Creating a hands-on throughput simulation course

After using Plant Simulation in some existing courses, the ISE department found that many students, as well as the companies hiring its graduates, suggested the development of a new course that takes a deeper-dive into the use of the tool and its application. This led to the creation of a new half-semester course titled PLM Applications - Throughput Simulation. The course combines education with some training, teaching students to operate Plant Simulation and use the tool to complete various hands-on throughput simulation assignments.

With discrete event simulation of manufacturing and other systems becoming increasingly vital to industry, the course focuses on using Plant Simulation to build, run and analyze discrete event simulations of systems and to present the results. Students learn about the creation and usage of a digital twin to reduce risk and return value. The course covers requirements analysis, model creation, validation, and a “what if” analysis. 

To better serve working engineers the course is offered in the evenings. Robert Van Til, Pawley professor and chair of the ISE department says, “A large percentage of students in our masters’ programs are full-time working engineers since all graduate courses are offered in the evenings. We also get working engineers taking this course as well as other PLM-related courses as non-degree students.” 

Experiential learning through the Plant Simulation internship program

Experiential learning allows students to take the concepts and techniques learned in the classroom and apply them to realworld problems in an industrial environment. Through the Plant Simulation internship program, Oakland University’s ISE students participate in experiential learning. The paid internship program consists of four parts: 

• The ISE department works with companies to recruit and interview ISE students to serve as a Plant Simulation intern, with the company making the final selection  
• The intern is paid to take the PLM Applications - Throughput Simulation course to learn Plant Simulation during the fall semester. The company also selects a throughput simulation project for the intern, in consultation with ISE faculty members, during the fall semester
• The intern is paid to work part-time on the throughput simulation project under company supervision with the assistance of an ISE faculty member during the winter semester, approximately 12 to 15 hours per week. The intern works on the project either in Oakland University’s Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) laboratory or at the company’s facility while taking classes. If the intern works primarily at Oakland University, he or she will still spend time at the company’s facility to learn about the system being modeled, collect data, etc.
•  The intern is paid to work on the project full-time during the summer, again either in Oakland University’s PLM Laboratory, at the company’s facility or at a mixture of the two locations

Plans for the future

Oakland University is considering expanding the Plant Simulation internship program into an Industry 4.0 internship program with the addition of internship opportunities that focus on ergonomics and robotics by using the Jack and Process Simulate Robotics tools, respectively. This should be relatively straightforward since the ISE department already offers handson courses on both Jack and Process Simulate Robotics.