Green issues in a factory: Student perceptions

Abstract

In order to meet the ABET requirements for sustainability, the environment must be considered. However, most students do not consider how decisions made when running a factory can impact the environment. Understanding these cause-and-effect relationships is key to evaluating and designing a production system. This paper presents a short overview of a simulation-based project useful for Production Systems/Operations Management courses. The simulation is flexible to cover basic course content as well as recent industry trends involving sustainability issues and the lean enterprise. It proves challenging for instructors to present these topics in a convincing manner to students, because many of these concepts, such as one-piece flow and reusable containers, are counterintuitive to traditional manufacturing logic. This paper presents the project itself, describes the application of modern production systems and the integration of environmental issues, and concludes with results from a (pre and post) survey of student perceptions of green issues in the factory and student ability to synthesize course concepts after the project is complete. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2009.