Course Introduction Sys/ISE 5560

A quick intro to the course "Product Lifecycle Management" at Oakland University.

Syllabus

ABET - ISE 5560 Syllabus (Hillberg).pdf

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From my LinkedIn Newsletter...

Ungrading: Or Why I Give A's to (nearly) All of My students

"We ask our students to study, we test them to assess what they’ve learned, and grade them based on how they perform on the tests. But is working for a “grade” an appropriate goal? Does an education system based on the teacher’s subjective assessments of individual learning create societal value? 

"I make no claim that the teaching method I use is appropriate for all learning situations, and there are people far more knowledgeable than me in both pedagogy and educational psychology. But since 2013 I’ve taught a 4-credit graduate course for Systems Engineers and Engineering Managers at Oakland University, in which I have almost entirely abandoned grading, and I thought it should be discussed. "

Beer in the Classroom! Leveraging The Fifth Discipline in a Management Course

I presented this lecture for the UAGC Teaching and Learning Conference, hosted by the University of Arizona Global Campus. While the target audience for the above video are students taking my class, the below is targeted at instructors interested in sharing ideas on how to teach Systems Thinking.

Modern products are complex, leading developers to rely on specialization and reductionism. Organizations decompose large goals into multitudes of small tasks, presuming that the summation of these tasks will lead to a whole greater than (or at least equal to) the aggregation of its parts.

But catastrophic failures, such as those seen in the GM Ignition Switch, Boeing 737 Max , and Flint Water Crisis highlight the confusion which lives between the small details… within the dots left unconnected. While individuals succeed in their goals, the organization creates a product which is imperceptibly but fatally broken.

Decomposition creates dysfunction, and systems thinking is the antidote. Students in Oakland University’s Engineering Management program, many currently working in the automotive, aerospace, and defense industries, study this dysfunction through the lens provided by Senge’s Fifth Discipline. The semester begins with the Beer Game supply chain simulation to recognize the Prisoner of the System paradigm, followed by lessons in Limits to Growth, Shifting Burdens, and Tragic Commons, and in-depth discussion of Personal Mastery, Mental Models, Shared Vision, and Team Learning.

The Fifth Discipline is the 'spine' of Dr. Hillberg's course, helping engineering managers recognize the dysfunction within the systems in which they work, so that they may bring better and safer products to society.