Lean Engineering Education Model: Building a Multidisciplinary Engineering Skillset for Professional Life

Abstract

Engineering professionals represent the core of the growth and transformation of society; thus, they must be equipped with multidisciplinary knowledge and a complete skillset with both technical and interpersonal skills. Nevertheless, the current higher education approach based on traditional teacher-centered methodologies focuses on technical and theoretical knowledge, resulting in underprepared graduated engineers. This study aims to establish a framework to address the industry needs of engineering students with a comprehensive, multidisciplinary set of competencies through the application of the Lean philosophy in the academic field. Based on an exploratory research methodology, the Lean Engineering Education model is developed with the integration of Lean principles into active teaching and learning strategies including gamification, project-based learning, and case-based teaching. Lean tools such as voice of the customer analysis, root cause analysis, and PDCA (i.e., Plan, Do, Check, Act) cycles are used. This study demonstrates that Lean principles and tools can be applied to the teaching, learning, and assessment processes in engineering education. The strategic implementation of the model within a classroom can be expected to enhance the teaching and learning processes while fostering the development of a multidisciplinary engineering skill set. This paper extends the existing research that primarily focused on the implementation of the Lean philosophy into administrative processes in the academic context. Thus, this study represents an initiative toward the improvement of the educational system.