Technology and the Engineer - The Educational Challenge

Manufacturing industry is in decline everywhere in the Western World except Japan. A major reason is the preoccupation of the engineering profession with technical solutions to human and economic problems. Western World engineers, by their education, training and inclination are ill equipped to understand, let alone apply, the techniques developed in Japan for the production of quality goods in a cost effective way. This paper discusses some of the reasons for western engineering inadequacy and suggests means to rectify the situation.