contents of graduates related with CIM technology.
3. The most valued knowledge, abilities and characteristics of personality, dealing with CIM, that
industry expects from graduates, have been identified and presented in the results of this research
work.
4. The contents of the curriculum, the way of teaching them, and the sequence of their appearance
during the 5 years of the present Industrial Engineering grade in Spain have been studied.
Academics have a series of recommendations, with quantitative meaning and the point of view
of employers considered.
Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge the IQS grant of Ph.D. student Melina Balderrama, author of the
present work. Also we want to acknowledge the guidance and collaboration of the research group leaded
by Professor Rabelo, also author of this work, and of IEMS, University of Central Florida.
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