Globalizing manufacturing engineering education

The educational experience of future manufacturing engineers should reflect the fact that manufacturing is an increasingly global activity. In this paper, we begin with a statistical study of long-term trends in global manufacturing. While there is some truth to the popular claim that manufacturing jobs are leaving the U.S. for Asia, our study shows a more complex picture that implies a continuing presence for significant manufacturing in the U.S. as well as substantial growth abroad. A review of most current U.S. manufacturing engineering programs shows that relatively few acknowledge the international nature of manufacturing in their published course requirements. We conclude with recommendations for ways to include more material on the global aspects of manufacturing in undergraduate engineering curricula.