Performance Measurement System to Continuously Improve a Brazilian Industrial Engineering Program: A Process to ABET Accreditation

Abstract

There is an increasing claim for managing Engineering Programs through competences. By the mid-1990s, the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) recognized that the international challenge of competitiveness was in part a problem of competencies in engineering education and has adopted a revolutionary approach, proposing the concept of student outcomes. The ABET content model to Student Outcomes is well known, but to define a process to make this content coherent within the institution is not a trivial thing. An important element for achieving ABET criteria is the establishment of a continuous improvement process through outcomes assessment, which will be the focus of this paper. A framework to continuously improve the performance in the context of Engineering Education is proposed. Such a framework is based upon a set of performance measurement literature and ABET criteria. The framework is tested at PUCPR Industrial Engineering (IE) Program, located in Brazil. The initial stages of development and implementation of the assessment process to continuous improvement of PUCPR’s IE Program are presented. As a result, it is possible to have a complete view of continuous improvement ABET process, including performance measurement system.