IP: 45.148.234.27 On: Sat, 25 Jul 2020 21:38:42 Copyright: American Scientific Publishers Delivered by Ingenta RESEARCH ARTICLE Copyright © 2020 American Scientific Publishers All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Journal of Computational and Theoretical Nanoscience Vol. 17, 1044–1052, 2020 Problem Solving Skills Among Graduate Engineers: A Systematic Literature Review Murugan Subramaniam 1 * , Aini Najwa Azmi 1 , and Muhammad Khair Noordin 2 1 Doctoral Candidate in Social Science and Humanities, Faculty of Education, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM, Skudai, Johor Darul Takzim, Malaysia 2 Senior Lecturer in Social Science and Humanities, Faculty of Education, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM, Skudai, Johor Darul Takzim, Malaysia Industrial Revolution 4.0 has been one of the most popular topics discussed among engineers. In the near future the non-technical skills will be equally or more important than technical skills. Moreover, IR4.0 will incur job displacement and majority of the task will be taken over by robots and Artificial Intelligent (Tapsir, S.H. and Puteh, M., 2018. Framing Malaysian Higher Education 4.0). Therefore, priority will be given to non-technical skills which cannot be done completely by the robots and Artificial Intelligentat the moment. NACE Job Outlook 2019 (To, F., et al., 2019. Job Outlook 2019, (November 2018)) shows Problem Solving Skills is the second most important skill sought by employers; Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control (DMAIC), 8-Disciplinary and Plan- Do-Check-Act (PDCA) are the very common systematic approaches used by the industries to solve the problem arose in the industrial environment. The studies show that the problems cannot be solved by using the same kind of thinking approach applied at the moment it was created. Therefore, a systematic analytical skill is required to handle the engineering related problems happening at manufacturing environment or engineering workplace. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the existing literature about Problem Solving skills for graduate engineers through a systematic literature review. This paper analyses literature through electronic databases mainly from Scopus and Web of Science. This paper summarizes types of problem-solving skills applied in the engineering field as of now. Based on that, engineers can differentiate and understand the approach of the problem- solving skills in the industrial environment to improve the failures and increase productivity. Keywords: Workplace Competence, Problem Solving Skills, Manufacturing, Engineering, Ontology, Lean, Quality, Statistical Process Control. 1. INTRODUCTION Analysis based on student-learning studies indicates that university graduates did not necessarily develop the skills demanded by the company. There is some gap in between skills required by the industries and skills being developed by universities. Industries reinforce non-technical abili- ties such as communication, decision-making, problem- solving, leadership, emotional intelligence, and social ethics. The survey showed universities mainly focusing in developing technical skills compared to non-technical skills [3]. The university graduates have to prepare their self to adapt with globalized working environment which is full of real work problems. In addition, university grad- uates must be prepared to work with individuals of distinct cultural backgrounds [3]. Although, there are many types * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. of non-technical skills required in many engineering work- ing environments; the problem-solving skills still remain as the most needed skill by the employers [2]. In current scenario, the employers are practicing many techniques and programs to ensure engineering students take initiative to strengthen their problem-solving skills. Many industries are introducing reward giving programs, salary increment and promotion to higher position for solving problems, therefore engineering students should learn how to solve workplace problems. The problems arose in workplace and classrooms are totally different. As a conclusion, learning to solve classroom problems does not necessarily develop the skills to solve work place problems [4]. The purpose of this literature review is to (i) address the common problem- solving techniques applied in the engineering workplace and (ii) identify the competency gap in between problem solving techniques for future improvement. 1044 J. Comput. Theor. Nanosci. 2020, Vol. 17, No. 2/3 1546-1955/2020/17/1044/009 doi:10.1166/jctn.2020.8766