Center of Business Development Technology is to be Opened at SUSU in the Frameworks of Project-Based Learning

In September, School of Economics and Management of South Ural State University is going to open a unique-for-the-Ural-region Center of Business Development Technology, which is to implement interactive education programs. In this Center, students of SUSU together with employees of the leading regional enterprises through learning-by-action will be mastering such modern concepts as Quick Response Manufacturing (QRM), Agile and Lean Manufacturing, which nowadays are the world trends of developing various spheres of activity.

Learning the newest control technology through action

Nowadays implementation of priority program of the Government of the Russian Federation entitled “Performance improvement and employment assistance” becomes more and more intensive; the key goal of the program is to assist enterprises by distributing knowledge and implementing unique managerial practices on efficient production organization, lean manufacturing included. The SUSU School of Economics and Management pays special attention to advanced inventions and uses them for training of students. Interactive simulation learning at the SUSU Center of Business Development Technology will be implemented through simulation of real product manufacturing process and the process of rendering services.

Practice-oriented technology of the Center will allow the university to perform training of highly-skilled specialists with breakthrough competencies. Deputy Director of SEM for Strategic Development, Doctor of Economic Sciences Yulia Babanova told us about advantages of the new Center:

“We are creating a Center in which attendees will be mastering the newest control technology using simulated imitation learning, i.e. learning through action. The Center of Business Development Technology is the first in Chelyabinsk specialized applied education complex, intended for proactive training of executives and the key employees of enterprises as well as students on the basis of simulated industrial and managerial processes.”

Specially equipped space

Applied education complex is a specially equipped space where manufacturing process is simulated; conditions of the process are similar to real life due to simulation equipment and organization of learning process. Key element of simulation learning is a real product of manufacture, an industrial unit, in the process of development, manufacturing and storing of which modern concepts, methods and tools of efficient corporate management (production organization, office operations, storage management, etc.) get polished.

“We are integrating many instruments, and in the frameworks of education process we give enterprises the possibility to see new results and ways for implementation of these concepts. This not only regards lean manufacture as it is, but also such popular today instruments as Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), Single-Minute Exchange of Dies (SMED), Quick Response Manufacturing (QRM), Agile Manufacturing, Theory of Constraints (TOC), and others,” explained Yulia Babanova.

Lean production became popular at Russian enterprises quite recently if compared to foreign industries – several years ago very few people knew about its existence. But today it became an integral part of manufacturing systems of many companies, either leaders of Russian economics (Kamaz, Rosatom, Kalashnikov Group, etc.) and small enterprises. Flexible technology of production management, such as Agile and Scrum, make sure that scaleous projects are moving towards achieving their goals step by step. These approaches nowadays help businesses quickly respond to changing conditions of the external environment and easily produce more in a shorter period of time due to quick feedback.

Maximum of practice

Applied simulation learning allows for the most efficient change of students’ thinking while forming managerial competencies, which significantly increases control efficiency, manufacturing processes and work performance. All programs of the Center 90% consist of practical training in the form of industrial business games.

There is no theory. Practical learning starts with a distinctly described industrial situation which needs to be improved in the course of studying. Applied instruments get introduced to attendees in the course of industrial process simulation.

“For example, a team is required to produce a batch of fuel pumps in a certain period of time, and then, after analyzing the mistakes and learning about management technology, the team will elaborate a variant of production process organization which is to greatly decrease the time for achieving the goal. Thus, we are mastering theory through practice, expand variants of searching for solutions, and reduce the time of learning. And this is how we are teaching students the principles of organization of lean manufacturing technology.”

Cooperation with large enterprises

Completion of the Center’s programs means defending real-life industrial projects with evaluation by executives of enterprises, subdivisions and consulting coaches. Moreover, a roadmap for extension of implementation of modern concepts into companies gets elaborated.

“The Center is being created within the frameworks of SEM’s School of Business, which has long since been successfully cooperation with regional enterprises, among which are: ChKPZ PAO, Plant of OJSC Magnezit Group, Agregat PAO, Zlatmash AO, MMK PAO, Trubodetal AO, T2 Mobile OOO, Kemma OOO, Teploenergosbyt OOO, Chebarkulskaya Ptitsa OOO, MMZ AO, and many other. Heads of subdivisions and executives of enterprises themselves take part in our program, and willingly involve SUSU students into work on real projects,” emphasized Yulia Vladimirovna.

SUSU students of not only economic and managerial but also engineering specialties will be able to study at the laboratory. The possibility to complete module training will also be given to representatives of enterprises of the Chelyabinsk region as well as to students from other universities.

Olga Romanovskaia, photo by: Viktoria Matveichuk, collection of Yu.V. Babanova
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