A SURVEY OF EDUCATIONAL AND TRAINING NEEDS FOR TRANSITION OF A PRODUCT FROM DEVELOPMENT TO MANUFACTURING

Serious technical problems are traditionally found when transitioning a design from development to production. A major study was conducted o f over 1,000 professionals from 22 high-technology companies to assess the educational and training needs of technical professionals engaged in the transition process. of the survey, most respondents (86%) beli eve that a technically based and multidisciplined engineering approach is fundamental to ensure the successful transition of a design to pro duction. Unfortunately, the survey indicates that university education and corporate training have been deficient for adequately explaining the basic engineering fundamentals behind the transition process. Over 88% of the respondents stated that ''almost none to very little'' cou rse work in their university education was devoted to the underlying t echnical concepts and methodologies needed in the transition process. In addition, 93% stated that today's universities are not graduating s tudents with the knowledge of these fundamental concepts. Similar find ings regarding formal corporate training were also found. Most of the respondents (78%) indicated that ''almost none to very little'' traini ng in the transition process was conducted in their companies, and 84% indicated that additional or improved corporate training is needed to increase their knowledge and understanding of this critical function. The majority of the companies surveyed have not conducted or implemen ted formal training programs for the transition process. In summary, t he respondents believed that universities and corporations have often been indifferent to the educational and training requirements of trans itioning a product from design to production.