Learning method design for engineering students to be prepared for Industry 4.0: a Kaizen approach

Abstract

PurposeUnderdeveloped along with developing countries face enough crisis of human resources in high-tech industries. As a result, the amount of waste is higher along with less productivity. Highly qualified and smart employees are required as the term “Industry 4.0” introduces a lot of sophisticated and complex technologies that dominates productivity. But in those countries, to cope up with this terminology; neither the educational curriculum and method of teaching has been modified nor changed yet nor will be modified soon. So, the engineering students should be introduced with the aims and technologies of Industry 4.0 and its key technologies so that they can prepare themselves as highly skilled and qualified human resources besides academic courses.Design/methodology/approachThis article mainly depicts the causes of poor technical skills of the engineering students of Bangladesh and a new learning process has been proposed. The model proposed is basically inspired by Kaizen philosophy consisting of initiation, sharing and implementation cycles. The key aspects of human resource quality and the possibility of gaining innovative human resources for smart industries are given equal priority here. The prime factor to evaluate any learning outcome is quality and this research is a structured guideline to achieve sustainable quality education needed for “Industry 4.0” to engineering students.FindingsThis paper provides statistical analysis on “Fitness of undergraduate engineering students for Industry 4.0”. After applying the proposed methodology on 130 students from different public engineering institutes of Bangladesh, the significant improvement of effectiveness in learning various topics of “Industry 4.0” besides academic studies has justified the method to be a successful one measuring by the criteria for fitness of human resource. This research aims to clarify the sustainable and work-based learning goals and methods for Science, Technology, Engineering and Management (STEM) students and professional courses.Research limitations/implicationsThis is a research where the proposed methodology was applied upon academically enrolled engineering students and the result was very satisfactory. A sustainable learning strategy for developing professional skills from academic life can result in better productivity at the beginning of a career. However, this methodology can be applied for job holders or professionals besides their office hours thus it is the future scope of this research methodology.Originality/valueThis research represents the crucial factors related to technical education and skill development for the upcoming challenges and possible remedies needed for Industry 4.0. Therefore, students should become aware of their carrier challenges and the administration concerned for education to minimize the scarcity of skilled human resources needed for the Fourth Industrial revolution.

Gamification in E-Learning and Sustainability: A Theoretical Framework

“…The PDCA cycle was also used as a complementary tool, and it corresponds to a method commonly employed for continuous improvement by covering four stages: Plan, Do, Check, Act [64]. These steps are an approach widely used in distinct fields, including e-learning [65,66]. It is one of the most popular quality management system models worldwide.…”

The Challenges to Developing Smart Agricultural Village in the Industrial Revolution 4.0.

“…In industrial revolution 4.0, various social, economic, educational, political, and other activities are always associated with automatic machines integrated with the internet network (M. Z. Hasan et al, 2021;Purnomo et al, 2021;Vasin et al, 2018). To support the industrial revolution 4.0 in the agricultural sector, the Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture, through the Agency for Agricultural Research and Development (in Indonesian language, it is abbreviated as Balitangtan), began to invest in developing technologies such as cloud computing, mobile internet, and artificial intelligence (Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture, 2022).…”

HR factors for the successful implementation of Industry 4.0: A systematic literature review

“…It is considered of utmost importance to develop a deep insight into the essential knowledge and skills for the rapidly changing era (Pejic-Bach et al, 2020). Literature indicates that big and imminent challenges in the human–machine interface will require highly qualified and smart employees to dominate sophisticated and complex technologies of Industry 4.0 (Bag and Pretorius, 2020; Grencikova and Vojtovic, 2017; Hasan et al, 2020; Johansson et al, 2020; Liboni et al, 2019; Nwaiwu et al, 2020).…”

“…Analysis of the literature also shows that how important and essential addressing potential skills gap, and retraining and upskilling of employees are for developing a successful Industry 4.0 strategy (Alba and Stucki, 2019; Benesova and Tupa, 2017; Nwaiwu et al, 2020; Shamim et al, 2017; Shaw and Varghese, 2018; Whysall et al, 2019). Additionally, imparting technical skills and developing soft skills such as learning, problem-solving skills, innovative capability, knowledge, social skills, attitude, flexibility, technology acceptance, and teamwork have been recognized as key areas of training to drive change and leverage on Industry 4.0 (Bokrantz et al, 2020; Fantini et al, 2020; Grencikova and Vojtovic, 2017; Hasan et al, 2020; Johansson et al, 2020; Liboni et al, 2019; Pejic-Bach et al, 2020; Schneider, 2018; Shamim et al, 2017; Stachova et al, 2019; Wilkesmann and Wilkesmann, 2018). It is no surprise that several authors shared this view.…”