This paper discusses the integration of A3 Thinking as an innovative academic communication standard in industrial engineering. The paper begins by providing an overview comparison of A3 Thinking, a critical component in Toyota’s PDCA management system, and traditional academic course communication methods. The paper highlights key areas in academics where the use of A3 Thinking has been used in industrial engineering courses to provide a vehicle of effective, value-added communication. The paper concludes with a discussion of benefits relative to integrating A3 Thinking, including reduced waste in teaching, learning, reporting, and evaluation. Also included is a discussion on the use of a collection of A3 documents as an individual portfolio to make industrial engineers more marketable in the job market.
Integration of A3 Thinking as an Academic Communication Standard
Proceedings of the 2010 Industrial Engineering Research Conference.