Abstract:

Advanced problem-solving and planning techniques are a challenge for Quality Engineering faculty. Students lack professional experience, and many of the situations and environments are unfamiliar to them. One important tool for quality problem solving is the Quick Response Quality Control (QRQC). These are methods developed to give a quick solution and response to a problem in a process, and that has a specific structure. These techniques require teamwork, creativity, and statistical knowledge.

Traditional quality teaching methods would have introduced this methodology as a theoretical concept to follow, a series of constructive elements, and a pure exercise based on a case to be developed. In this way, the students memorize the process, but do not deepen their knowledge of it. The approach of the activities is based on a general rule on the explanation of the concepts and evaluation of a case. As a result, learning is temporary and inefficient.

The use of experiential learning activities (ELA) allows these barriers to be overcome, so that the student is immersed in an experiential activity, and is building his own knowledge from the new experiences acquired.

This article shows the experiential activity developed both at the university and in training cycles for learning the QRQC concept. It is developed through the use of electronic trainers that simulate the process of a washing machine, with different assigned failures that the students are unaware of and which they have to face.

The document presents the experience developed with students, so that both the methodology used and the necessary steps to be able to reproduce this activity are presented. Finally, the results obtained from the evaluation by the students of the activity are shown.

Keywords:

Experiential learning activities, QRQC, Quality, Engineering, transversal competences.