Year three features a major group design and make project over the full year, making up a third of your studies. In addition to compulsory manufacturing modules, you will study a range of optional modules in manufacturing, operations management and human factors. This provides you with the flexibility to tailor the course to your interests.
Group Design and Make
The project involves four or five students, working as a team to design, manufacture and develop a product. Starting from the design brief prepared by the supervisor, the group will be required to devise and evaluate alternative design concepts, undertake the detailed engineering analysis and mechanical design, manufacture a prototype, evaluate its performance and undertake development work to improve it. Assessment of the financial viability and marketability of the product will be a major requirement.
Engineering Management 2
This module introduces students to concepts and methods relevant to engineering management, with an emphasis on the commercial engineering context.
Topics include introductions to the following:
- impact of digitisation and automation
- operations planning and control, operations management
- financial planning
- financial accounting
- financial analysis
- innovation and new technology
- quality management
- marketing
- new business formation
- business models
- the lean organisation
- management of people
- foundations of contract Law
Engineering Sustainability – Energy, Materials and Manufacture
This module provides students with an awareness of the world resources and use of energy and material resources, factors affecting their patterns of consumption, and their environmental impacts. The economics and technologies of energy and materials supply, product manufacture, and waste disposal are also studied.
The module gives students an understanding of key principles to evaluate the potential for emerging opportunities to cost-effectively address environmental concerns of current practices.
Topics typically include:
- Drivers for sustainability, including patterns of energy use, material consumption, waste generation, and associated environmental impacts in UK and globally.
- Factors influencing the availability of non-renewable and renewable energy and material resources.
- Principles for the efficient use of energy resources including energy use in buildings, heat and power generation, and heat recovery systems.
- Life cycle assessment of engineering activities, with focus on greenhouse gas and air pollutant emissions, their impacts, and mitigation measures.
- Economic analysis of investments in energy savings, material substitution, product design, and value recovery from end-of-life products; Cost-benefit analysis incorporating environmental externalities; and the role of government regulations in influencing business decisions.
Flexible Automated Systems (spring)
This module introduces the important aspects of advanced automated manufacturing principles. It aims to help you develop a sound understanding of flexible automated manufacturing solutions. Through case studies, you’ll study their role in the context of current and future manufacturing challenges, as well as their advantages and limitations. Topics include:
- computer integrated manufacturing
- implications of mass customisation on automated manufacturing systems
- the impact of enterprise agility on their manufacturing facilities
This module covers:
- Basic airframe structure
- Airframe component manufacturing techniques
- Joining techniques
- Assembly technology
- Composite structures
- Jigless assembly and automated manufacture
- Basic aero-engine structure
- Geometry and material constraints
- Manufacturing processes: forging, casting, welding and joining techniques, special processes, small and non round hole manufacture
- Certification, verification inspection and quality control
Method and Frequency of Class:
Activity |
Number of Weeks |
Number of sessions |
Duration of a session |
Lecture |
11 weeks |
1 week |
2 hours |
Seminar |
10 weeks |
1 week |
2 hours |
Workshop |
8 weeks |
1 week |
2 hours |
Method of Assessment:
Assessment Type |
Weight |
Requirements |
Coursework 1 |
30.00 |
Group Project: FMS design for product families. |
Coursework 2 |
10.00 |
Lab report |
Exam 1 |
60.00 |
1.5 hour exam |
Manufacturing Automation
The aim of the module is to introduce students to the fundamental concepts of manufacturing automation, present key automation technologies in manufacturing and their advantages and limitations.
The module will introduce the relevant theoretical background and fundamental concepts of different automation approaches and technologies. The focus will be placed on the role of sensors, CNC machine tools, industrial robotics and programmable logic controllers within different manufacturing contexts. Methods and indicators for quantitative production performance and cost analysis will be covered as well.
Aerospace Manufacturing Technology
This module covers a range of topics relating to basic airframe structure. Airframe component manufacturing techniques, automated manufacture, geometry and material constraints will be covered.
This module typically includes:
- Basic airframe structure
- Airframe component manufacturing techniques
- Joining techniques
- Assembly technology
- Composite structures
- Jigless assembly and automated manufacture
- Basic aero-engine structure
- Geometry and material constraints
- Manufacturing processes: forging, casting, welding and joining techniques, special processes, small and non round hole manufacture
- Certification, verification inspection and quality control
Method and Frequency of Class:
Activity |
Number of Weeks |
Number of sessions |
Duration of a session |
Lecture |
12 weeks |
1 week |
2 hours |
Method of Assessment:
Assessment Type |
Weight |
Requirements |
Exam 1 |
100.00 |
Unseen 2 hours |
Computer Aided Engineering
In this module you will start to develop one of the key skills for an engineer – that of being able to program. You will gain the skills required to analyse, design and implement solutions to practical engineering problems through the use of computer aided design tools and the development of software based solutions.
Computer Engineering and Mechatronics
The module provides an introduction to computer hardware and software engineering, with particular application to mechatronics.
The module typically includes the following topics:
- System design
- programming languages and compilers
- programming
- types of signals
- linking programming and hardware via simple interfacing
- sequences and state machines
- data conversion
- aspects of software engineering including procedural and object-oriented design and version control
- sensors and actuators
- real-time computing and the programming of microprocessors
Fibre Reinforced Composites Manufacturing
This module introduces the design, manufacture and performance of fibre-reinforced composite materials.
Constituent materials including fibres, resins and additives are described. Processing techniques and the relationships between process and design are highlighted. Design methodologies and computer-aided engineering techniques are demonstrated for component design.
Case studies from a variety of industries including automotive and aerospace are presented.
Method and Frequency of Class:
Activity |
Number of Weeks |
Number of sessions |
Duration of a session |
Lecture |
12 weeks |
1 week |
2 hours |
Method of Assessment:
Assessment Type |
Weight |
Requirements |
Exam 1 |
100.00 |
2 hour exam |
Food Factory Designs and Operations
This module is to provide a level of understanding about the operations of a food factory commensurate with that expected by a manager to include: information on the units operations, appropriate legislative issues, control of goods in and out of the establishment, appropriate hygienic regimes and controlled flows.
Introduction to Transport Materials
The module provides an understanding and knowledge of key concepts in materials science, with particular reference to the use of materials science in the transport industries.
Topics typically include:
- Strengths and weaknesses of metallic alloys, moulded polymers and composites
- Processing-property relationships
- Service conditions and property requirements for a range of automotive and aerospace systems
- Effect of service conditions on material behaviour
- Surface engineering techniques
- Transport materials research overview
Making Metals Perform (Autumn)
This module covers the principles and practice relating to processing, structure and properties of engineering alloys. The emphasis is on understanding the importance of process control to achieve desired properties through the formation of correct microstructural features.
Topics covered include:
- equilibrium microstructural development - construction and interpretation of phase diagrams including quantitative prediction of microstructure
- the kinetics of phase transformations - the TTT diagram and diffusionless transformations
- thermal processing such as precipitation hardening, heat treating and annealing
- forming operations for metal alloys
- practical examples using important metal alloy systems such as steels, aluminium alloys and Nickel superalloys.
Method and Frequency of Class:
Activity |
Number of Weeks |
Number of sessions |
Duration of a session |
Lecture |
11 weeks |
1 week |
2 hours |
Method of Assessment:
Assessment Type |
Weight |
Requirements |
Exam |
100.00 |
2 hour exam |
Managing Business Operations
This module explores the strategic importance of operations in business management, within and across organisations, and in addressing environmental and societal challenges. Organisations in this module refer to organisations from the public, private and third sectors; service and manufacturing.
Examples of topics include:
- value and performance
- the links with other business functions
- sustainability
- product and service innovation
- managing the supply chain and network
- resource management
- excellence through improvement and quality
Managing Service Operations
This module will include topics that will help students to appreciate the growing importance of services, and understand the operations function in service industries. This module aims to illustrate the growing importance of services in today's economy and provide an appreciation of the issues involved in managing the operations function of service organisations.
Management of Quality
This module aims to develop your understanding of quality management. It begins by introducing you to the ways in which thinking about quality has developed historically. You’ll discuss different definitions and concepts of quality and the specific quality management needs in the manufacturing and service sectors.
Manufacturing Process Selection and Capability (autumn)
The module will give students in-depth understanding of technical capability of modern manufacturing processes in relation to product design. The aim of the module is to develop students’ abilities to understand and assess the capability of single and combined manufacturing processes. You’ll spend two hours in lectures and two hours in seminars each week when studying this module.
Plant Location and Design
This module provides an understanding of the factors which influence a company's choice of location, and of how to approach the design of layouts to support a company's strategic objectives and maximise the efficiency of its operations.
Supply Chain and Operations Planning
This module will introduce you to:
- supply chain fundamentals, including: the supply chain planning processes and the need for them
- planning processes and methods, including: forecasting; aggregate planning; MRP; capacity management; theory of constraints (TOC); JIT (kanban); inventory management
- IS/IT support for planning including ERP systems
- planning through the supply chain, examining the challenges in different contexts through case studies