These days more attention is being paid to Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) using a technique for managing total product planning, design, manufacturing, sales, and disposal. We researched business processes and education curriculum of the PLM system in manufacturing businesses. We designed the curriculum of PLM education and developed part of a lesson. Most importantly, e-Learning is shown to be an effective tool for achieving educational objectives. We found that not only knowledge and theory but also practical education methods using case studies in an e-Learning environment are necessary for human resources to develop effective PLM.
In manufacturing enterprises, managerial techniques meant to efficiently manage human resources, materials/machines, money, and information, such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Supply Chain Management (SCM), have been widely introduced. Recently, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) (Chiang and Trappey, 2007), a managerial technique focusing on the product, has been noted. In other words, PLM is a managerial technique used to pay close attention to material and information flow for the product, and managing product planning and design, procurement, production, sales, maintenance, reuse, and recycling, as shown in Fig. 1.
Because all business processes from the supplier to the consumer relate mutually, not only the manager but also the mainstay executive job should understand PLM.
Haapasalo and Hyvonen (2001) developed an educational curriculum for use in an electronics factory (Haapasalo and Hyvonen, 2001), and Holweg and Bicheno developed educational tools for SCM (Holweg and Bicheno, 2002). However, there is no educational curriculum for PLM that has examined integrated engineering processes.
Conventionally, the Research Center for e-Learning Professional Competency (eLPCO) at the Research Institute of Aoyama Gakuin University in Japan has been researching human resources development intended for employees of the middle management class in manufacturing enterprises, and this center has developed effective educational curriculum. e-Learning is widespread in a number of fields as an education method of using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) based on information technology and network technology. Since e-Learning can be experienced as virtual business; it is a suitable kind of education for the businessman (Kakehi et al., 2005).
The goal of this lesson is an understanding of effective PLM when a new product is developed using e-Learning as the educational tool. In addition, students learn how to strategize and make decisions in this e-Learning course (Kakehi et al., 2005).
This paper focuses on the business processes in PLM, designs the curriculum of the PLM education by e-Learning and actually develops part of the lessons. The outline of this paper is as follows.
Section 2 explains the idea and the effect of PLM in the production field. Also, it examines the Bill of Materials (BOM) necessary to achieve PLM. Section 3 describes an important ability for employees in PLM education, and it also explains the BOM, which is the core of PLM.
Section 4 describes the executive summary of the lesson. Section 5 explains the lesson scenario and discusses the implementation and evaluation of part of the lesson. Finally, Section 6 proposes the conclusion of this research and the future issue of PLM education. This paper discusses the syllabus and design for teaching PLM in the production area.
This paper proposed the educational method and class content of PLM education for production design and engineering by the e-Learning method. The lessons were developed, and some of them were actually executed for the students and evaluated by the questionnaires. The main conclusions drawn are as follows:
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Since the PLM treats the entire business process, the lesson scenario based on the case study and a virtual business is necessary for PLM education.
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The educational methods of e-Learning, collaborative learning, virtual experience practice, and their simulators are effective for PLM education.
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Some of the lessons were actually implemented, and it was shown that the students understood the class content of the PLM education by the education method of the proposal from the questionnaire evaluated.
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Since two or more education methods and educational tools are used as for the PLM education, it takes a long time for lesson development because of the complexities. Therefore, it is important to develop the lesson by using the proposed class design method and educational method.
In future, logistics and the environment, etc. will be taken to the class content. Also, it will be necessary to integrate the practices that have been individually developed to date. PLM education using e-Learning will add a practice class content for not only the student but also the business people, and be developed, executed, and evaluated.
