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Procedia CIRP 00 (2017)

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30th
30th CIRP
CIRP Design
Design 2020
2020 (CIRP
(CIRP Design
Design 2020)
2020)

Industrial design28th
thinking and Conference,
CIRP Design innovations
Maypropelled byFrance
2018, Nantes, the Royal Academy
of Engineering in Sub-Saharan Africa for capacity building
A new methodology to analyze the functional and physical architecture of
Wilson R. Nyemba a,g,*, Tauyanashe Chikukuaa, Jennifer R. Chiroodzabb, Basil Dubecc, Keith F.
a,g,
Wilson R. Nyemba *, Tauyanashe Chikuku , Jennifer R. Chiroodza , Basil Dube , Keith F.
existing products for andd,, Charles
Carter
Carter
assembly
Charles oriented
Mbohwa
Mbohwa
e,g
e,g product
,, Lovemore
Lovemore family
Magombo
Magombo ff identification
Departments
Departments of of aMechanical Paul Stief *, Jean-Yves Dantan, Alain Etienne, Ali Siadat
a
Mechanical Engineering,
Engineering, bElectrical
b
Electrical Engineering,
Engineering, cAeronautical
c
Aeronautical Engineering,
Engineering, University
University of
of Zimbabwe,
Zimbabwe, Faculty
Faculty of
of Engineering,
Engineering, P
POO Box
Box MP
MP
167, Mount
167, Mount Pleasant,
Pleasant, Harare,
Harare, Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
d
dVisiting Design Professor, Department of Engineering, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, United Kingdom and Keimar Consultancy Ltd, UK, Rolls-
Visiting Design
École Professor,
Nationale Department
Supérieure of Engineering,
d’Arts University
et Métiers, Arts of Leicester,
et Métiers Leicester
ParisTech, LCFCLE1 EA7RH,
4495,United
4 RueKingdom
Augustinand KeimarMetz
Fresnel, Consultancy Ltd, UK, Rolls-
57078, France
Royce
Royce consultant
consultant
e
ePro Vice Chancellor for Strategic Partnerships and Industrialisation, University of Zimbabwe, P O Box MP 167, Mount Pleasant, Harare, Zimbabwe
Pro Vicef Chancellor for Strategic Partnerships and Industrialisation, University of Zimbabwe, P O Box MP 167, Mount Pleasant, Harare, Zimbabwe
fIndustrial Liaison Officer, University of Zimbabwe, Faculty of Engineering, P O Box MP 167, Mount Pleasant, Harare, Zimbabwe
* Corresponding
g
author. Tel.: +33
Industrial 3 87Officer,
Liaison 37 54 University
30; E-mailofaddress: paul.stief@ensam.eu
Zimbabwe, Faculty of Engineering, P O Box MP 167, Mount Pleasant, Harare, Zimbabwe
gDepartment of Quality and Operations Management, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park 2006,
Department of Quality and Operations Management, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park 2006,
Johannesburg, South
Johannesburg, South Africa
Africa

** Corresponding
Corresponding author.
author. Tel.:
Tel.: +263772345441;
+263772345441; fax: +263-242-303280. E-mail
fax: +263-242-303280. E-mail address:
address: nyemba@yahoo.com
nyemba@yahoo.com
Abstract

In today’s business environment, the trend towards more product variety and customization is unbroken. Due to this development, the need of
Abstract
Abstract
agile and reconfigurable production systems emerged to cope with various products and product families. To design and optimize production
Sub-Saharan
systems as well asAfrica
Sub-Saharan suffers
to choose
Africa suffersthefrom
from aa persistent
optimal product
persistent shortage of
of engineering
matches,
shortage skills
skills required
product analysis
engineering methods
required to
to drive industry
are needed.
drive in
in this
industryIndeed,this dynamic
most of era
dynamic theof
era rapid
rapid technological
ofknown methods aim to
technological
changes.
analyze a product
changes. This has
Thisor one
has been
been exacerbated
product familyby
exacerbated onthe
by themismatch
the physicalof
mismatch skills
level.
of produced
skillsDifferent by
by universities
producedproduct families,
universities and those
those required
andhowever, by
by industry,
may differ
required largelypartly
industry, attributed
in terms
partly of theto
attributed lack
lack of
tonumber of and
access
natureaccess to modern
of components. equipment
This fact and
to modern equipment and
impedestechnology by
an efficient
technology engineering
comparison
by engineering academics to
and choice
academics adequately dispatch
of appropriate
to adequately appropriate
dispatch product
appropriate skills
family to future
skillscombinations engineers. A recent
for theAproduction
to future engineers. recent
audit
audit
system. conducted
conducted
A new in Zimbabwe
in Zimbabwe
methodology revealedtoaa analyze
revealed
is proposed 62% skills
62% skills deficit,products
deficit,
existing mainly in
mainly ininthe
the
viewengineering
engineering and technology
and technology
of their functional sectors. The
sectors.
and physical The UniversityThe
University
architecture. of Zimbabwe,
of Zimbabwe, in
in
aim is to cluster
these collaboration
collaboration
products in new with six
six other
other institutions
withassembly institutions
oriented product of
of higher
higher learning
learning
families forin Southern
inthe
Southern Africa
Africa of
optimization embarked
existingon
embarked and
and successfully
onassembly lines andmanaged
successfully managed
the creationthe
the Enriching
of futureEngineering
Enriching Engineering
reconfigurable
Education Program
Education Program from 2013 2013 to 2015, 2015, financially
financially supported
supported by by the
the Royal
Royal Academy
Academy of Engineering. This This project
project waswas aimed
aimed at at enhancing
enhancing the the
assembly systems. Basedfrom on DatumtoFlow Chain, the physical structure of the productsofis Engineering.
analyzed. Functional subassemblies are identified, and
quality
quality and
and relevance
relevance of
of engineering
engineering graduates
graduates and
and this
this was
was accomplished
accomplished through
through secondments
secondments of
of engineering
engineering academics
academics to
to industry
industry to
to improve
improve
a functional
their
analysis is performed. Moreover, a hybrid functional and physical architecture graph (HyFPAG) is the output which depicts the
their skills
similarity skills and
and access
between access
product
to modern
modern equipment,
to families equipment,
by
knowledge
knowledge
providing design
sharing
sharing
support
workshops
workshops
to both,
and
and conferences
conferences
production
to
to boost
system boost the
the quality
planners quality
and
of
of research
research
product
as
as well
well as
designers.
continuous
asAn
continuous
illustrative
professional development
professional development training
training for for engineering
engineering academics
academics and and technicians.
technicians. This
This initiative
initiative was
was largely
largely successful,
successful, based
based on on student
student evaluations,
evaluations,
example of a nail-clipper
buy-in is used to explain the proposed methodology. An industrial case studyinnovations
on two product families of steering columns of
buy-in and
and support
support from
from local
local industries
industries as as well
well as
as the
the number
number of of industrial
industrial design
design projects
projects andand innovations that that were
were generated,
generated, some
some of of which
which
thyssenkrupp
have since Presta
since been France
been patented is
patented and then carried
and commercialized. out to
commercialized. These give a first industrial
These achievements evaluation
achievements motivated
motivated otherof the proposed
other institutions
institutions to approach.
to join
join and
and the
the initiative
initiative has has been
been expanded
expanded to to
have
© 2017theThe
the Higher
Authors.
Higher Education
Published
Education Partnerships
by Elsevier
Partnerships for
B.V.
for Sub-Saharan
Sub-Saharan Africa.
Africa. This
This paper
paper outlines
outlines the
the activities
activities and
and achievements
achievements of of this
this initiative
initiative and
and demonstrates
demonstrates
Peer-review
how theunder
how the responsibility
expanded
expanded version
version will of the
will scientific
utilize
utilize two committeeof
two approaches
approaches ofofdesign
the 28th
design CIRP and
thinking
thinking Design
and Conference
systems
systems thinking2018.
thinking for
for capacity
capacity building
building and and sustainability
sustainability in in
engineering
engineering education
education and
and regional
regional integration.
integration.
Keywords: Assembly; Design method; Family identification
© 2020
© 2020TheTheAuthors.
Authors.Published
Publishedbyby Elsevier
Elsevier B.V.B.V.
© 2020
This Theopen
is an Authors. Published
access by Elsevier
article under the CCB.V.
BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Peer-review
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee
under responsibility of the scientific committee of
of the
the CIRP
CIRP Design Conference..
Design Conference
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the CIRP Design Conference 2020
1. Introduction
Keywords: Capacity
Keywords: Capacity building;
building; design
design thinking;
thinking; engineering
engineering education;
education; systems of the product range and characteristics manufactured and/or
systems thinking.
thinking.
assembled in this system. In this context, the main challenge in
Due to the fast development in the domain of modelling and analysis is now not only to cope with single
communication
1. Introduction
Introduction and an ongoing trend of digitization and products, a limited
[1]. Evidently,
Evidently, productofrange
the standards
standards livingor
in existing product world
the industrialized
industrialized families,
1. [1]. the of living in the world
digitalization, manufacturing enterprises are facing important but
are also to be able to analyze and to compare products
are way better than those in the industrializing countries, most
way better than those in the industrializing countries, to define
most
challenges
Data in today’s
from UNESCO market
show environments:
that developed
Data from UNESCO show that developed or industrialized a
or continuing
industrialized new
of product
which make families.
up the It can
entire be observed
Sub-Saharan that
Africa. classical
The
of which make up the entire Sub-Saharan Africa. The generality existing
generality
tendency towards
countries
countries havereduction
have 20-50 of product
20-50 scientists
scientists and development
and engineers
engineers for aatimes
for and
population
population product
of peoplefamilies
of people in are regrouped
in Sub-Saharan
Sub-Saharan Africainlack
Africa function
lack accessofto
access toclients
basic or features.
basic facilities
facilities
shortened
of product
10,000, lifecycles.
while most In
countriesaddition,
in there
Sub-Saharan is
of 10,000, while most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have as an increasing
Africa have as However,
such as assembly
water, oriented
power, product
healthcare and families
decent
such as water, power, healthcare and decent accommodation are hardly
accommodation to find.
low of
demand
low as one
as one scientist or
customization,
scientist or engineer
engineer
being atfor for the
thethe sametime
same
same population count
in a global
population count [2].OnMost
[2]. Most of these
the product
of thesefamily
peoplelevel,
people eitherproducts
either have inadequacies
have inadequacies
differ mainly or in
or notwo
no
competition with competitors all over the world. This trend, main characteristics: (i) the number of components and (ii) the
which2212-8271
is inducing
© 2020 theAuthors.
2020 The
The development
Published bybyfrom
Elseviermacro
B.V. to micro type of components (e.g. mechanical, electrical, electronical).
2212-8271 © Authors. Published Elsevier B.V.
markets, results
Peer-review in
under diminished
responsibility of lot
the sizes
scientific due to
committee augmenting
of the CIRP Design Classical
Conference
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the CIRP Design Conference 2020. methodologies considering mainly single products
2020.
product varieties (high-volume to low-volume production) [1]. or solitary, already existing product families analyze the
To cope with this augmenting variety as well as to be able to product structure on a physical level (components level) which
identify possible optimization potentials in the existing causes difficulties regarding an efficient definition and
production system, it is important to have a precise knowledge comparison of different product families. Addressing this
2212-8271 © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
This is an©open
2212-8271 2017access article Published
The Authors. under theby CC BY-NC-ND
Elsevier B.V. license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Peer-review
Peer-review under
under responsibility
responsibility of scientific
of the the scientific committee
committee of the of theCIRP
28th CIRP Design
Design Conference
Conference 2020
2018.
10.1016/j.procir.2020.02.233
 Wilson R. Nyemba et al. / Procedia CIRP 91 (2020) 770–775
2 Nyemba et al./ Procedia CIRP 00 (2020) 000–000
electricity and water at all, invariably forcing them to still rely
on firewood for power. Additionally, the majority of people in
Sub-Saharan Africa reside in rural communities, which are
inaccessible due to poor road infrastructure. Recent events over
the past 5 years have only highlighted the severity and impact
of these challenges.
In 2015, most countries in Southern Africa were affected by
heavy floods leaving many ordinary people, either homeless or
displaced and many deaths were reported [3]. In the first quarter
of 2017, Southern Africa suffered another extensive damage to
infrastructure brought on by Dineo, a strong tropical cyclone
which also resulted in heavy flooding leaving some parts
Southern Africa without electricity [4]. Thousands of people
were killed while many others were displaced and their homes
destroyed in the first quarter of 2019, following another strong
cyclone Idai which was followed by cyclone Kenneth which
was however less disastrous [5]. Apart from destroying many
homes, cyclone Idai also destroyed roads and bridges, leaving
the only way to access these affected areas by helicopters, an
unsustainable way to support the affected villagers.
These natural disasters unequivocally demonstrated the
severity and challenges due to lack of preparedness. The
insufficiency of infrastructure such as roads and bridges meant
that people struggled to leave affected areas and thus putting
them more at risk of other challenges such as water-borne
diseases. Many countries around the world came to the rescue
and provided provisions such as emergency food and
medicines. However, these could not reach the intended
beneficiaries due to lack of access and sufficient infrastructure.
The presence of infrastructure such as roads and bridges, power
and water supplies may not prevent such natural disasters from
occurring, but they would vastly improve people’s ability to
cope and help lessen the resulting devastation. If the region had
enough engineers, they might have coped with the situation by
quickly constructing roads and bridges as well as provision of
power and clean water to the affected communities.
The extent to which engineers in Southern Africa reacted to
these disasters left a lot to be desired. Clearly, there were
insufficiencies in terms of the skills required, prompting the
need to look at how the available engineers in this part of the
world are trained. Several studies carried out in Sub-Saharan
Africa have pointed to a cocktail of many challenges faced by
engineering education in Southern Africa, chief among them
being a mismatch of skills imparted on graduate engineers and
those that the local industries required, coupled with the
differences in equipment used in industry to that used for
training engineers at Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) [6].
Such challenges were also attributed to a shortage of adequately
qualified engineering academics due to the low rewards that
resulted in high attrition due to engineers migrating to other
parts of the world [7]. Despite having over 20 HEIs, Zimbabwe
has a critical skills deficit of 62%, with the biggest gap evident
in science and technology [8]. Clearly, these challenges require
some form of strategy to address the mismatch and shortage of
critical engineering skills required to drive industry in this era
of rapid technological changes and the 4th industrial revolution.
The aim of this paper is to demonstrate how initiatives such as
Network of Users of Scientific Equipment in Eastern and
Southern Africa (NUSESA), Enriching Engineering Education
771
Program (EEEP) and the Higher Education Partnerships for
Sub-Saharan Africa (HEP SSA) have assisted HEIs in Southern
Africa to build capacity and produce relevant skills that are
appropriate for local industries since 2011. The achievements
and shortfalls are outlined with the view to build on those for an
expanded version of these initiatives. The paper also outlines
the planned approaches of industrial design thinking and
systems thinking for capacity building and sustainability in
engineering education and regional integration through the
approaches of problem based and industrial based learning.
2. Background and literature
Sub-Saharan Africa suffered and continues to suffer from a
perennial and persistent lack of engineering capacity according
to studies conducted in Malawi [9], Mozambique [10], Rwanda
[11], South Africa [12], Tanzania [13], Nigeria, Ghana and
Zimbabwe [14]. This was one of the motivations for
establishing NUSESA in 1989 aimed at developing long term
strategies for sustainability through the improvement of
procurement, use and maintenance of scientific equipment,
while building capacity through the development of
collaborative training, research and exchange of staff among
the faculties of engineering in these 2 regions [15]. However,
this initiative could only survive during the period of financial
support from the Swedish International Development
Cooperation Agency (Sida), purportedly due to failure to put in
sustainability plans for the initiative.
Despite the failure for continuity of the NUSESA project,
engineering academics in Sub-Saharan Africa continued to
engage with their counterparts in the United Kingdom (UK)
through initiatives such as the Africa-UK Partnership for
Development supported by the Department for International
Development (DFID). In a survey conducted by the Africa-UK
Partnership for Development, engineering managers in
Southern Africa asserted that lack of engineering capability was
the main bottleneck to meeting the economic, social and
environmental needs of nations within the region [16].
Inadequate infrastructure and a shortage of engineers affected
Africa’s ability to tap into its abundant resources in order to
meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals [17]. Since 2011,
the Africa-UK Partnership for Development engaged
extensively with engineering communities in Southern Africa
through thematic workshops.
The success of such engagements saw the University of
Zimbabwe (UZ), representing Southern Africa and the
University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM), representing East Africa,
being funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng)
to lead the pilot EEEP from 2013 – 2015 [18]. This program
focused on secondment of engineering academics to industry to
expose them to modern equipment and technology, knowledge
sharing workshops as well continuous professional
development training. The initiative was largely successful in
that the young and inexperienced academics were upskilled and
confident in delivering their duties, based on student
evaluations. There was an increase in the number of industrial
based projects for students, further increasing the relevant skills
that industry so desperately required. These engagements also
resulted in some of the industry partners providing financial
772 Wilson R. Nyemba et al. / Procedia CIRP 91 (2020) 770–775
Nyemba et al./ Procedia CIRP 00 (2020) 000–000
support including a fully funded Professorial Chair in Mining
Engineering. This success, albeit with minimal intervention by
local industries, led to the upscaling of the activities and
coopting of more HEIs under the new banner of HEP SSA [19].
The UZ in collaboration with 7 other institutions in the
region and one in the UK together with 5 industry partners from
Zimbabwe, successfully bid for additional financial support
which was granted in September 2019 for 2 years. This paper
seeks to answer various questions as outlined below by
proposing a cocktail of approaches of Design Thinking (DT)
and Systems Thinking (ST) coupled with Problem Based
Learning (PBL) and Industrial Based Learning (IBL)
culminating in the novel Industrial Design Thinking (IDT) for
capacity building in a sustainable manner.
 Role of HEIs in addressing skills challenges to meet
industry needs?
 Interventions by policy-makers to create an enabling
environment to address and resolve the skills deficit?
 Industry’s contribution for the development of appropriate
human resources required to drive industry?
 Professional bodies mediation to narrow the gap between
industry and academia?
 Regulatory bodies facilitation of a regional qualification
framework for accreditation and mobility of engineers?
 Motivation of young entrepreneurs and academics to
promote innovations and their commercialization?
 What lessons can be drawn from the industrialized world?
3. Approaches for integration and capacity building
While the initiatives such as NUSESA and EEEP were
largely successful, their major challenge was lack of continuity.
Innovative approaches were therefore imperative to cope with
the combination of dynamic changes brought on by the 4th
Industrial Revolution (4IR) as well as the skills deficit [8]. This
was one of the motivations to build on the NUSESA and EEEP
achievements while addressing the shortfalls using a holistic
systems thinking approach that involved all stakeholders in the
development and consumption of human resources. So far there
has been evidence of cohesiveness based on the engagements
with local industries, professional and regulatory bodies as well
as policy-makers, judging from the interest and buy-in from
these stakeholders. This is largely due to the holistic approaches
that have been taken with the win-win mantra for all
stakeholders and thus the expected continuity and sustainability
of the capacity building scheme.
There are many methodologies that have been put forward
by different researchers for resolving product and industrial
design challenges such as the functional and knowledge based
approaches dealing with the product-working functionality and
user-interface, both of which can be resolved using techniques
such as the waterfall (continuous flow), concurrent or
simultaneous engineering [20]. However, this paper focusses
on the soft approaches of thinking, both in design and systems,
through problem based learning and industrial based learning
using industrial secondments and collaborations with industry.
3
3.1. Design thinking
According to the World Economic Forum, virtually all
professions have evolved over the years and critical skills are
required in the future, to cope with the 4IR and the upcoming
Digital Ecosystem (5IR) [21]. This will revolve around such
key issues such as; complex problem solving, critical thinking,
people management, collaborations etc. in an integrated
manner. One of the subsets of the various critical thinking
strategies, particularly for science, engineering and technology
is design thinking. While DT may be regarded as divorced from
other professions and the perception that it may be a preserve
of engineering designers, it is actually an iterative process that
can be employed to have a clear appreciation of the holistic
elements that make up a design process system. This involves
the users, their function, assumptions, and expected
deliverables in the process of identifying alternative strategies
and solutions that may not be immediately clear without an
appreciation of their interconnections. It has been used as a way
for critical thinking and problem-solving in a practical manner
[22]. The focus for DT is on the customers or the end-users of
which the problem will be solved, hence the need to constantly
iterate on such issues as the real nature of problem, assumptions
used, the impact and implications of the eventual outcome.
The nature of DT in resolving complex and often unclear
problems was the motivation in bringing it onto this research to
solve the skills deficit by taping from it, the human-centered
ways, generation of alternative options, experimentation and
practical approach to the final solution. While there are many
variations to DT, the development of this research employed
and focused on; understanding what operational problems the
various sectors of the local industry needed, the skills gap,
cognitive mapping of assumptions and creating innovative
ideas to circumvent the skills deficit and provide appropriately
skilled engineers to drive industry. The engagements with local
industry partners in this regard has been a marked success,
judging from the buy-in and financial support from some of the
industry players. A model of the proposal has been
implemented and has so far shown some interesting outcomes,
the full testing and impacts of which will be carried out in 2021.
3.2. Systems thinking
Whereas the saying, “The whole is more than the sum of its
parts” [23] may pose some mathematical challenges, the ideas
of relationships between system elements and not just the
mathematical addition has been used successfully to resolve
complex issues in strategic management [24]. This project was
partially premised on the assumptions that, if the problem
cannot be solved by the traditional engineering design, then the
solution probably required an approach outside this sphere,
hence the need for integration. Systems thinking, a
methodology that has been employed in various sectors,
focusses on the way the elements that make up the system
interconnect and behave to produce desired functions. The
behavior of a system, driven by its elements, results from the
effects of adjusting, reinforcing and balancing processes for a
desirable outcome. While such systems are in operation, it is
vital to observe their behavior.
 Wilson R. Nyemba et al. / Procedia CIRP 91 (2020) 770–775
4 Nyemba et al./ Procedia CIRP 00 (2020) 000–000
It is necessary to continually adjust the feedback (control) in
order to improve the outcome. Based on the principle that a
system consists of more than just its elements, connections with
other distant systems usually exist. Each element within a
system was important and frequently relationships exist
between individual components. It was within this context
during the development of the project, a number of factors and
system elements were considered for the comprehensive
training and imparting of relevant skills for industry. The
approach was further refined to include interdependences,
synthesis and mapping interactions between system elements
that were not necessarily technical but social or multi-faceted
[23].
The research employed a systemic philosophy and systems
thinking methodology of reductionism, synthesis and mapping
through engagements with various stakeholders that included;
policy-makers for the provision of an enabling environment for
developing human resources, HEIs and the role they played in
ensuring that the skills imparted on graduate engineers were
relevant and appropriate for industry, the contributions by
industry to ensure that HEIs produced graduates, ready to drive
industry, professional and regulatory bodies’ facilitation of
accreditation and mobility of engineers as well as bridging the
gap between industry and academia. Different approaches were
used to engage the various stakeholders and these ranged from
meetings, industrial secondments and work studies by
concentrating on available technologies, training programs and
policies employed.
3.3. Problem based learning
There are many approaches that have been adopted around
the world to enhance the training and boost the skills of
practically based courses such as those in Science, Engineering
and Technology. Problem Based Learning (PBL) is a student-
centered technique in which students learn about a course
through the experience of solving an open-ended problem [25].
PBL focusses on solving problems with no known solution but
enables the development of desirables skills and attributes
through the generation of unique and valuable solutions.
Although it was originally developed for the health sciences, it
has since been expanded to other areas such as engineering and
technology.
As part of this ongoing project and taking advantage of the
new curriculum at most HEIs, all engineering students are now
required to undergo industrial attachment at the end of their
third year in university. This project has proposed to go further
and set up teams at various companies where each student will
be required to take up a particular role within the team and then
alternate after a set duration to allow all the students to have a
feel of all the roles they may be required to play upon
graduation. The roles will be aimed at sharpening the students’
reasoning and thinking towards providing a constructive
solution. In addition, the engineering academics who will
follow up these students on attachment, will not only gain
access to modern equipment and technology in the process but
will also facilitate learning and the acquisition of appropriate
skills by supporting, guiding, monitoring and assessing the
students.
773
In the process, the engineering academics will also gain
experience and confidence in dispatching their duties as
lecturers to other students, thereby expanding their
understanding and knowledge of industrial systems. The buy-
in from industry has tremendously helped in shaping this
project in that a number of industry problems have been
identified and translated to practical student projects. PBL
provides an opportunity to engineering academics and students
to diversify from the traditional teaching and learning methods,
which in some cases have been difficult to achieve particularly
in view of the variation and mismatch of equipment used in
training and that which is used in production in industry.
3.4. Industrial based learning
As an extension of, or in conjunction with PBL, another
approach that has been employed in the industrialized world is
Industrial Based Learning (IBL). This is a philosophy that has
been adopted to learning from an industry perspective where
traditional engineering courses such as thermodynamics, fluid
mechanics, electronics have been taught practically, in the
context of application of the knowledge derived from them to
industrial product designs, development and operations of
systems [26].
While in some instances, companies opt to remunerate and
motivate the students during their internships, this is not the
thrust for this project but to provide support to ensure that
whether it’s the engineering academic or student, are able to be
placed at the company and carry out IBL tasks as set out at the
beginning. The partnership that has been established for this
project involves virtually all the major engineering disciplines.
For engineering academics in particular, this project has set
aside a provision to ensure that the seconded personnel are
catered for and not disrupted during the course of their
secondment which can be taken during their sabbatical leave.
Therefore, IBL deliberately merges theory with practice,
accredited by the HEI where the student’s skills and
requirements are matched with those for industry. The periods
during IBL will also be used as opportunities to identify the
most suitable placement for a student after graduation, in order
to make maximum use of their potential. The combination of
PBL and IBL in this project, using design and systems thinking
in the previous sections gave rise to the novel Industrial Design
Thinking (IDT), an approach that has been adopted in the
expanded version of HEP SSA.
4. Higher Education Partnerships for Sub-Saharan Africa
HEP SSA was born out of a realization that a lot could be
achieved by expanding the original objectives to include
centers of excellence, promotion of innovations, regional
collaborations and more refined secondments to industry using
the IDT approach. The aims and objectives of addressing
engineering skills shortage in Sub-Saharan Africa and to
showcase engineering’s role in driving economic development
in the region, remained the same albeit with a thrust towards
innovation, industrialization and entrepreneurship. The major
focus for this project is in strengthening ties and relationships
between industry and academia in order to enable university
774 Wilson R. Nyemba et al. / Procedia CIRP 91 (2020) 770–775
Nyemba et al./ Procedia CIRP 00 (2020) 000–000
systems in Southern Africa to produce engineers with the skills
and knowledge that match the requirements of local industries
in capacity building and the provision of appropriate solutions
to local problems. As shown in Fig. 1, the project has
maintained the hub and spoke arrangement as was the case in
EEEP. The UZ is currently the hub, working in collaboration
with four local HEIs, three additional regional HEIs and one
UK partner. The industry partners were carefully selected to
represent the major disciplines. For a holistic and systems
thinking approach to addressing the skills deficit, other key
partners such as the Government of Zimbabwe, professional
and regulatory bodies are also within this partnership. While
the broad aim for this partnership will be to improve and
enhance engineering and entrepreneurial skills and bringing
industry closer to academia, this is expected to be achieved
through; establishment of a regional network of engineering,
creation of centers of excellence to offer specialized
professional development courses including doctoral training,
secondments of academics to industry to gain experience and
monitor students on attachments, biennial conference on
science, engineering and technology that will feed into a
regional journal, also to be established out of this project.
Fig. 1. UZ HEP SSA partnership in Southern Africa
5. Discussion and recommendations
The various initiatives that have been supported by
organizations such as Sida (NUSESA) and RAEng (EEEP,
HEP SSA 1, & HEP SSA 2) have been instrumental in
augmenting support for local HEIs from their governments.
While this support has gone a long way in enhancing
engineering skills within the region, some of the earlier projects
had to be terminated when funding came to an end and thus
affecting continuity. One of the major challenges was the
minimal buy-in from local industries and their governments
which could have assisted in sustaining the noble initiatives.
Significant and sustainable investment in engineering and
technology is a vital necessity to improving facilities in HEIs,
particularly those offering engineering education. During the
last couple of years when these initiatives were executed,
engagements and re-engagements with industry and policy-
makers were made. Recommendations were also made from the
previous initiatives and this resulted in a number of
interventions.
5
The Government of Zimbabwe has enacted a new
Education 5.0 policy with strategic thrusts and focus on
industrialization and innovation in addition to the traditional
teaching, research and community service by university
academics. In order to support this thrust, innovation hubs and
industrial parks have been established at all HEIs in Zimbabwe
to provide a platform for incubation before commercializing
students’ and academics’ innovations. In addition, the UZ has
also established new senior positions in strategic partnerships
and industrialization as well as research and innovation. These
interventions will certainly complement the efforts proposed in
this project while ensuring that the new curricula that now
incorporates industrial attachments, is fully realized in the
development of human resources and resolving the skills
deficit. In line with the need to closely monitor student
activities in industry, most of the HEIs have now employed full
time Industrial Liaison Officers.
While these are commendable efforts, more investment will
still be required, especially by way of contributions to human
resources development by local industries. The response from
industry has so far been enthusiastic and encouraging, where
some of them have actually provided financial assistance to
support the initiative. One way in which a win-win situation can
be achieved to bring industry closer to academia would be to
consider the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) phenomenon,
where industry with resources can purchase equipment and
HEIs with expertise can provide consultancy and research
services using that equipment. That way, duplication may be
avoided while at the same time, engineering academics will
have access to modern equipment and technology.
The dynamic, turbulent and rapid changes in technology
requires well skilled engineers to cope with the effects the
ongoing 4th industrial revolution and prepare the workforce for
tomorrow to be able to adapt and deal with the 5th industrial
revolution (Digital Ecosystems). Furthermore, attention has to
be taken away from an isolated or standalone way of resolving
industrial challenges but looking at how to develop and manage
smart factories using artificial intelligence and machine
learning, but more so in an integrated manner with other
professionals outside science, engineering and technology.
This can only be realized by collaborating with all key
stakeholders in a holistic and systems thinking approach.
Clearly, if the countries in the region are going to achieve long-
term progress and the UN's Sustainable Development Goals to
improve the lives of ordinary people, there is need to improve
engineering education.
6. Conclusions
Sub-Saharan Africa faced challenges of shortages and
mismatch of engineering skills required to drive industry. A
number of initiatives, funded from various organizations have
assisted in enhancing engineering training and resolving the
skills deficit. However, these have not been sustainable due to
limited buy-in from local stakeholders. Buoyed by the success
of the EEEP, a team from the UZ developed a proposal to build
on the achievements of these initiatives while addressing and
resolving challenges using a systems thinking approach. This
involved engagements and re-engagements with industry,
 Wilson R. Nyemba et al. / Procedia CIRP 91 (2020) 770–775
6 Nyemba et al./ Procedia CIRP 00 (2020) 000–000
policy-makers, other HEIs, professional and regulatory bodies
using the novel approach of Industrial Design Thinking (IDT).
Funding has been secured from the RAEng and this is aimed at
addressing the skills deficit and bringing industry closer to
academia for capacity building and sustainability through
regional integration, industrialization and commercialization of
innovations. Although this project is expected to run until 2021,
the outcomes so far have been encouraging, evidenced by the
buy-in and support from policy-makers and industry.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support
provided by the Royal Academy of Engineering from the pilot
EEEP phase in 2013 through to the expanded HEP SSA in
2015. The team is also very grateful for the collaboration and
partnerships with other universities; NUST, CUT, ZNDU and
HIT, all from Zimbabwe, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane
from Mozambique, NUST, Namibia, University of
Johannesburg, within the region, and the University of
Leicester from the UK. Local industry partners, Econet,
Masimba Holdings, Pretoria Portland Cement, Chamber of
Mines of Zimbabwe, SINET Africa, Postal and
Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe,
Engineering Council of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Institution of
Engineers as well as the Government of Zimbabwe through the
Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science
and Technology Development for supporting the formulation
of this initiative and being part of the founding network
members.
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