The program seeks to develop a cadre of talented professors who will develop advanced manufacturing programs and educate the manufacturing graduates needed by industry in the 21st century. In today's global markets, successful manufacturers need to constantly reshape and refine their technologies, information systems, operations, supply chains, and market strategies. To anticipate and meet these complex challenges, many companies are cultivating working relationships with universities.
Manufacturers increasingly support and benefit from manufacturing research at universities.
They seek to contribute to university curricula designed to educate a new breed of graduate who can lead cross-functional teams through the complex process of design, manufacturing, distribution, and service. The FPM program was the perfect complement to my industrial experience. Through it, I was able to study aspects of manufacturing that I had little contact with in my previous career. I was also given the opportunity and the analytical tools to analyze the problems that I had faced every day on the shop floor and in meeting rooms. They are academic entrepreneurs who choose to measure personal success not in terms of IPOs, product launches, and production schedules, but instead in terms of careers launched, relationships established, ideas nurtured, concepts refined, information shared, and industries assisted.