Incorporating entrepreneurship into a hands-on facility planning course

Abstract

The past two decades have seen entrepreneurship emerge as a mainstream business discipline in the United States. Universities are now being expected to inspire entrepreneurship in order to prepare students to succeed in a globally competitive business setting. This paper discusses how the concepts and practices of entrepreneurship are incorporated into a college level facility planning course. Such a course carries three-credit hours, and is comprised of a weekly two-hour lecture and a two-hour lab. Important entrepreneurial concepts are first introduced to students, such as identifying opportunities, creating a business plan, and analyzing the market to determine the target customers. Students will then develop the product and determine the customer demand based upon the market analysis. This paper discusses those tasks as part of students' projects, ranging from determining the number of workers and machines required by the facility, to the total cost required to start the businesses. Outcome of the course was evaluated by pre and post evaluation instruments conducted by an external professional evaluator. It is demonstrated that the course objectives and ABET requirements were met by student projects, reflections and the evaluation instrument. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2010.