Joint Meeting of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast Regions

Virtual Plant Tours

• In Event: Teaching Case Studies Roundtable

Abstract

When teaching managerial or cost accounting, an important area of teaching relates to the manufacturing cycle. This consist of important elements of product costs and inventory including raw materials, work-in-process, finished goods, factory overhead, and cost of goods sold. The learning process for students is enhanced by actually witnessing all of these processes take place in a manufacturing setting. An actual plant tour is a great way for students to see this process, but this is not always a practical alternative for most universities. We suggest using a video tour of the Nissan plant in Smyrna, TN, and the Apple plant in China to help students visually see and understand this process. These YouTube videos are shown to students after covering the related course material and it helps improve the learning experience related to this topic.

Authors

• Veronica Paz, Indiana University of Pennsylvania

• Timothy S. Creel, Lipscomb University

• Christina M Olear, Penn State University - Brandywine