Lessons Learned in Implementing and Accrediting a Manufacturing Engineering Program

Spurred on by an explosive growth in high technology and semiconductor manufacturing industries in the State of Texas and central Texas in particular in the 1990s, Texas State University established its first engineering program in Manufacturing Engineering in 2000. Since, significant changes have occurred in the world of manufacturing both globally and locally. The advent of intense global competition has placed unprecedented demands on the US manufacturing sector. The most conspicuous result of these developments is the movement of manufacturing industries from across the nation and central Texas to other parts of the world. During this period, our program grew and prepared itself for the ABET accreditation process. This process entailed revisiting our program’s goals and objectives in the context of the input we received from our industrial advisory committee, students and graduates, faculty, and ABET as well as changes that occurred in the manufacturing sector in the last decade. This paper presents an analysis of changes that were necessitated owing to aforementioned input in order to achieve accreditation by ABET.