Following the concerns prompted by the lack of technological expertise, it is proposed that education be further enhanced by promoting entrepreneurial links between Manufacturing and Academe. Students should be fully employed in real manufacturing systems over an extended period of their study. There should be no dilution of academic disciplines; however, university education should be counterbalanced by direct industrial experience.

1. Real Investment in the Production and Education Process:
Manufacturing Aided Education
Sead Spuzic*, Kazem Abhary* and Clement R. Stevens**
* University of South Australia, corresponding author: sead.spuzic@unisa.edu.au,
**KFUPM University, Saudi Arabia
Key words: technology, education, experience, manufacturing
Abstract
Following the concerns prompted by the lack of technological expertise, it is proposed that
education be further enhanced by promoting entrepreneurial links between Manufacturing and
Academe. Students should be fully employed in real manufacturing systems over an extended
period of their study. There should be no dilution of academic disciplines; however,
university education should be counterbalanced by direct industrial experience. Students
should be employed in productive operations to experience both the verification of applied
knowledge and constructive and creative entrepreneurship. They would become accustomed
to decision making and the risk connected with applying any knowledge. Although the overall
route to graduation would become longer, there are reciprocal professional and educational
rationales for extended work experience. Universities and industry would benefit from the
close partnership, e.g. continuing education engendered by such scheme. Industry would
benefit from this investment into human resources by obtaining reliable information to assist
recruiting. Students have lively flexible minds with the capacity to make an immediate
contribution to industrial practice. The career would become attractive to a broader
population. A retrospective view of the development of science and technology and the
experience of curricula which include an industrial placement practice are cited in support of
the proposal.
Introduction
In recent years a number of industrialized countries have become increasingly concerned
about the recruitment that will match real time technological demand. As a result, a range of
reforms in education are under consideration. Various educational paradigms promote
teaching applied rather than academic knowledge (Virtanen, Tynjälä, 2004; Smithers, 2002;
Williamson, Lamb, & Davis, 2001). There is no dispute about the necessity of teaching
fundamental disciplines (mathematics, physics, chemistry) especially during the early stages
of education; striving to categorize knowledge into 'scientific disciplines' has certainly
brought in the tides of progress. However, compartmentalizing knowledge has also introduced
unnecessary barriers; subject expertise has led to exclusivity. Bridges which link and
synthesize disciplines are needed so that applied knowledge can make more effective use of
the increasingly vast resource of academic theory.
Nowadays comfortable living standards have dulled our survival impulses. New generations
seem to lack the motivation for learning. There is a certain level of tedious disciplining
required to fit into the rigid scholarly framework. Academe - a cage of knowledge? We abhor
1

2. limits; an inherent curiosity cannot be imprisoned within any single subject area; it lends itself
by its nature to an interdisciplinary approach.
The habit of questioning should be encouraged in students; they should be challenged to seek
for answers irrespective of the formal boundaries of classified subjects. Such an approach
stimulates their curiosity which is amongst the strongest motivational forces we have to our
disposal. Of course, untrammeled curiosity need to be moderated, and channeled into creative
work; this aspect belongs to the highly skilled area of education.
We are born thirsty for knowledge. Why is this so, and what exactly is this knowledge we
seek? Knowledge is a model of some relations that enables the realization of a premeditated
change of some relations. A specific piece of knowledge has a context; it relates to when and
where it can be reliably applied. We can state that we possess certain knowledge only when it
actually has enabled repeated performance. An ideal framework where certain sections of
knowledge are repeatedly and reliably employed to perform a predetermined task is – a
manufacturing process (Spuzic, Nouwens 2004). Education should reflect the nature of
knowledge; "the value attached to a qualification depends crucially on what you can do with
it" (Smithers, 2002, p.1).
Academic institutions sometimes seek to prevent educational failures by over-administrating
their functions, by glorification of purely theoretical contemplations, or by introducing more
strict regulations. Such habits are just symptoms of futile attempts to educate without an
exposure to a real context, to sterilize education and to imprison curiosity and inventiveness.
At the same time, in the hearth of powerful industries, various factors, not the least of which
is adequate financial resources, have led to the provision of highly advanced and efficient
educational (training) facilities such as simulation laboratories and computerized classrooms.
These educational premises, equipped with state-of-the-art IT, allow constructivist learning
strategies; the dream of academe - an environment amicable to developing minds that seek
meaning - has come true in IBM and Boeing training labs.
Academe has long experimented with various modes of combining work-based learning
(service learning, job shadowing, internships, apprenticeships, co-operative education
schemes, competence-based technology education) with involving students in the workplace
and working for an employer for a specified period. The present paper promotes a significant
increase in the duration of industrial exposure and improving the synergy between classroom
and workplace learning. The involvement of students in a real manufacturing environment
should not cause the dilution of academic core disciplines; the interaction with academic life,
high tech research institutes and laboratories should be sustained. However, these aspects of
university education should be counterbalanced by direct industrial experience. Students
would have the opportunity to compare the individual exam-bound approach to university
study, with the team-oriented organization which is integral to the manufacturing process.
Students should be employed and actively engaged in sophisticated productive operations
which test problem-solving aptitude in real-time situations and where only the constructive,
active and creative attitude survives. They would become accustomed to responsible decision
making by applying knowledge in context. Over a long period of development, manufacturing
has matured to a stage where it presents a raw model for effective education. This should not
2

3. be taken to mean a static position; on the contrary: manufacturing organizations that are not
continuously learning are either merely vegetating or dying.
Many have discussed issues and strategies for workplace learning (Billett, 2002a, 2002b;
Dixon and Pelliccione, 2002; Kerka, 1997). It is proposed herewith that the learning pattern
inherent to man has become apparent over the centuries: the history of technology parallels
the evolution of the human race. The question is not whether workplace education and
learning organizations should be combined, but how to enhance this synergy. What are the
most beneficial doses of workplace experience and classroom education, and how should they
be combined? To what extent should industry and society engage in constructivist
entrepreneur and invest in the education of human resources by supporting academe? What
responsibilities should be imposed on academe and students, and what are the inspiring
standards to achieve the optimum outcome of education? How to encourage interest in
Technology and the investment in Education? One of the keys to answering these questions is
in reviewing the actual images associated today with industry careers and technology
education in our society. Are they seen as the star gates of our civilization or as the downhill
routes for those who have fallen off the academic and entertainment ladders?
A Retrospective on Interaction of Science and Technology
Technology will determine the future of the human race (Broers, 2005).
Technology is the application of knowledge, the study of techniques of making and doing
things. Science is the systematic attempt to understand everything. While Technology is
concerned with the fabrication of artifacts and use of techniques, Science is devoted to the
more conceptual understanding our ambient, including developing artificially constructed
logical systems. The history of making things and manufacturing is much older than the
history of Science. Humans initially developed and learned techniques of solving their most
immediate and pressing problems such as providing food and shelter. It was only when a
social infrastructure and resources had been developed that abstract, intellectual study could
be undertaken. However, once initiated, theoretical inferences – Science – also indisputably
helped to develop the systematic understanding of techniques, processed materials and tools –
Technology. Geometry was born out of the need to measure land needed for harvesting and it
has given the birth to many branches of Mathematics. When the mathematician G. Boole was
contemplating his algebra, he was hardly in a position to anticipate its significance to
contemporary computer technology; yet the IT era developed from the application of the
Boolean Laws. Nowadays computerized virtual reality embodies a synthesis of geometry and
digital technology (Spuzic, O'Brien, & Stevens, n.d.).
Philosophy and Sciences became available only with the emergence of the great civilizations,
some 5000 – 10,000 years ago, whereas manufacturing is as old as mankind. Science and
Technology developed as separate activities, the former being for several millennia a field of
abstruse speculation practiced by a class of aristocratic philosophers, while the latter remained
a matter of practical concern to craftsmen of many trades. There were points of intersection,
such as the use of mathematics in building and irrigation, but for the most part the functions
3

4. of scientist and technologist had already become distinct spheres of activity in the ancient
cultures.
Technical aspirations have resulted in a history of achievements in fields such as building,
tooling and transport. Impressive examples include the Egyptian Pyramids, or the Great
Chinese Wall. Judging by these monuments, it seems that the ancient designers and builders
were challenging the technological constraints of that particular historical period. Other
generations took up the same challenges: they produced new devices that can raise us ever
higher above apparent constraints. Medieval galleons discovered new continents, planes broke
through the sound barrier, and today, satellites orbiting above the stratosphere convey an
astonishing range of information to all parts of the world at the speed of magnetic waves. The
history of mankind can be largely traced via the development of tools, techniques and other
relations pertinent to manufacturing.
The milestones of technical developments, e.g. the emergence of printing devices, the
automotive industry and automated fabrication, are pointers to possible future developments.
Books gave people the freedom to learn while cars gave people the freedom to travel.
Automated fabrication uses artificial intelligence and robots, which are like computer printers
except, instead of printing flat images on a sheet of paper, they fabricate real objects. It is
important to be aware of the acceleration of technical development Contemporary seers, such
as A Clarke, have anticipated promising visions of the future, a future that would stem from
rational human achievements accumulated through the development of Technology (Spuzic,
O'Brien, & Stevens, n.d.).
The gap between the science and technology began to close about 5 centuries ago, when both
technical innovation and scientific understanding interacted with the commercial expansion of
urban culture. In the 17th century, F Bacon pointed out the importance of technological
inventions such as the magnetic compass and the printing press. Bacon and Descartes
advocated experimental science; they promoted a harmonization and convergence of Science
and Technology by urging scientists to study the methods of craftsmen. An initiative of the
Royal Society in London in 1660 directed scientific research toward useful ends by
stimulating industrial innovation. However, this was a slow process. Over the next 200 years
carpenters and mechanics built bridges, steam engines and textile machinery without much
reference to scientific principles, while scientists and philosophers pursued their
investigations rather as one would a compelling hobby. But gradually bodies of scholars
developed in Europe, and by the 19th century many scientists were focusing on the same
goals as technologists. Thus J von Liebig of Germany, one of the fathers of organic chemistry,
provided the scientific impulse that led to the development of synthetic dyes, explosives,
artificial fibers and plastics. Another example is the work of M Faraday and J C Maxwell the
British scientists who prepared the ground in the field of electromagnetism for discoveries
made by T A Edison, N Tesla and many others (Spuzic, O'Brien, & Stevens, n.d.).
The application of industrial research laboratories and scientific principles to Technology
grew rapidly. It led to the time-and-motion studies applied by F W Taylor to the organization
of mass production at the beginning of the 20th century. It provided a model that was applied
by H Ford in his automobile assembly plant and was followed by all the modern
manufacturing processes. It pointed the way to the development of systems engineering,
4

5. operations research, simulation studies, mathematical modeling, and technological assessment
in industrial processes. This was not just a one-way influence of Science on Technology,
because Technology created new tools and machines with which the scientists were able to
achieve an ever-increasing body of knowledge (Spuzic, O'Brien, & Stevens, n.d.).
It is important to note the interaction between technological innovations and the broader
social conditions: social need, the resources available and public reaction to perceived
changes. In the 19th century, society was enchanted by the wonders of the new man-made
environment. But other voices were soon heard – and they began to raise disturbing questions.
In the midst of the fascination with technology, R W Emerson warned that the processes and
products made by man in his conquest over nature might get out of control. S Butler and A
Huxley began to develop a profound critique of the apparent achievements of technologically
dominated progress. The theme of technological tyranny over man's individuality was
expressed by J Ellul (1990) who asserted that Technology can imprison human beings within
a self-determining and nihilistic milieu.
Technological pessimism has not managed to slow the pace of technical advance. The gap
between the first powered flight and the first human steps on the Moon was 66 years, and that
between the disclosure of the fission of uranium and the detonation of the first atomic bomb
was a mere 6.6 years. The advance of info technology has been so exceedingly swift that the
prospect of sophisticated computers replicating higher human mental functions can no longer
be classified as science fantasy. Bioengineering and progress in DNA decoding have opened
new gates for interactions with life forms.
The urgency for civilization to make decisions about how to use Technology constructively is
more compelling than ever before. The major issues include the sustainable management of
the earth’s resources, the application of nuclear energy, population control and ecological
pollution. The history of Technology shows that technological stimulus can trigger a variety
of social responses. In itself, Technology is neutral but decisions about whether to go ahead
with or to abandon it are a matter of human judgment and the responsibility for the future of
all known species.
Technology and Education
Collaboration between universities and industry is essential (Broers, 2005).
The history of Technology also brings to the fore the growing importance of education.
Manufacturing mobilizes, consumes and produces tremendous resources; the underlying
knowledge and experience have accumulated into a weighty body of information. The
systematization of this knowledge provides fundaments that are prerequisites for further
progress while the methodical promulgation of that knowledge is essential to maintain and
widen the range of production.
In medieval times, a craft was acquired by serving with a master who trained the initiate in the
arcane mysteries of the skill. Such oral and practical instruction was more closely related to
religious ritual than to rational scientific principles. Craft training was institutionalized in
5

6. Western civilization in the form of apprenticeships. Practical skills were divorced from the
academic sciences and this endorsed the foundation of separate educational and research
establishments for engineering sciences. Following the establishment of the "Ecole
Polytechnique de Paris", the polytechnic institutes were deliberately separated from the
existing universities in Europe. In the 19th century polytechnic institutes were almost
exclusively devoted to the education of engineers for design and research in the classical
fields of mechanical engineering (Spuzic, O'Brien, & Stevens, n.d.).
Increasingly however, instruction in new techniques has required access to theoretical
knowledge that was not available through traditional apprenticeships. Recognition of this
accelerated the convergence of Science and Technology in the 19th and 20th centuries and
has created a complex system of educational qualifications from simple instruction in schools
to advanced research in universities. The advanced industrial countries have recognized the
crucial role of both academic and technological education in achieving commercial and
industrial competence. Contemporary industry calls for a sophisticated interaction of all
scientific disciplines and technology; flourishing examples are applications of artificial
intelligence or materials science in virtually all fabricating processes.
The IBM company has 17 “Knowledge Factories” churning out customized knowledge 24
hours a day, 7 days a week. IBM multimedia packages (e-Learning space platform) are used
by large corporations and by governments to train staff (Williamson, Lamb, & Davis, 2001).
This is a real challenge to the universities who struggle to meet the desired enrolment
numbers and with their repertoires of continuous education courses. How is it that an
organization with the primary mission of being a manufacturer can compete so successfully
with educational institutions?
Motivation is of crucial importance for learning. A long time ago our society began to divide
its functions to rationalize the cumulative social product. Thus, some become hunters, other
were woodworkers. Later stages of segregation produced soldiers, entertainers, administrators
and educators. Nowadays these specializations have become highly emphasized and the
rationale of such a rigid division should be questioned. The contemporary ‘vivisection’ of
activities has imposed itself on our educational systems to the extent that we need not wonder
that natural motives for learning such as curiosity have been largely stifled. Men in simple
societies had a natural motivation for their work: they had to protect themselves from cold
weather, or they had to look for food. They did not need the suggestive anticipation, which is
required today to justify the long-term engagement required by university education. It is
clear that the urgency of a situation and the seriousness of the circumstances increase our
focus on a problem. Nowadays society has freed its children to an extent that they do not have
to be driven by such basic motives. But university should provide the attractive visions and
educational materials via multimedia and virtual reality (as well as traditional approaches) -
the means which will have the power to inspire. An appropriate combination of academic and
industrial experience will enable young people to embark on appropriate careers. Students
who are well motivated and anticipate their future role can prepare themselves, through
systematic education, to undertake appropriate responsibilities.
6

7. Synthesis
One of the persistent problems in modern civilization is the dichotomy between
scientists/technologists on the one hand, and humanists/artists on the other. Urban man has
become an "urban barbarian" who does not understand technological miracles. Only the
rarefied expert is able to understand the operations that go on inside electronic equipment.
The most helpful development would seem to be not so much seeking to master the expertise
of others in our increasingly specialized society, as encouraging those who are able to provide
bridges for inter-disciplinary communication.
We learn by doing things: the manufacturing process is an experiment at large. Education can
be viewed as a manufacturing process. By analogy with Computer Aided Manufacturing, we
may make use of the idea of Manufacturing Aided Learning.
The need for learning about manufacturing is by no means restricted to students who will
work exclusively in production environments. Knowledge of manufacturing technology has
become a necessity in the broad range of professions that interact with industry. It is not
uncommon for a marketing manager, a financial advisor or a maintenance inspector to be
asked to decide whether his company should order some hundreds of accessory components
in the form of a cast, rolled, forged, welded or machined product. Ignorance of technical
terms could prove to be costly in finding the supplier capable of meeting the quality
specifications and delivery dates.
Our society has reached stages where the vital issues, such as education or civil transportation
are organized, maintained and developed at a large-scale social level. Those activities of
broad common interest are supervised by governmental establishments and coordinated by
global institutions. Manufacturing systems definitely belong to this category of basic social
functions; indeed the advances of mankind or individual nations and states are readily
measured and expressed by the state of the art in fabricating processes. Thus, a systematic
overview of industrial systems belongs to the general knowledge needed in all professions,
from managers, via researchers and the whole spectrum of production, maintenance and
marketing functions, to the educational, medical and environmental support services.
The structured industrial placement based around learning contract and “sandwich courses”
have been widely promoted for years (Kerka, 1997; Campbell, Burns, 1999; Williamson S,
Lamb, & Davis, 2001; Smithers, 2002). It is recommended in this paper that students should
include a significantly extended industrial practice in a manufacturing environment in their
structured academic education.
It is proposed that industry, academe and students commit to joint entrepreneurship and invest
into manufacturing aided education. Given these conditions, industry will fully employ
students over the extended period of time, however this period will contain significant
intervals involving absence from the work-place to be devoted to full-time university
education. Universities will invest in modifying their curricula, courses and programs will be
tailored, and cross-disciplinary transfer of knowledge will be enhanced to suit the actual needs
of industry. Students will invest their time to work over extended intervals in a real industrial
environment - in a manufacturing plant. Their education will include both courses on the
7

8. fundamentals of manufacture and an extended industrial practice to complement university
education.
Science is not the only source of devising new knowledge and technologies. Progress has also
relied on empirical, stochastic and fuzzy strategies. Ideas and new concepts can be formed by
comparing different manufacturing techniques or by analyzing a production process as a
whole, rather than breaking it up into separated disciplines such as purely "electronic" or
"chemical" aspects. These aspects can be understood only within a framework of studying the
fundamentals of manufacture, and the unfettered vigorous intellectual energy of students can
make a contribution to the formulation of new ideas if given an early opportunity to have a
practical overview. The needs and advantages of cross-linking the branches of sciences are
perfectly highlighted in a manufacturing environment. For a plant engineer it becomes
obvious that the interrelations between the electrical, mechanical, chemical and other
scientific aspects of a project have to be analyzed as an integral system. The urge for
interdisciplinary communication has prompted new academic classifications such as statistical
process control, mechatronics, manufacturing processes or materials science – where several
traditional disciplines are combined.
A recommended term is a 12-month period of full-time industrial practice before students
start the opening semesters at the University. After this period of direct industrial exposure
they should undertake two years of full-time university courses. The systematic introduction
of physics, chemistry, mathematics and other fundamental academic disciplines should be
carried out during these initial semesters of university education. Subsequently, another one
year of part-time industrial practice should be carried out in parallel to attending the third year
university lectures. During this stage, the application of multimedia educational material
developed for distance education would be utilized as a suitable complementary strategy to
the multidisciplinary nature of manufacturing aided education.
As a final stage, after completing the fourth year courses as full-time students, a two year
block of full-time industrial practice would be completed before attending the final (9-th)
semester. University instructors would obtain reports describing the professional tasks, duties
and responsibilities students have performed during their industrial practice. Industrial
practice would not be graded. However, a significant weighting in university exams would be
given to questions that correlate with industrial practice.
In this scheme the university education would be counterbalanced by direct industrial
experience. Students would have the opportunity to compare the individual exam-bound
approach to university study with the team-oriented organization which is integral to the
manufacturing process. Students should be employed and actively engaged in sophisticated
productive operations which test problem solving aptitude in real-time situations and where
only the constructive, active and creative attitude survives. They would become accustomed
to responsible decision making by applying knowledge in context.
Although the overall route to achieving the engineering qualification would become
proportionally longer, there are personal, professional, educational, social and financial
reasons for students to participate in extended work experience. In addition, there are
reciprocal benefits. Students have lively flexible minds which can make an immediate
8

9. contribution to industrial practice. The career would become attractive to a wider range of
candidates if it were seen as starting unencumbered by debt. Engineering and Manufacturing
institutions would have reliable information to assist recruiting and be confident that the
selected candidate is capable of taking on immediate responsibilities. Universities and
industry would benefit from the close contacts engendered by such scheme. These links
would facilitate a process of continuing education/further training for a wide range of
employees and thus establish an investment process to mutual advantage.
It is not only future production engineers who would benefit; such industrial experience
would be also useful for a broad range of professions, e.g. for people engaged in marketing
and employment agencies, politics and law, health and education sectors, etc. This is justified
by the fact that most of our social structures interact at some stage with the manufacturing
sector. For example, if a company offers computer programs to the fabricating industry, the
basic knowledge of manufacturing processes run by the potential customers is clearly
valuable.
Critical to effective work-based education are explicit goals related to communication, team
skills, application of engineering fundamentals in design, modeling, or experimentation.
Assignments should be specifically designed to draw upon prior knowledge, to relate to real-
life problems and to have students use it along with their newly acquired knowledge in
working on meaningful tasks.
Prerequisites for successful partnership include constructive interaction of workers from both
sectors - industry and academe - during a carefully dosed exposure of students to both
environments. A major drive behind this concept is a human inclination to make sense of our
ambient. Instead of passively receiving served knowledge, it is more stimulating to actively
construct knowledge by integrating new information into what we have previously learned.
Notions of the significance of sustainable, aesthetic and rational technology must be
embedded in work-based teaching paradigm.
According to Campbell and Burns (1999), employers also support work experience with
many using it as a recruitment tool. Many students return to their placement companies as full
time employees. Participation in, and interaction with fabricating systems has multiple
benefits:
- The intellectual and social discipline adopted by students in a manufacturing environment
are assets in any situation;
- The experience of studying in a manufacturing environment would reinforce a positive
attitude towards continuous (life-long) learning.
Respected technology education system should have the following characteristics:
- qualifications that qualify (competence-based education)
- setting criteria through credible assessment (work-based and problem-oriented learning)
- developing particular skills in the context of general education (constructivist learning)
- defined routes of further progress through the academic ladder (life-long continuous
education).
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10. Conclusions
Many authors have discussed issues of work-based learning and argued the advantages and
problems of work-based education. The history of technology parallels the history of the
human evolution and we can extrapolate from this a consistent pattern in man's learning. The
question is not whether the work-based education and learning organizations should be
combined, but how to amplify this synergy.
Students must not be set up into an "arranged marriage" with education where the
interpretations of science or technology actually suit only self-serving purposes of the systems
concerned. Rather, the student's love for learning should be protected. Teachers should be the
guides who will point at actual pillars and milestones of knowledge. The outcome of
education should be measured using real gauges. It is only when we are able to repeat a
certain process and achieve the predicted outcome, that we can say that we do know it. This
criterion is satisfied within a manufacturing process.
Manufacturing engineering that ranges from the modules of space stations to the DNA genetic
chains is a suitable framework for evaluating knowledge and an educative example of
knowledge application. Our civilization depends on technology and this reliance should be
utilized to enhance education.
It is proposed that industry, academe and students engage in partnership and invest in real
enterprise: manufacturing aided education. Students would enter the employ of industry with
guaranteed periods of study at university. Academe would invest in modifying its curricula to
suit the needs of industrial partner. The total of 4 years placement in a manufacturing
environment would be incorporated in overall university curricula. Students would invest
their time to work over extended intervals in a real industrial environment - in a
manufacturing plant. Their education would include both courses on the fundamentals of
manufacture and an extended industrial practice to complement university education. The
total of 4 years placement in a manufacturing environment should be incorporated in overall
engineering curricula. Such practice would bring reciprocal benefits to both academe and
industry.
The entrepreneurial partnership between academe and industry requires a careful review and
reassessment of the images of technology and industrial professions. This investment will not
work without attention to the interaction between art, design, sociology and technology. If the
components of ecological sustainability, educated creativity and aesthetic harmony are
detached, the education process will become crippled and alienated.
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