Industrial Practical Project

Linking teaching to practice - Improving students ability in practice

Objective

The objective of this proposal is to develop an Industrial Practical Project (IPP) for MBA full-time students from Graduate School of Management, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). The project is a real-life practical project for students from the MBA Operations Management (GSM5113) class.


Background

(i) The Scope of the project

The scope of the project covers (but not limited to) the followings topics:
1. Project Management,
2. Process Control,
3. Quality Management,
4. Capacity Planning,
5. Constraints Management,
6. Supply Chain Management,
7. Inventory Management,
8. Forecasting
9. Scheduling
10. Resource Management
11. Production Planning and Control,
12. Simulation, etc.

(ii) The Ways of how the project is conducted

The Industrial Practical Project (IPP) is a short term (2-3 days) project. It is quite similar to the ‘War Game’ in GSM. Unlike ‘War Game’ that is based on a rather simulated/hypothetical situation, IPP focuses on real-live industrial practices. Under this project, graduate students from the MBA classes in GSM are required to solve industrial problems. The Graduate Students will travel to the site for an intensive fieldwork. At first, the students gather at GSM and they will be transported to the site (usually it involves a large manufacturing or service operation). Then, these students are divided into separate groups. Each group will be brief about the issues/problems face by the company. Each group will have a different problem. The relevant material and information is given. Sometimes limited amount of information is available, whereby the students have to search for more information from the site. After that, the students will have to identify the real problems (the causes/ the relevant issues / the related individual or departments, etc.). Having identified the problems and the causes, the students will have to look for alternative ways to solve the problems. They usually have to do some analysis, discussion, brainstorming, interviews, etc. Then, they have to evaluate the alternative solutions and choose the best possible solution. Finally, the students have to present their work to the management of the company.

The project takes 2-3 days. Because it is an intensive project, the students will have to stay 2-night in the nearby hotel/chalet/apartment. Usually during day time, they have to report to the company for fieldwork. Evening and at night, they have to have meeting and preparing reports, analyzing data, etc. The whole project will be assisted by an Industrial Tutor (IT) from GSM. It is called Industrial Tutor rather than Graduate Assistant or Research Assistant is because they have to involve in searching, contacting, discussing, planning, organizing, and coordinating the project. Every individual project is jointly designed by the Industrial Tutor, company personnel, and the lecturer.

The company (usually manufacturing or services operations) provides the following:
(a) To provide access to company premises and operations site
(b) To provide places and facilities for the project
(c) To provide information, such as company background, products, process, operations, and systems, etc.
(d) To provide the issues/problems of real industrial practices.
(e) To allow students for site observations, requests for information, interview, collect data, analyze data, etc.

The school (GSM) provides the following:
(a) To provide transportation and logistics for students’ field work
(b) To provide background theories/concepts before field work
(c) To provide necessary facilities and equipments such as computer, camera, laptop, projectors, papers, stationery, etc.
(d) To employ an Industrial Tutor/Industrial Assistant (instead of Research Assistant/Graduate Assistant) to search, contact, discuss, plan, organize, and co-ordinate the project.
(e) To bare the labor cost, equipment costs, transportation and logistics cost, as well as any other cost that directly involve in the project.

(iii) Beneficiaries

Through Industrial Practical Project (IPP), MBA students will be benefited in the following ways:

§ The MBA graduate will gain high industrial knowledge, skills, experiences, and capabilities in solving practical industrial problems.
§ The MBA graduate will acquire industrial-relevance and hands-on experiences
§ The MBA graduate will gain managerial and operational knowledge transfer from the industries, update of the latest development in industrial management.
§ The MBA graduate has high employability in future


Justification

1. Industrial-relevant: MBA graduates from GSM are more well-trained than others due to their industrial-relevant project
2. Real-live practices: teaching GSM is very practical oriented, unlike others that usually conduct their course in the classroom, GSM provides a substantial fieldwork from the industries.
3. Problem-solving ability: In line with the UPM learning outcome, the project helps to improve the graduate students ability in solving industrial problems
4. Decision making capability: It will help to strengthen GSM graduate on their decision making as well as improve their expertise in the areas of operations management
5. Knowledge transfer: New knowledge may be generated from the project, knowledge also transfer from the university to industries as well as from the industries to the university
6. Helping the industries: companies that involve in the project may benefit from solving the problems, and possibly improve their performance.
7. Activities and networking: through Industrial Practical Project (IPP), many activities are organized which will enhance networking between the university (GSM, UPM), MBA graduates, and the industries.


Suggestion

It is suggested that the Industrial Practical Project (IPP) is implemented as part of the course structure of GSM5113 Operations Management in the Graduate School of Management, Universiti Putra Malaysia

Prepared by,

Dr Yee Choy Leong
Senior Lecturer
Graduate School of Management
Universiti Putra Malaysia 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
Tel.: 03-8946 7731
Fax: 03-8948 6188
e-mail: yee@econ.upm.edu.my