A Sustainable LEGO Adaptation of Billington’s Lean Manufacturing Pedagogical Activity
John K. Visich and Yasamin Salmani
Bryant University, USA
Volume 17: 2023, pp. 61-82; ABSTRACT
As the business school curriculum moves to more interactive learning methodologies such as flipped classrooms and student led discussion, faculty need to be more creative in keeping students engaged in the learning environment. In this paper, we discuss our experiences using the pedagogical game from the literature “A Classroom Exercise to Illustrate Lean Manufacturing Pull Concepts” (Billington 2004), and a modified, more sustainable adaptation of the game that we developed. Billington’s (2004) activity uses printer paper to make paper airplanes, while our version deploys reusable LEGO pieces to build cars. The game requires active participation and or observation on the part of the students, and survey results indicate positive perceptions of learning outcomes from the exercises. The aggregate scores for the LEGO adaptation are statistically significantly higher than for the aggregate paper airplane scores. A pre- and post-exercise quiz was given to the students, with both male and female students showing a significant score improvement in the post-exercise quiz.
Keywords: active learning, pedagogical exercise, push versus pull production, assembly lines
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