CHAIR OF

PRODUCTION SYSTEMS

AND AUTOMATION

Master Program Industrial Engineering established at Egyptian partner universities

March 2015 Operational design is a German trademark and includes essential tasks of factory operations, such as the evaluation of the production structure regarding possible options for optimization and the establishment of potentially required investments measures whose subsequent implementation will later be accompanied. Hence, this faculty is one of the core educational areas of German engineering, enjoying a high reputation everywhere abroad. It has with its combination of technical-technological, social and economic impacts no comparable equivalent to international university degrees. Propelled by the increased demand of qualified operational designers in international enterprises, a Tempus project had been launched at the Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt, developing a Master Program featuring 4 specialization areas titled “Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences: New Postgraduate Program“. Under the auspices of the IAF, a teaching concept had been developed for the Master Program “Industrial Engineering” at Egyptian partner universities, which is closely connected to the educational content taught at the Otto-von-Guericke-University (see picture), featuring a combination of theoretical basics and methodical practical knowledge over the entire life cycle of an enterprise.

Based on a detailed analysis of German study programs in the field of Operational Design and Industrial Engineering, essential contents of Bachelor and Master Programs at technical colleges and universities were examined, in order to find out if the IAF building is representative for the German variant of this specific educational field. The results clearly showed that there is a rather high diversity in the specific contents taught as well as in the titles given to the programs. On the other hand, however, there is also a striking resemblance when it comes to structure or duration of the total curriculum consisting of Bachelor and Master Program. With the exception of only a few, very specific study programs, the courses held at the IAF can be regarded as representative for the teaching of crucial competence areas in terms of operational design and its education.

The courses are basically divided into 5 areas: firstly basic subjects such as mathematics, physics, law, and secondly quality aspects and technical subjects such as material sciences, product development and powertrain design. Management and Business Studies have a considerably higher percentage, representing about 22% of the total range of subjects. A significant part of educational content (50%), however, is taken by production-technical as well as logistical topics taught in subjects like factory operation, factory planning, material-flow technology, project management, innovation management, manufacturing technology, work science and similar courses. Almost half of the subjects in production technology and logistics found in the analysis of German study programs are concerned with the topics factory operation, factory planning as well as associated logistics, making them without a doubt a core aspect of operational design. Consequently, the educational content for operational design at the IAF, which resulted in the new Master Program “Production Systems“, can be regarded as global in terms of both range and qualitative depth of the program.

Education at the IAF and that marks it as special is based on a combination of teaching theoretical fundamentals, a balanced range of applied methods and the respective practical knowledge for analyzing and evaluating products, manufacturing methods and technologies for the structuring and organization of operational processes. Furthermore, the IAF excels in its global approach towards production systems, considering both the theoretical basics and the specific practical knowledge for the entire length of an enterprise’s life cycle. The basics course “Factory Operation” held during the Bachelor program already includes essential content for the mastering of production-oriented tasks within the conflicting areas of socio-technical-economical systems against the background of the 6-layer-model which, by using the aspect-system-approach, contributes to a considerable reduction of complexity and, consequently, facilitates the understanding of singularized matters. This interrelation between the individual courses and contents, explicitly included in the educational concept, gives students the opportunity to automatically develop a fundamental understanding of both the individual topics of the specific course and their interdependencies. Here, elementary knowledge will be imparted in the course “Factory Operation“ during the Bachelor Program as well as in the course “Production System Planning“ during the Master Program. Further courses are specifically developed for various phases of the enterprise life cycle, building upon each other in its logical sequence. In this respect, these additional courses of the Master Program consolidate and enhance the knowledge about the basic courses, supplementing them by specific, practical and methodical aspects.

This basic concept of the IAF will now be transferred to the new Master Program “Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences” at the Egyptian university, adapting it to the diverging conditions of the educational and industrial structure within the country. The main focus will be set on the practical orientation of the imparted knowledge, both in the lectures and in the tutorials and projects. Therefore, enterprise-related contents will be incorporated into the courses in form of operational solution strategies. On the other hand, theoretical approaches will be investigated for their practicability, which will be realized by way of industrial projects, yet also by way of Bachelor and Master Theses. IAF’s excellent equipment, featuring learning factories with specific tools for analyzing and evaluating both entire production systems and selective aspects of it, serves as a role model for the Egyptian universities in this respect.

Contact: Dipl.-Wirtsch.-Ing. Matthias Heinicke