Automotive engineering curriculum development: case study for Clemson University

The automotive manufacturing industry has 1 transitioned in the past 20 years from a central technical focus 2 to an integrated and globally distributed supply chain. As car 3 makers outsource not only a greater portion of their manufac4 turing, but also their technical design responsibility, a more 5 thorough understanding of both design and manufacturing 6 changes’ effect on total vehicle and total production system 7 performance and cost is critical. The distribution of tech8 nical responsibility in automotive manufacturing has moti9 vated the development of a specific curriculum in Automotive 10 Engineering at Clemson University in South Carolina, USA, 11 with core focus on the interaction between systems, both 12 in design and manufacturing. In this development, a detailed 13 survey of automotive Original Equipment Manufacturers and 14 major suppliers was carried out. The differences in perceived 15 need between these organization types is explored, and the 16 incorporation of these perceived needs to a new Automotive 17 Engineering curriculum is presented. 18