44 ISE Magazine | www.iise.org/ISEmagazine

Bringing industry examples

to the classroom

Universities can leverage professional expertise to teach upper-level courses

By Dave Hampton and Karla Carichner

Preparing students with real-

world skills is a core focus of

our universities. Industry ad-

visers can partner with facul-

ties to balance fundamental

learning with evolving indus-

try needs and expose students to mul-

tiple industries.

The California Polytechnic State

University-San Luis Obispo industrial

and manufacturing engineering facul-

ty/industry advisory board partnership

accepted this challenge by leveraging

Cal Poly’s “learn by doing” tradition

to deliver a course entirely taught by its

IAB members.

This course bridges academia and in-

dustry by preparing students in multi-

ple ways: providing a broad view of IEs’

role in the value chain, enabling expe-

rience with real products throughout

the value chain and sharing highlights

of emerging industry trends and active

mentorship. Industry partners have also

beneﬁted by becoming energized with

their ability to make an impact in the

education of engineering students.

The relationship between industry

boards and engineering departments

continues to evolve and typically pro-

vides guidance on curriculum rele-

vance, supports fundraising efforts and

provides a voice of industry. The Cal

Poly-San Luis Obispo IME department

has further evolved the partnership

by developing and adopting a model

where each stakeholder is a customer of

the others.

Students want jobs and engagement;

faculty want industry perspective; and

industry wants plug-and-play hires of

the highest quality. To help bring this

new operating model to life, the faculty

and IAB at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo

adopted key performance metrics that

track the performance of the depart-

ment. Three performance areas were

identiﬁed: input, in-process and output,

and one or two metrics that supported

the department mission were selected

for each. These metrics have faculty

April 2020 | ISE Magazine 45

FIGURE 1

Following the course

IME 460, the IAB-facilitated technical elective, teaches students along a value chain.

and IAB owners and are discussed at

meetings. Typical discussions focus on

scorecard review and development of

action plans to address opportunities.

Some encouraging results from the

focus include female student repre-

sentation increasing by 50% and three

times more students transferring into

industrial engineering from other ma-

jors rather than transferring out.

Course design on

a value chain

One of the ﬁrst opportunities identi-

ﬁed was to leverage the Cal Poly IAB

to bring more actual industry focus to

the curriculum. With its broad experi-

ence base, it could be a lever to advance

student engagement and supplement

the great work already provided by the

faculty. The team brainstormed a con-

cept where the board develops and de-

livers content for a senior level course

based on a typical value chain. This

course has been taught annually since

2010 and has brought greater industry

exposure to over 300 students. It was

taught as a “concept” class for a number

of years but has since been added as a

permanent course.

The value chain course (IME 460)

is taught each spring quarter and meets

once a week for three hours. The course

is structured along a traditional value

chain (R&D, sales, manufacturing,

supply chain, etc.) with IAB members

delivering weekly content and activi-

ties, including a real industry challenge.

Based on current trends, extra emphasis

is placed on lean, ﬁnancial analysis and

data analytics. The speciﬁc learning

objectives of the course are for the stu-

dents to comprehend and explain key

steps of the value chain, demonstrate

how multiple processes support differ-

ent steps of the value chain and to com-

pare and contrast how different com-

panies from different industries execute

their value chains (see Figure 1).

The course supports 30-plus students

who are assigned to nine groups for the

duration of the quarter. Each student

group is aligned with one of the week-

ly topics and is matched up with the

corresponding IAB representative(s).

A department faculty member attends

all sessions to ensure learning objec-

tives are achieved and that grading is

consistent and appropriate.

The course is taught in four modules

that are consistent from week to week:

1. Each week, a student group deliv-

ers a 30-minute presentation to the

entire class on that week’s topic.

The presentation focuses on provid-

ing a broad overview of the topic,

not the IAB companies. Prior to

the presentation, the student groups

connect with their IAB partner for

guidance and direction on the topic.

The students may have two or three

contacts with the IAB partner to

discuss research methods, presenta-

tion thoughts, rehearsals, etc. The

student group receives peer feedback

from the balance of the class and a

formal grade from the IAB partner

(30% of the course grade).

2. The IAB partner then leads a

60-minute discussion on how his or

her company executes that week’s

step of the value chain. Quality

(lean, Six Sigma), data analytics and

ﬁnancial elements are integrated into

the discussion. Presentation methods

include PowerPoints, videos and

class activities.

3. The last 90 minutes are spent with

student groups working on “chal-

lenge problems” provided by the

IAB partner. The focus of the chal-

lenge problem is to provide real

problems that companies face and are

related to that day’s topic. The goal is

to force students “beyond the text-

books” to solve issues that often have

no perfect answer. Based on time,

groups will explain their ﬁndings

to the class. Each group also submits

two one-page papers (30% of course

grade). One paper details their chal-

lenge problem response and the oth-

er shares what they thought was the

most important and the most unclear

portions of that day’s topic.

4. In week one, each student group se-

lects an actual product that will be

referenced throughout the quarter as

part of a “living term paper.” Each

week, student groups add a chapter

to their term paper that explains

how their product will execute that

week’s step of the value chain. IAB

partners periodically review the

term paper with their student group

46 ISE Magazine | www.iise.org/ISEmagazine

Bringing industry examples to the classroom

and provide guidance and feedback

on how well they are integrating

their learnings. At the end of the

quarter, the IAB partner and faculty

representative provide a grade (30%

of course grade).

The IAB partner is responsible for

evaluating the student group presenta-

tion and all the challenge questions for

their assigned week, as well as their spe-

ciﬁc student group’s living term paper.

The faculty representative ensures con-

sistency on the grading and also assigns

the ﬁnal 10% based on attendance and

participation.

Course performance

and feedback

At the end of the quarter, students

complete a paper providing construc-

tive feedback on the course. The IAB

reviews the student feedback, and also

receives input from the faculty. Agenda

time is allocated at IAB meetings to

discuss and develop action plans.

Student feedback from all 10 years has

been very positive, speciﬁcally the ben-

eﬁts from the challenge problem, which

has led to more time dedicated to that

activity. They also feel better engaged

when multiple mediums and styles are

used vs. when just PowerPoint presenta-

tions are delivered. This has been a big

learning opportunity for the industry

advisers with continued progress toward

improving delivery via more class activi-

ties and more frequent checks for under-

standing. You can read some feedback

samples in the accompanying article

above.

Early faculty feedback focused on

the need for more rigor in the grad-

ing process and that speciﬁc learning

objectives should be better deﬁned.

With that feedback, the IAB developed

learning objectives that are now part of

the syllabus. Finally, the IAB and fac-

ulty work together on deﬁning speciﬁc

Student feedback on IAB course

Here are some impressions students at Luis Cal Poly-San Obispo offered for the courses taught by its industry advisers.

• “It showed how important the value chain is to the

customer and how the different aspects of manufacturing

are only important if they provide value directly to the

customer.”

• “I liked how we get to see each week’s topic from two

sides (students’ theory/research and industry experts’

practical evidence).”

• “I really liked getting interactive with the IAB members. It

gives you a lot more insight into what they do in the real

world.”

• “This is one of the best classes I’ve taken at Poly and I’ve

enjoyed every lecture and presentation.”

• “Working to solve real industry problems in teams was a

unique experience within the classroom.”

April 2020 | ISE Magazine 47

focus areas – leading to lean and data

analytics now having dedicated agenda

slots.

Based on feedback from the spring

2019 session, the IAB and department

are evaluating adding another offering

of the class in the fall quarter and ex-

panding the content to include “soft”

value chains (i.e., software). The IAB

is also working to continue broadening

the industry coverage and better bal-

ance the gender representation of the

presenters.

Other IAB/department

collaborations

While the value chain course has been

a signiﬁcant example of the IAB/de-

partment partnership, there have been

many other rewarding collaborations:

• Identiﬁed need, designed courses

and secured faculty to integrate data

analytics into the IME curriculum.

• All Cal Poly students must complete

a senior project prior to graduation.

The IAB has supported the process

by having conference calls with stu-

dents on project scope and planning

and by reviewing and evaluating

mid-cycle and ﬁnal project reports.

• IAB members are active mentors

of IE department students and have

matched up with faculty to advise

student clubs.

• IAB members participate in Ac-

creditation Board for Engineering

and Technology evaluations, sharing

how industry and academia partner

together for student success.

• IAB members have funded an en-

dowed scholarship that is awarded to

an IME student each year, in perpe-

tuity.

Industry advisory boards can be an

important link in every engineering de-

partment. This partnership works very

well when there is an integrated strategy

between faculty, students and IAB with

the common objective of maximizing

the learning opportunity and improving

engagement.

The Cal Poly IME department has

been able to provide more industry

awareness to the department by pro-

viding a course delivered by the IAB.

While many classes leverage industry

for occasional guest speakers, having a

complete course led by industry experts

has enabled a much deeper exposure to

industry. Using value chain as the course

topic provided a structure to drive the

discussions and made it possible for stu-

dents to hear points of view across mul-

tiple industries and multiple functions of

an organization. It also beneﬁts the IAB

partners by providing more exposure to

the students and to gain experience by

teaching (see Figure 2).

Finally, the faculty ben-

eﬁts as they can suggest that

speciﬁc areas get additional

focus and that students get

exposure to learning oppor-

tunities that are “beyond the

textbooks.”

The overall value of the

course is best summed up by

Dan Waldorf, Ph.D, the IME

department head, who said:

“The Value Chain Analysis

Course (IME 460) that is

offered by our industry ad-

visers has been an extremely

valuable and popular option

for our students. The real-

world perspective they see and the per-

sonal connections they get have helped

them become more successful over the

years in ﬁnding the right jobs for their

careers. Word is out that students need

to seek out and get in on the course as

soon as they can.” 

Dave Hampton is a 1986 graduate of

the Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo Industrial

Engineering Department. He has served

on the Cal Poly IME Industry Advisory

Board since 2005 and chaired the IAB

from 2008-2017. He recently retired after

32 years with Frito-Lay Inc., where he led

the Go-To-Market Organization that in-

novated and deployed strategies, tools and

processes that supported a 15,000-route

direct store delivery system. He is an IISE

member and member of the Work Systems

Division Board and IISE Industry Advi-

sory Board.

Karla Carichner is a 1987 ceramic engi-

neering graduate of the University of Illi-

nois. After working more than 25 years in

the semiconductor industry in design, man-

ufacturing and supply chain/operations ex-

ecutive roles, she retired to San Luis Obispo

and currently is a part-time lecturer in the

College of Engineering at Cal Poly. She

teaches intro to materials, supply chain,

sales engineering, project management and

coordinates the interdisciplinary senior proj-

ect class.

FIGURE 2

IAB course beneﬁts

What each stakeholder gains from the IAB-facilitated course.