Next Generation

Loading...

From the course by University at Buffalo

Roadmap to Success in Digital Manufacturing & Design

13 ratings

University at Buffalo

Roadmap to Success in Digital Manufacturing & Design

13 ratings

Course 9 of 9 in the Specialization Digital Manufacturing & Design Technology

Learners will create a roadmap to achieve their own personal goals related to the digital manufacturing and design (DM&D) profession, which will help them leverage relevant opportunities. The culminating project provides a tangible element to include in their professional portfolios that showcases their knowledge of Industry 4.0. This project is part of the Digital Manufacturing and Design Technology specialization that explores the many facets of manufacturing’s “Fourth Revolution,” aka Industry 4.0. To learn more about the specialization and its courses, please watch the overview video by copying and pasting the following link into your web browser: https://youtu.be/wETK1O9c-CA

From the lesson

Project Definition

The purpose of this module is to introduce learners to the factors and trends motivating the transition from the current state of manufacturing to a Digital Manufacturing and Design (DMD) model. Learners will demonstrate critical thinking to define a personalized roadmap project relating to the transformation such that they can impact themselves and the future of DMD. Details of individual lessons in this module are provided below.

Traditional vs. Digital Manufacturing Roles4:42

Next Generation3:21

Meet the Instructors

Amy Moore
Project Manager & Act-Authorized Job Profiler
University at Buffalo: The Center for Industrial Effectiveness (TCIE)

[MUSIC]

I think there are a few things for the next generation to realize,

first off is reductionism is still critical.

Reductionism is how we will advance narrow specialty science and

technologies, that will be the building block for systems.

But what's also critical is holism, the system's perspective.

Not everybody should be a systems engineer.

But everybody needs to understand the system's perspective because their

technology is going to come together in a system to deliver value.

So those are the big pictures for engineers and scientists.

But if we talk about systems engineers in the next generation,

we have to realize the shift that is underway.

Our systems are becoming more complex, and they're becoming more complex because of

the pace of change but also the interconnectedness.

A systems engineer in the 21st century must fundamentally be comfortable

with network concepts.

The other thing is in the 60s and 70s and the 80s, the so

called golden era of systems engineering,

most of our capability was delivered through electromechanical systems.

You can argue whether it's 70, 80, 90% of the capability today,

whatever number you pick, most of it is delivered by software.

Our systems are no longer electromechanical, they're cyber-physical,

which means any systems engineer must fundamentally understand software.

They don't have to be a programmer, but if they don't

understand the building blocks of their systems they can't possibly succeed.

There's an interesting trend that's going on in systems engineering, and

it's loosely called the bathtub effect.

Within the known systems engineering universe, remember that was aerospace and

defense for the longest time, we stopped developing systems engineering, sorry,

systems engineers for a number of years.

And so as a result, most of our systems engineers are very

senior systems engineers who are near or beyond retirement age.

We then have a very young population of new systems engineers who have come into

the field, come into the practice, they may be more equipped with the latest tools

and techniques, but systems engineering is, it's a practice learned by doing.

I can study the techniques, I can teach the methods, and

I can learn the concepts very simply.

But it's actually practical applied work, it's work done by content.

So what we're seeing is a transition of the workforce, we're seen a lot

of partnering between very senior systems engineers and very new systems engineers

to transfer rules, heuristics, lessons learned, approaches, and

at the same time we're injecting new technology with this newer generation.

Now, one more thing to note about systems engineers, it's often a second career.

It's a practice that people adopt on top of the discipline that they studied and

applied for so many years.

So a new systems engineer could be 35, could be 45, could be 55.

And they're bringing that systems thinking, that big picture

perspective on top of that domain expertise that they've had all along.

Explore our Catalog

Join for free and get personalized recommendations, updates and offers.

Coursera provides universal access to the world’s best education, partnering with top universities and organizations to offer courses online.

© 2018 Coursera Inc. All rights reserved.

Download on the App Store

Get it on Google Play