Students of CEED—an Australia-based program that links university engineering students with industry and government companies to complete specific on-site projects as part of their studies—are contributing significantly to the success of manufacturing projects, including those focused on making processes leaner or more productive. During the 2009–2010 financial year alone, CEED students helped 28 companies make combined cost savings of about  $1.5 million (Australian). The average CEED manufacturing project during this period provided a return on investment of more than 330 percent for the client.

The original CEED program was developed by Rowland Cearns in the Department of Communication and Electrical Engineering (from which the acronym CEED was derived) at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) and trialed in the department from 1984–1987. It was designed to integrate industry-based training with mainstream undergraduate education to better prepare students for their role in industry.

 …