Global enterprise perspective initiative in a production systems course

In this paper, we describe a course and curriculum improvement initiative centered on a production systems course project. This initiative addresses strategic production planning of a global supply chain of a food product subject to local cultural, health regulatory, and trade constraints. The problems are to be formulated and solved by student teams consisting of students from Iowa and Scotland via Internet. For formative delivery of input and output of the project, Internet-based collaborative platforms are developed and used. This initiative is motivated by an ABET outcome assessment item established by the department on the global perspective of enterprise. As a part of ABET activities, the assessment of this initiative includes a global enterprise perspective rubric, which in turn consists of three distinct performance criteria. The progress made thus far in terms of input, process, and outcome will be presented, and the future direction will be discussed.