In this theory-driven work in progress, we: 1) provide the history and justification for a Body of Knowledge (BOK) in the context of technician education and professionalization; Wenger (1998), among others; 2) detail our method for creating an advanced manufacturing (AM) BOK; and 3) share subsequent steps to vet and validate the AM BOK with the AM community. We conclude with an examination of a BOK’s potential impacts on and contributions to AM’s dynamic evolution and maturation as a technical field. The imperative for this paper is that technical fields like engineering technology and information technology have developed BOKs to guide their practitioners, employers, educators, and researchers to a common set of material understandings. These understandings establish social norms and cultural expectations for a professional field. AM also encompasses specific knowledge, skills, and dispositions, yet currently has no prevailing BOK. As one of the fastest growing technician fields, AM education and professional identity construction requires an articulation of what it means to practice AM and how AM practitioners enact the field’s competencies. Because BOKs are also valuable to guide curriculum, employer expectations, and professional advancement, we explored ways to create an AM BOK and assembled an initial BOK that we are currently testing through research and community engagement.
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What is Advanced Manufacturing? Exploring the Topography of Definitions
Global economists have cited advanced manufacturing (AM) as one of the fastest growing, dynamic, and economically instrumental industry sectors in the world. In response, many community colleges and undergraduate-serving institutions have established technician education programs to prepare future workers to support AM vitality and innovation. However, in the rush to couple market and training demands, stakeholders have not agreed upon a definition of the field. Without a central notion of AM, the competencies and professional identities of AM workers are likewise unclear. In an effort to address this consensus gap, we undertook an extensive systematic review of AM definitions to chart of sector’s topography, in an effort to understand AM’s breadth and depth. The goals of this study were to: 1) define AM as perceived by policymakers and 2) identify important concepts and contextual factors that comprise and shape our understanding of AM. In this study, we used systematic policy and literature review approach to analyze canonical and research-based publications pertaining to AM’s origins, components, and operational definitions. We classified, compared, and synthesized definitions of AM depending by stakeholder, for example, professional organizations, government agencies, or educational program accreditors. Among our notable findings is that in the eyes of policymakers, manufacturers are advanced not because they make certain products, but because they have adopted sophisticated business models and production techniques. Advanced manufacturers typically use a combination of three factors to remain competitive: “advanced knowledge,” “advanced processes,” and “advanced business models.” This study is both timely and important because in a dynamic field such as AM, educators and industry leaders must work together to meet workforce needs. Clear understanding of AM can inform competency models, bodies of knowledge, and empirical research that documents school-to-career pathways. Both our findings and our methods may shed light on the nature of related technical fields and offer industry and education strategies to ensure their alignment.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1700581
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10109960
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- ASEE annual conference & exposition
- ISSN:
- 2153-5965
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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