Teaching Lean Six Sigma within A Supply Chain Context: The Airplane Supply Chain Simulation

Lean six sigma is a management methodology that firms can employ to achieve substantial improvement in supply chain performance. However, few pedagogical exercises facilitate students’ use of a comprehensive set of lean six sigma principles within a supply chain context. We describe the Airplane Supply Chain Simulation that helps students understand how lean six sigma concepts may be leveraged to improve supply chain performance. The basis of this simulation is a four‐tier supply chain, consisting of suppliers (two tiers), a manufacturer, and a customer, that produces three models of paper airplanes to meet randomly distributed customer demand. In the first of three successive runs, a highly structured simulation is executed in which supply chain roles are well defined, material flows are convoluted, and a “push” production strategy is followed. The first simulation as the “current state” and, for the second and third simulation runs, challenge competing student teams to leverage lean six sigma concepts to develop a “future state” that enables the fulfillment of all customer orders at the lowest cost. Results based on statistical analyses of survey response data from 194 MBA students show that the Airplane Supply Chain Simulation is an effective participative, team‐based learning tool.     

The Library as Publisher

This article describes a half-day preconference that focused on the library as publisher. It examined how the movement from print to online publication has impacted the roles of libraries and their ability to take on new roles as publishers. The session explored the benefits of libraries becoming publishers, and discussed Open Access, what it is and is not and its importance to libraries and scholarly communication. A detailed case study of the publishing operations of the University Library System at the University of Pittsburgh was presented as an example of a successful library publishing program. The session provided an opportunity for participants to discover ways that libraries can be involved in publishing.     

Educating a growing minority—Canadian women engineers

Conclusion The Canada-wide survey of women engineers has provided a wealth of detailed information about a still small, but rapidly growing, minority within the profession. A major source of satisfaction of these women is the interest and variety of the work they do and for which they are financially rewarded on the same scale as men. Few wives earn salaries equivalent to those of their husbands, but women engineers do. This fact may account at least in part for the egalitarian nature of their marriages. With two professional salaries coming into the household, it is possible to engage competent and reliable assistants. The proportion of women engineers who have household employees, either full-time or on a part-time basis, is many times greater than for Canadian women in general. The ability of women engineers to divide their time between family and profession seems to maximize the satisfaction they derive from each. Their use of continuing education to maintain continuity of professional interests during their short periods out of full-time employment as engineers shows careful planning and individual ingenuity. In spite of occasional instances of unfairness or perceived discrimination by an individual, women engineers report a high level of satisfaction with the profession they have chosen. Many wrote at length about why they would recommendit to other women who want an interesting, challenging, and rewarding career. They say that engineering is a great profession—especially for a woman!