*Prof. Mike Deisenroth of the Industrial and Systems Engineering Dept. is the primary developer of this course.
In response to industry, we are developing an aerospace manufacturing course. The manufacturing problem has received a lot of recent attention (McMasters and Lang, 1995, and Lang and Hugge, 1995a and 1995b), and we are responding. The purpose of the course is to introduce students to the principles and practices of modern aerospace manufacturing. The course will be an advanced undergraduate/graduate level elective taken by students from AOE, ME and ISE. It will be offered for the first time in the Spring of 1996.
The course will address specific manufacturing processes as they relate to the production of major aircraft components and systems. Additionally, it will identify various manufacturing control strategies that are applied in the aerospace manufacturing environment. Emphasis will be given to process capabilities and limits, tooling considerations, materials requirements and constraints, economics of production, and design producibility. The course will conclude with concepts in producibility/design manufacturability and assembly. For students in aerospace engineering the course will serve as an introduction to manufacturing systems. The intent is not to transform these students into manufacturing engineers, but to provide sufficient understanding of the area to ensure they begin to appreciate the manufacturing implications of design decisions and are able to communicate with manufacturing engineers.
We have been working with several industry contacts and will visit plants this Fall to make sure the course will provide the right kinds of education, and to collect case study examples. Students will do team term projects and make presentations to the other teams.