I concur on every post above having to do with knowing the process by visiting the factory. Visit a factory wherever the center of that things production happens to be. Different countries approach things differently, German factories for example, awesome automation and machine control. China factories, scale. American factories, ingenuity.
For an advanced degree, every designer should do the following
- Spend more than five months at year working and developing at factories. Beats the typical work flow of reviewing each iteration on a seperate trip, especially large projects with multiple parts and technologies coming together. [ personally: Quebec, California, Italy, China]
Live at the factory and design in the front office to be able to implement the ideas. Half the battles with new ideas ar convincing the factory that you know what you are talking about and the presence makes you “in touch” as well as a fantastic education. [ California, Italy, China]
Design a factory from the ground up. Not only eat eat your own dog food, make your own dog food grinder. 
. [Quebec, California, Utah]
Design production machinery to make the unmakeable. [California, Italy, China]