A SURVEY OF THE PRACTICES OF THE APPROACHES TAUGHT IN AN INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM

Authors

  • Khalid A Al-Ghamdi Industrial Engineering Department, King Abdulaziz University, School of Mechanical Engineering University of Birmingham (UK)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7166/25-2-799

Keywords:

Education Program, Engineering Management, Analytical Hierarchical Analaysis

Abstract

The Saudi labour market has recently witnessed intense competition between locally- graduated Industrial Engineers and those graduating from international universities. This has compelled local IE departments to find ways to improve the quality of their educational programmes and to ensure their alignment with the labour market’s needs. To this end, insightful information can be obtained by contacting alumni and soliciting their perceptions of their education. However, empirical investigations based on this approach are rarely reported in the literature. To fill this gap, this study reports the results of a survey that was conducted to examine the gap between what is practised and what is taught in the Industrial Engineering (IE) programme at King Abdulaziz University (KAU). Apart from discussing the main characteristics of the alumni’s employers, the study revealed that ‘Engineering Economy’ involves the most applied techniques in practice, whereas ‘Engineering Management’ incorporates the most applicable approaches. The limited use of IE techniques was mainly attributed to poor cooperation between practitioners and academics, and the simplistic nature of the problems addressed in the university curriculum compared with complex real-life ones. To deal with some of the identified problems, this paper argues for advisory board members to engage with industry when designing the curriculum, and for the adoption of problem-based learning. 

Author Biography

Khalid A Al-Ghamdi, Industrial Engineering Department, King Abdulaziz University, School of Mechanical Engineering University of Birmingham (UK)

Khalid A. Al-Ghamdi is an assistant professor of Industrial Engineering and the Vice Dean of the Research and Consulting Institute at King Abdulaziz University (Saudi Arabia). He is also an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham (UK). He holds a B.Sc. in Industrial Engineering (King Abdulaziz University), an M.Sc. in Operations Management (University of Birmingham) and a PhD in Optimization in Experimental Design (University of Birmingham). He is a certified assessor of the EFQM excellence model and a certified Six Sigma Black Belt. His research interests include Design of Experiments, Quality Engineering and Operations Research.

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Published

2014-08-18

How to Cite

Al-Ghamdi, K. A. (2014). A SURVEY OF THE PRACTICES OF THE APPROACHES TAUGHT IN AN INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM. The South African Journal of Industrial Engineering, 25(2), 121–134. https://doi.org/10.7166/25-2-799

Issue

Vol. 25 No. 2 (2014)

Section

General Articles

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