OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT TOOL FOR E-LEARNING. AN IMPROVEMENT OF THE STUDENT´S UNDERSTANDING AT OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES THROUGH AN E-LEARNING TOOL FOR DEEP DRAWING MANUFACTURING PROCESSES

Operations management is a basic component of the formation in industrial engineering education. The new European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System for the learning of engineering subjects has a special difficulty, which can be reduced by means the use of new technologies, and the practice of mixed models of learning. One of these processes is the deep drawing due to its relevance in the industry. This paper presents a deep drawing tool for e-learning from the point of view of the Operations Management. The tool has been realized for its use in Master degree due to it requires advanced knowledge in manufacturing processes. The tool has developed with the objective of the students can: a) Select input data for get the formability of material to deep drawing; b) Select the process that provide the best solution from a technological perspective; c) Optimize the process for saving the material; d) Provide an analysis of the process costs.
The structure of the system has three subsystems: a) Solve, module for data processing and the generation of results; b) Materials, module for management data of the system; and c) Interface, module for user interaction. The tool has been implemented in software tool programming, developed in Java. This language has been selected because it provides a methodology of object-oriented programming and its execution is possible in multiple operating systems.
This instrument of learning has been implemented in software tool programming, developed in Java. The paper describes each step of the tool, from the input data to final analysis and they are showed through of the results given by the tool.