Abstract:

This paper is focused on the presentation of an open-source online tool based on the methodology of post-its to support Industrial Engineering degree students in the practical work of decision-making and in the teamwork’s practices. The main aim of this paper is to identify a tool to support students, as future industrial engineers, in the decision-making process through teamwork, in the establishment of strategic policies, and in the process of creating solutions, amongst others. Moreover, a case study is provided with the main aim of showing the potential of the proposed tool in the scope of decision-making in teamwork’s. In order to deal with the proposed objective, this paper is organised in four main sections.

Section 1 will propose an introduction and motivation of the developed work; considering the importance of the decision-making process and teamworks in the Industrial Engineering degree. The transversal competences related to the decision-making process are: understanding and integration; practical application and thinking; analysis and problems resolution; creativity and entrepreneurship; teamwork and leadership; effective communication; critical thinking and planning and time management.

Section 2 will propose and describe the tool used to support the collaborative decision-making and promote teamwork practices. The used tool is “Lino”. Lino allows organising post-its visually, and move post-its around the canvas. Post-it can change their colours for classifying the groups participating in the collaborative decision-making process. The post-its can position anywhere in the Canvas (e.g. distributed by groups) and share them with the members of the group and with other members’ groups. With Lino, students can attach files, videos, web-links to the post-its and share them with other students. Moreover, students will be able to create an Email message containing notes and send it to Lino, where it will be posted as a post-it. Lino will allow the students to share their ideas and to have discussions with colleagues; supporting the creation process, and the decision-making process, from a collaborative perspective.

In section 3, practical applications with the proposed tool (Lino) in students belonging to the Industrial Engineering degree are described. Lino will be considered as a tool to aid the decision-making process through the definition of the following practical sessions;
(i) the formulation of strategies in an enterprise: using Lino for the SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities y Threats) which can be used effectively to build organization strategies;
(ii) design thinking: Lino will support the design thinking methodology, enabling to generate innovative ideas that focus its effectiveness on understanding and solving the real problems; and
(iii) brainstorming as a group technique to generate original ideas in a relaxed atmosphere, Lino will be used as a teamwork tool that facilitates the emergence of new ideas on a subject or problem.

The conclusions will be provided, considering the utility and the usefulness of the proposed tool, Lino, for the decision-making process in teamworks, in different areas of Industrial Engineering.

Keywords:

Decision-making, brainstorming, design thinking, enterprise strategies, practical work, teamwork.