Opportunity youth (OY; i.e., youth ages 16--24 who are neither working nor in school) are a population who is difficult to engage and retain in educational programs, particularly in community college career and technical education (CTE) programs. OY are an important population to community colleges, as CTE programs culminating in…

The gap between skilled workers needed and skilled workers available increased since the start of the fourth industrial revolution. Employees now need different knowledge, skills, and abilities to enter the workforce and stay current with new technologies than they did in the past. One way this knowledge gap and skilled worker shortage could be…

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the relationship between the contemporary forms of manufacturing rationalization and the reproduction of communities of practice (CoPs) centred on tasks and craft. Building on critical literature highlighting the tensions between CoPs and rationalization, this paper aims to develop a nuanced account of how CoPs…

The purpose of this study is to provide students with a 21st century training that can be easily applied to industrial automation training, both online and in person, and that goes beyond traditional learning methods. It involves creating and programming a training package that is compatible with the Ministry of National Education (MEB)…

Purpose: This paper aims to analyze learning in organizational transformations by focusing on concept-level tensions faced in two young companies, which were searching for a reorientation of activity with a production network between innovative product development and efficient mass production. Design/methodology/approach: An intervention-based…

The aim is to explore challenges related to the integration between product development and production in product introduction and, given these challenges, to analyse the learning potential of boundary crossing in the context of product introduction. The paper draws on evidence from a Swedish manufacturing company. The theoretical framework is…

Today's shop floor, the area of a factory where operatives assemble products, is a complex and demanding work environment. The employed and produced technology becomes ever more complex, and employees are responsible for an increasing amount of tasks. As a consequence, the employee is under constant pressure to solve problems occurring on the shop…

The design of balanced assembly lines, especially when considering workforce, material, and cycle time factors, is an important managerial decision-making activity in manufacturing firms. Numerous active learning activities are available to assist instructors in teaching assembly line balancing to students. While effective in improving student…

An ontology expresses a common understanding of a domain that serves as a basis of communication between people or systems, and enables knowledge sharing, reuse of domain knowledge, reasoning and thus problem solving. In Technology-Enhanced Learning, especially in Intelligent Tutoring Systems and Adaptive Learning Environments, ontologies serve as…

Economic development, inclusive growth and high employability are significantly linked to education policy of a country. Beginning with Kothari Commission (1966) with its emphasis on science & technology and research to National Policy on Education (1986), several committees during the last decade have advocated for greater foreign…

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to examine the impact of human resource development (HRD) interventions on organizational effectiveness by means of employee competencies which are built by some of the selected HRD interventions. Design/methodology/approach: An integrated research model has been developed by combining the principal factors…

The loss of jobs in the automotive manufacturing industry, together with a more general decline of the manufacturing industry in Australia, has implications for the types of skills needed in the labour market. Both of these scenarios affect particular groups of people, such as displaced car workers, but within that category other groups such as…

It's been more than three years since the U.S. automobile industry nearly collapsed. A controversial federal bailout, an increase in consumer demand, and a growing interest in environmentally friendly fuel-efficient vehicles and related technologies have combined to help create a remarkable recovery. Total U.S. sales of light vehicles in 2012 are…

This dissertation investigates the impact of radio frequency identification (RFID) in manufacturing. Two simulation studies of an organization that is considering implementing RFID on a production line are conducted. First, we investigate whether addition of RFID technologies in the manufacturing process can complement Lean initiatives.…

The need to build a more robust workforce development pipeline is evident in the hundreds of thousands of job openings in our nation's advanced manufacturing industry. Rapid technological change has created a severe skills gap, compounded by a pending wave of retirements due to the aging of the workforce. These challenges are particularly…