Testing the effectiveness of an instructional regimen for group technology classification

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of an instructional regimen designed to reduce classification errors of production drawings in a group technology (GT) system currently being used by a manufacturer in both domestic and foreign operations. Analyzing the number of correctly classified drawings by classsized units of test subjects from Iowa State University provided the means to evaluate the effectiveness of the instructional regimen. During the study, test subjects classified 16 production drawings from eight GT categories. The study used a 2 x 3 factorial design coupled with an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) procedure. Experimental units (blocks) were intact classes from the Colleges of Business, Engineering, and Education. Treatments were the presence or absence of an instructional regimen. The covariates were test subjects' college, number of semester hours of collegiate-level credit, number of months worked for a manufacturer in a production assignment, number of secondary or post-secondary technical drafting courses specifically related to manufacturing, number of secondary or post-secondary drawing or illustration courses not specifically related to manufacturing, and number of secondary or post-secondary manufacturing courses. It was found that main effects of the test subjects' college and the instructional regimen were statistically significant at an alpha level of 0.05. Interaction between the test subjects' college and the instructional regimen, and covariate effects were not statistically significant at an alpha level of 0.05. A post-hoc ANCOVA analysis was ix conducted with the main effects and interaction eliminated. The post-hoc test results revealed that the number of secondary or post-secondary manufacturing courses taken was statistically significant at an alpha level of 0.05. The study revealed that test subjects receiving a technical education (engineering and technology) correctly classified significantly more production drawings than test subjects receiving a non-technical education (business) when tested at an alpha level of 0.05. The study also revealed that test subjects receiving industrial technology-based rather than industrial engineering-based educations correctly classified significantly more production drawings when tested at an alpha level of 0.05. 1 CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION For more than twenty years, America's Gross National Product (GNP) has been characterized by a trend indicating a steady positive increase in net value. McConnell (1987) defines GNP to include "...the total market value of all final goods and services produced in the economy in one year." However, the increasing GNP does not necessarily indicate a healthy American economy if one considers the dynamics of why the increase may be occurring. For example, Baumol & Blinder (1985) attribute the increasing GNP to a shift from manufacturing to the service sector of our economy. Baumol and Blinder explain that this shift is being caused, in pan, by the trends of increasing disposable income and decreasing amounts of time spent at work, as they illustrated in Figure 1.