Master in Sustainable Manufacturing - MSUMA

Innledning

The master study is focusing on the needs for increased knowledge on sustainable manufacturing. In other words how to migrate towards a simultaneous sustainability in economy, ecology and social issues for materials, processes, transportation and products. The master has a socio-technical perspective to sustainability with 6 sigma, agile and lean manufacturing and organizational principles as important elements.

The Master will credit 120 student points and run full time over a period of 2 years, with an opening for extending this to 4 years for part-time students. The student will receive the degree Master of Science.  The master will have an international focus but will be based in the needs of the regional manufacturing industry. There will be a selection of industrial companies forming a Reference Group and signing a partner agreement. The industry in the region will act as “teaching factories” where real-life processes and products are used in the education. There will be an established system for guest –lectures given by researchers, engineers and managers from the industry in the region complementing the academic teachers. This close connection to the industry will enhance the understanding of the present challenges manufacturers are facing at the future expectations of needed competence. Each student will be offered an industrial and an academic mentor that will be an overall guide for the student throughout the studies.

The Norwegian Centre of Expertise (NCE) Raufoss is an expert centre for advanced light materials and automated manufacturing where GUC is a partner. This NCE form the basic industrial platform for the master. Selected partners in the NCE will be invited to form an industrial advisory board for the master. This board will give advices to the content and direction of the master education.

Studiets varighet, omfang og nivå

2 years, with an opening for extending this to 4 years for part-time students.

Forventet læringsutbytte

Knowledge

The student finishing the master degree will possess advanced knowledge within sustainable manufacturing with the ability to contemplate impact from decisions on industrial economics, ecology and societal aspects on a holistic level. They will possess thorough academic knowledge within the field of manufacturing including lean leadership, total productive maintenance, product development, operations management etc. all in the overall context of sustainable manufacturing. They will be able to apply and utilize the knowledge within new areas and analyze previous unknown problems and challenges and plan and organize implementations of actions. Moreover the students will be able to evaluate and discuss results from the actions.

Skills

The students will be able to defend decisions with a foundation on mathematical and scientific terms and are able to distinguish between populist “green washing” and genuine steps towards sustainable manufacturing. The students are able to work independently with a systematic and scientific approach, as well as working in a team of colleagues and suppliers/customers.  They can document and communicate impact on sustainability from their decisions and actions to colleagues, other experts as well as to the general public. They are able to use scientific databases and collaborate with universities and cutting edge experts within the field of sustainable manufacturing. They will have the skills for both an abstract birds-eye view and a detailed systematic approach to a problem or challenge. The students can utilize existing methods and tools for sustainability assessments, and adapt these to their own organization and local needs. The students are able to evaluate sources of information in a scientific way and structure and formulate professional and logical reasoning. The students will contribute to innovations and fresh thinking within the manufacturing industry contributing to the overall sustainability. The students will be able to re-think and change the applied methods according to changing demands and markets.

General Competence

The students will through the master education develop knowledge, skills, ethics and behaviour promoting the move towards sustainable manufacturing of sustainable products. The students will be able to influence on colleagues, suppliers and customers and contribute to shape the basic values for future manufacturing. On the other hand will the student be able to have respect for divergent opinions and acknowledge. There is often a need for a multidisciplinary approach to reach a holistic improved solution. 

Internasjonalisering

The courses will be conducted in English. This will ensure the possibility for international students to apply and collaboration with international universities to exchange students and research personnel. There will be invited lectures from international partners and exchange of students with international partners is welcomed. GUC will active promote students to study one semester abroad, on the condition that similar courses can be found on the collaboration university. This must be approved by GUC in each separate case after an application from the students. An exchange in the last semester when the students are working on her/his thesis is a possibility, preferably in collaboration with the student's industrial mentor (for example where there is a collaboration university as well as a company manufacturing site close by).

GUC are actively participation in research project with the following partners: Chalmers University of technology in Sweden, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland, University of Stuttgart and Fraunhofer geschellscahft in Germany, Université de Technologie Compiègne in France, National Technical University of Ukraine and National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Japan. This includes one research project within the 7^th  Framework program: Sustainable and Efficient Production of Lightweight Solutions  (NMP.2010.3.1-1) where master students writing their TØL4901 Master Thesis can be active participants.

Målgruppe

This education primary target is national and international students with an engineering background from technology, economics and/or management who is planning for a career in the manufacturing industry. These students’ wants to have an advanced understanding of how the dimensions on sustainability impact future management of manufacturing, and how economic, ecologic and societal aspects can be combined in a triple bottom line. The master education will also target students who seek an academic career with research within the field of sustainable manufacturing or related research fields. 

The master study should be suited both for candidates with working experience and young students directly from their bachelor degree. With flexible learning through Internet, both remote students and students taking the masters degree part time while they are continuing working are welcome.  People with bachelor degree working in regional manufacturing industry will be an especially important target group, and the flexible teaching will be adapted to the need of the industry where problems and challenges form their own organization can be cases for the education.

Students entering the master study should preferably have basic knowledge on statistical distributions and analysis, lean manufacturing, project management, organization and leadership, materials technology and manufacturing processes either from practical work life or from their pervious bachelor degree studies.

For students with a 2-year engineer education or similar, there will be offered a 1 year pre-study to fulfill the requirements.

Opptakskrav og rangering

A student for the Master degree study requires a Bachelors degree according to the Norwegian framework for bachelor in engineering, bachelor in economics or equivalent. Applicants must have knowledge of English. For international students without a Bachelor degree from an English speaking university, a TOEFL test result of at least 600 points (computerized 250 points, on Internet 100 points) or IELTS test result of at least 6.0, including at least 6.5 is preferably.  

Studiets innhold, oppbygging og sammensetning

The education will provide the students with a broad foundation for sustainable manufacturing. The education will be based upon contemporary research in the field. The Master program is interdisciplinary and consists of 8 courses, an TØL4081 Industry Project and a TØL4901 Master Thesis. The courses at each semester will run in parallel throughout the semester before ending in a final examination.  The overall structure is:

Basic courses: TØL4001 Philosophies of Social Science, IMT4421 Scientific Methodology, TØL4021 Management and Leadership for Sustainability, TØL4031 Quality and Risk Management, TØL4041 Sustainable Development and TØL4011 Early Assessment of Projects

In-depth courses: TØL4061 Sustainable Manufacturing Systems, TØL4051 Information Systems Strategy, TØL4071 Product Development for Sustainability and TØL4081 Industry Project

The master is finalized with a TØL4901 Master Thesis.

1st Semester

The first semester main focus is basic learning of Scientific methods and philosophy, project management and management and organizations theory. The semester contains the following basic courses all running in parallel:

1. TØL4001 Philosophies of Social Science
2. IMT4421 Scientific Methodology
3. TØL4011 Early Assessment of Projects
4. TØL4021 Management and Leadership for Sustainability

The course on TØL4001 Philosophies of Social Science  will give the students knowledge about philosophies of social science which gives the students a basis for understanding social science research, choose research methods and how to interpret other researches philosophical standpoint.

IMT4421 Scientific Methodology which is a co-operation with the Faculty of Computer Science and Media Technology at HiG (course IMT4421) will give the students knowledge about theory of science, research methodologies and how to plan, study literature, carry out searches in databases, handle research data and document work in a scientific way.

These two courses will be an important base for the TØL4081 Industry Project and the TØL4901 Master Thesis in 3^rd  and 4^th  semester.

TØL4011 Early Assessment of Projects  will give the students necessary learning about the project early phase where most of the factors that are decisive on sustainability is decided. The learning outcome of this course will be valuable for the TØL4081 Industry Project and the TØL4901 Master Thesis in 3^rd  and 4^th  semester. The courses TØL4031 Quality and Risk Management in the 2^nd  semester and TØL4071 Product Development for Sustainability in the 3^rd  semester are based on this course.

TØL4021 Management and Leadership for Sustainability  will give the students necessary basic knowledge on the Management, leadership and organisational development  This course will be a basis for the course on TØL4051 Information Systems Strategy in 2^nd  semester.

2^nd  Semester

The 2nd semester focus on quality, risk, scientific methods and ICT. The semester contains the two last basic courses:

1. TØL4031 Quality and Risk Management
2. TØL4041 Sustainable Development. The semester will also contain the first in-depth course:
3. TØL4051Information Systems Strategy

TØL4031 Quality and Risk Management  builds on some of the topics from the course in early assessment of project, but will elaborate the learning outcome of statistical methods for quality and risk management. The Six-sigma paradigm, process variations, measuring systems assessment are new aspects in this course. 

TØL4041Sustainable Development  will give the basic introduction to sustainability. The understanding of the concept of sustainability with triple bottom line, Life cycle assessment, remanufacturing and cross flow analysis are important parts of this course. This course is a basis for TØL4061 Sustainable Manufacturing Systems and TØL4071 Product Development for Sustainability, both in the 3^rd  semester.

TØL4051 Information Systems Strategy  is the first in-depth course, and will give the students knowledge and skills on how to implement and manage information systems including the increasingly important and numerous Information Technology (IT) systems within organisations and companies.

3^rd   Semester

The previous two semesters have been mainly basic courses. In the 3^rd  semester, however, the students will enter the in-depth study of sustainable manufacturing.  The semester has two in-depth studies as well as the project work:

1. TØL4061 Sustainable Manufacturing Systems
2. TØL4071 Product Development for Sustainability
3. TØL4081 Industry Project

The course TØL4061 Sustainable manufacturing system  is addressing the manufacturing processes and system including operations management. The course on TØL4041 Sustainable Development is on basis of this course which will elaborate the sustainability aspects for manufacturing as well as giving more elaborate learning on value chains and material flow. Selection of manufacturing processes and total productive maintenance (TPM) are new to the students in this course. The course on TØL4071 Product Development for Sustainability  will give the students learning on product development methodology for sustainable products. This course relies heavily on the Life Cycle Assessment the students have learned in the TØL4041 Sustainable Development course in 2^nd  semester. The basis for the TØL4081 Industry Project  is more or less all of the other courses (except the thesis) since the project work should give the student a practical training on their total acquired knowledge within an industrial setting. The TØL4081 Industry Project can be individual but is preferably done as a team work. The project work is normally a pre-project to the TØL4901 Master Thesis filling the complete 4^th  and last semester where the students will get a training to work independent with a project with a systematic and scientific approach.

4th  Semester

The 4^th  semester is entirely dedicated to the TØL4901 Master Thesis. The thesis should preferably be conducted in collaboration with one or more industrial companies, usually including the company where the student’s industrial mentor is located. There is a requirement that at least 70 ECTS of the master program courses are passed before the TØL4901 Master Thesis can be approved.

Working Methods for the Flexible Master Degree

The on-campus students will follow normal lectures as well as group work, colloquiums/tutorials, and practical training. There will be an extensive use of real-life industrial cases in the study and some of the practical training will be situated in industrial companies within the region. The master is, however based on flexible learning methods and internet and digital tools are used both for on- and off- campus students.

Thus, students and lecturers may be separated in space and time by using flexible learning methods, and communication and courses will partly or entirely be available for the student independent of place, space and time. Course material will be structured by means of a Learning Management System (LMS). Each course will have designated virtual classrooms in the LMS, and the LMS will be used for communicating all learning material, exercises, hand-ins and course administrative matters.

Lectures will be made available by using different types of technology.  Streaming, recording and publishing of campus lectures, pre-recording of shorter learning objects or use of web conferences technology are methods available.  Some lectures will be offered in synchronous mode, while others may be asynchronous depending on the course’s form and content.  Collaboration is a well-acknowledged method for learning, and tools that will help distance students manage working together will be offered, for instance web conference tools.

Students and lecturers will be able to communicate through the Learning Management System or through live web conferences on line.  Feedback on student work is an important part of student-lecturer communication.  Tutoring will be emphasized; either one to one (student - lecturer) or one to many (students – lecturer), and this can also be executed in a synchronous or asynchronous manner. Tutoring will mainly be given on specific student work.

Some of the practical training, colloquiums and group work will, however, be performed with all students on campus (or in such a case within a industrial company). These face-to-face meeting periods will be coordinated among the courses at the same semester, in order to minimize the need for travel.

Examinations, depending on examination method, will both be on the Gjøvik University campus, as well as home examination. In the case of written exam there is also flexibility, as students will be able to sit their examinations in a place close to their home or work place.

Tekniske forutsetninger

Gjøvik University College will ensure that the students have access to the following technical requirements:

• Discrete event simulations software
• Manufacturing process laboratories at SRM and GUC
• The university library facilitates with computers for this purpose
• Availability of computers and necessary software
• Systems for internet bases education

There is a benefit but not a demand that the full-time students on the campus have access to private computers. Students following flexible Internet based education need access to a computer. The students will be given training in HES issues for laboratories and industrial environments, and access to necessary safety equipment such as protective glasses and shoes.