BUILDING THE POM CURRICULUM FOR A PRIVATIZING ECONOMY: AN EVALUATION FROM MANUFACTURERS‘ PERSPECTIVES

Manufacturing in Eastern European countries is in transition to open-market competition. One transitional issue is university education for operations managers from the perspective of business practitioners. Survey responses by 203 manufacturing professionals from 83 companies provide recommendations for operations management education at the University of Sibiu in Romania. The recommendations substantially reorient curricula that traditionally prepared students for professions in centrally controlled economies rather than for open-market competition. The redesigned curriculum has an educational advantage in its integration of production, marketing, and engineering, all under one college of engineering. However, the curriculum is inconsistent with some tenets of quality management and just-in-time production. Also, survey data imply a need for coverage of competitive manufacturing strategy that, currently, is underrepresented in the curriculum.