Collaborative Product Development Experience in a Senior Integrated Manufacturing Course

In the new scenario of global competitiveness, companies are forced to outsource and distribute product manufacturing in order to minimize costs and delivery times. Hence, engineering education must encourage students to work according to this trend by taking advantage of recent developments in Product Lifecycle Management systems (PLM). We have reviewed past educational efforts to educate future engineers with these skills, and the CAX techniques applied in education to achieve them. We also present a new PLM experience conducted in a senior Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) course for graduate students, where a collaborative product development project was carried out. Through the project experience, the students acquired abilities related to design and manufacturing in a collaborative environment, using CAD/CAE/CAM and PLM software tools. The project let the students learn by practicing through activities such as 3D design, drawings, plastic injection analysis, cutting-tool and fixture selection, cutting parameter selection and CNC simulation. At the end of the project, the new designs were prototyped and the best model machined in a CNC machining center. We have established positive and negative aspects of the PLM experience and students' impressions.