Industrial Engineering is System Efficiency Engineering. It is Machine Effort and Human Effort Engineering. 2.26 Million Page View Blog. 193,075 visitors.
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Knowledge Management: A Basic Ingredient for Productivity - Asian Productivity Organization.
The management of ideas and knowledge is crucial for innovation as well as productivity. Knowledge is perceived as a key factor of production. Knowledge management (KM) is a discipline focused on ways that organizations create and use knowledge. Implementation of KM initiatives is to enhance individual, team, and organizational capability in delivering the services and achieving the missions in a better way.
Knowledge Management - Acquiring, Organizing and Distributing Knowledge for Profitable Use.
Industrial engineering is knowledge intensive task. Industrial engineers have to work over wide range of activities and they have to be better than the engineers who designed the original systems and processes to suggest a redesign. Industrial engineers have to be rapid learners of engineering knowledge in the specific area they are focusing at the moment for analysis. Hence knowledge management is very important.
Industrial engineers are to be supported by a good library having many engineering books. In addition they need to collect catalogues and trade literature. Industrial engineers have to suggest redesigns and implement them as early as possible in practice. So they need to know all technologies, raw materials, machines, tools and parts commercially available in the market. So they need to collect and keep the trade literature. No doubt, the digital databases of engineering materials and parts would make the knowledge acquisition more quick and economical.
Within the company and profession, industrial engineers have to set up knowledge management systems to help them to share their knowledge and access the knowledge developed by others.
The knowledge gathered in the IE department has to be organized in process wise files. Then whenever, the complete process is taken up for improvement study, all the knowledge gathered up to that date can be profitably utilized in the improvement exercise.
IE departments can consider collecting news likely to be useful in improving their processes. IE associations can also make arrangements of collecting and publishing engineering news in their websites.
I tried to some extent to collect engineering news.
Process Improvement - Productivity Analysis and Productivity Engineering.
Industrial engineer analyzes each process into its ultimate, simple elements, and compares each of these simplest steps or processes with an ideal or perfect condition and modifies the element appropriately. - F.W. Taylor - Hugo Diemer.
Prof. Hugo Diemer - Taylor's Industrial Engineering
Industrial engineer has to analyze each and every input that goes into an operation and examine its productivity aspect. Lubricant is an input into various machines and it has productivity and cost implications.
Lubricant consolidation is the practice of selecting lubricants, stocking only what is necessary for optimal machinery performance on-site.
Survey every lubricated machine and component in the entire facility and identify the lubricants that are in use. Collect pertinent data from each machine; say for electric motors, HP, speed, frame size and other operational and environmental data.
Next, collect the name, make and type of every lubricant in the lube room, as well as any other lubricants in the plant.
Study each machine and component to outfit it with hardware, recommended lubricant, sampling, inspections, etc.
Consider all of the collected information and come to a recommendation for all of the greased components and all of the oiled components.
A new recommended list lubricants having current lubricants in use and available lubricants on market is made. Recommend lubricants based on a codified approach called a Lubricant Identification System (LIS) Code which is brand neutral.
Once the recommendations are formulated, they are sent to the facility for approval by the stakeholders involved. Explanations are provided, and a review is done for this approval process. Once the lubricants are approved, new lubrication instructions are prepared.
Properly dispose of all the lubricants that are not in use. This has two benefits: it opens up space in the lube room for current and recommended lubricants and ensures that the incorrect lubricants randomly found throughout the plant are not accidentally used.
The Final Step: Optimization
It is time to optimize the lubricants that are on-site. “Consolidation” isn’t necessarily the right word to use. Instead, “optimization” is much more accurate. You now have the correct lubricants on-site. The result of the procedure is an optimized selection of lubricants, ensuring the right lubricant is selected for each machine.
We optimize a lube list by assigning specific greases and oils based on the machine data and operational and environmental parameters. This could mean that now the facility only utilizes four greases instead of eight greases; one for high-speed, one for low-speed, one for couplings and one for electric motors, for example. However, that is not always the case. Some lubricants fit the viscosity and additive parameters for multiple machine types, but some lubricants will only meet the parameters of one specific machine. The consolidate and optimize procedure of lubricants is to extend machinery life and optimize machinery performance.
Tired of lubricants losing their viscosity and film-forming ability in changing temperatures? Chempol’s thickeners and Viscosity Index Improvers are the perfect solutions. Our products are specially formulated to maintain viscosity improver additive across a wide range of temperatures. Don’t let temperature fluctuations affect your lubricant performance. Choose Chempol’s viscosity index improvers for superior and reliable lubrication.
Find 5 new engineering developments every day in elements related to facilities, products and processes in your organization and assess their use. Best Practices in #IndustrialEngineering
High-performance perflouropolyether (PFPE) lubricants are inert, water- and oil-repellant, solvent-resistant, non-flammable, non-toxic. They are compatible with most common elastomers, plastics and metals. PFPE lubricants maintain their performance under extreme temperatures, extreme pressure and exposure to harsh chemicals.
Hydrocarbon or silicone-based lubricants are used relube components on a daily or weekly. With PFPEs, that need to relube is greatly reduced and the personnel doing that activity can be deployed in other tasks. The wear of components come down due to better lubrication property and the downtime caused by the frequent replacement of worn out components goes down.
An example
One copper rod manufacturer was lubricating its roller bearings operating at temperatures of more than 200 degrees C (400 degrees F), every four hours with a synthetic hydrocarbon grease. The company executives believed that was the longest-lasting lubricant available. When they were approaches by a supplier of PFPE lubricants and were given information, they agreed to try the alternative solution. The relubrication frequency was set to a monthly interval. They observed that montly interval relubrication work well and annual bearing failures reduced by nearly 98 percent. Only 4 bearings were replaced compared to 186 bearings per year earlier. The cost analysis showed a total annual savings of $66,920 due to reduced maintenance costs, parts costs and production downtime.
November 04, 2019 | Source: Global Market Insights, Inc (GLOBE NEWSWIRE)
According to a report by GMI, global perfluoropolyether market is slated to cross US$ 480 million by 2025. The PFPE market may witness significant growth from 2019 to 2025 due to increasing utilization of high temperature resistant lubricants in order to main machines and equipment efficiency. Perfluoropolyether lubricants offer exceptional stability.
Tired of lubricants losing their viscosity and film-forming ability in changing temperatures? Chempol’s thickeners and Viscosity Index Improvers are the perfect solutions. Our products are specially formulated to maintain viscosity improver additive across a wide range of temperatures. Don’t let temperature fluctuations affect your lubricant performance. Choose Chempol’s viscosity index improvers for superior and reliable lubrication.
Development of computer engineering, software engineering, and information technology have led to development of the area of business process industrial engineering.
The article, "The New Industrial Engineering: Information Technology and Business Process Redesign" by Thomas H Davenport, Professor, Department of Management Information, MIT School of Management in MIT SMR is the formal starting point of this area of industrial engineering.
He wrote, "Our research also suggests that IT can also have a stronger role in business process redesign than that of useful tool. ... Thinking about information technology should be in terms of how it supports new or redesigned business processes, rather than business functions or other organizational entities. And thinking about business processes and process improvements should be in terms of the capabilities information technology can provide. We refer to this broadened, recursive view of IT and BPR as the new industrial engineering."
Conradie, investigated the IE perspective of business intelligence for his PhD thesis.
An Industrial Engineering Perspective of Business Intelligence
Over the period of 1977 to 2022, I observed that many industrial engineering graduates have successfully become systems engineers and managers of IT systems. Compared to the migration of industrial engineering graduates toward manufacturing process design and systems design, the migration to IT systems and processes area is huge. Industrial engineering graduates and industrial engineers in response to the demand for system engineering specialists in IT area learned the new technology and successfully implemented many systems in leading companies of the world. The activity is still going on very successfully. Industrial engineers are embracing artificial intelligence and machine learning in a big way in the current years.
An Interesting Question.
What is the recommended process chart for business process industrial engineering?
Maturity of Business Process Management - Ingenics Model
The course's first module is introduction to industrial engineering. It starts with history of industrial engineering.
The second module describes the fundamental IE concepts initiated by Taylor, Gilbreth, Emerson, Gantt. In the second generation industrial engineers the contribution of Maynard and Barnes are highlighted. Then we have Japanese contributions. The contribution of Shigeo Shingo is specially included.
The developments in industrial engineering since 1880 were formulated into a discipline of engineering in 1908 by Prof. Diemer. The developments up to 2017 were summarized as principles of engineering by Narayana Rao and were presented in the IISE Annual Conference at Pittsburgh. The paper is part of the proceedings of the conference.
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The third module takes the principle of productivity science forward.
The following modules are the discussion of the principle of productivity engineering, the primary engineering activity or the primary activity of industrial engineering.
2. F.W. Taylor, made comments in ASME Annual meetings.
3. F.W. Taylor presented paper discussing cost aspects of belt transmission practices and gave his suggestions for minimizing costs associated with belt transmission systems.
4. F.W. Taylor presented a paper outlining a system to increase productivity of machine - man combination (A department to study time taken by machines and men and minimize the time taken was advocated. Time study. This department became industrial engineering department).
4a. The need for an engineer who understands cost aspects of engineering decisions was outlined. Such an engineer was called as industrial engineer or production engineer. (Harvard Business School faculty member 1901)
8. Industrial engineering course was started in Penn State College by Prof. Diemer in 1908.
9. Principles of Scientific Management was published by F.W. Taylor. Productivity science, Productivity Engineering, and Productivity Management was proposed in these principles (1911).
10. C.B. Going authors the book, Principles of Industrial Engineering in 1911.
12. Time study according to Taylor is breaking a task (process and operation) into elements and examining every feature and its relation to time taken to complete the element. Taylor advocated study of number of operators doing the same element to identify the method of doing the element in minimum time. Thus a best practice is identified and based on this and other observation, development of productivity science of the element has to be developed. Time measurement is involved, but more important is understanding the relation between various features and time taken.
An operation has to be improved by selection of elements each taking minimum time (combination of best practice elements.)
13. Motion study is to be done by recording motions of each hand of the operator (Gilbreth). Workmen use different motions when they want to do fast work. Even Gilbreth advocates study of multiple operators to identify the fastest motions giving quality work. Gilbreth recognized time measurement to identify the fastest methods of doing work.
14. Process Chart was proposed by Gilbreths in 1921 to record the process in terms of operations or tasks of different categories.
Therefore we can see the role of element improvement, operation improvement and process improvement in total improvement of processes.
16. A factory has many processes being used parallely. Production of each part is a process. Factory facilities are to be selected to maximize efficiency of processes. Processes have to take less time and cost less.
17. H.B. Maynard developed a popular predetermined human motion measurement system (MTM).
18. Based on observations of motions, Gilbreth developed principles of motion economy - part of productivity science of human effort. Prof. Barnes did number of experimental studies on these principles.
19. The engineering done by industrial engineers to increase productivity can be categorized into three important areas. Facilities Industrial Engineering, Product Industrial Engineering, and Process Industrial Engineering
20. The main methods of product industrial engineering are value analysis & value engineering and design for machining & assembly. Value analysis identifies opportunities for value improvement. Value engineering develops the concepts for improvement and does the detailed engineering to implement the concept.
21. Process industrial engineering uses process charts to describe the process (say process of producing a part) comprehensively in terms of operations. The operations included in the process are termed as operation (material processing or transformation), inspection, transport, storage and temporary delays. Industrial engineers have to improve each of the operations in terms of improving its elements to increase productivity and reduce cost.
22. Process level analysis is termed ECRS method. E stands for examining the effectiveness of operation in contributing to the completion of the process. If the output of the operation is not satisfactory to the customer, it has to be modified first to make it effective. Only effective operations have to examined for increasing efficiency without affecting effectiveness. Effectiveness first, efficiency next is to be a principle of industrial engineering. E also represents eliminate. If the operation is redundant or can be eliminated by changes in any other operation, it can be totally removed from the process. The possibility of such an occurrence has to be investigated.
C represents combining two operations in sequence. This is reducing of division of labor in the process. Similarly even the possibility of splitting an operation further and doing it on two different machines or work stations can also be examined. This is increasing division of labor.
R represent rearrangement of operations. The sequence of operations is changed to get productivity advantage.
S stands for simplification or improvement of the operation. For doing it operation analysis needs to be done.
In a process, 5 types of operations are identified. Material processing, inspection, transport, storage and delay. Operations occur in processes. For each operation included in the process, a detailed operation detail sheet has to be prepared for analyzing the operation and improving it. Analyzing the operation involves evaluation of engineering and managerial elements. Industrial engineers need to have full knowledge of the elements related to the processes under their management. Then only they can identify waste and improvement opportunities based on the questions raised in the analysis.
24. Material Processing Operations
Machines, material, men and many other consumable materials, energy and information are used in material processing operations. In manufacturing, it is engineering that drives this operation. Industrial engineers need to have full knowledge of basic production processes or methods, various machines and accessories, cutting tools and other consumable used. The core elemental activities involved are information transfer, setting up the machine, loading the work piece, machining or machine activity, and unloading the work piece, and operator inspection of the incoming material, in-process work piece and finished work piece.
25. Inspection Operations
Normally in a process chart practice, the inspection carried out by a specially designated inspector is included as this operation. To improve inspection operations, the IE has to know in detail the measuring instruments and measuring processes.
To do productivity engineering of processes, Industrial engineers have to learn new technology as it appears.
Moving Beyond Islands of Experimentation to AI Everywhere
The agile teams needed to kick-start artificial intelligence must give way to companywide structures in order to scale the technology across a business.
Company has to make the technology available and train persons. In the case of industrial engineering, it is industrial engineers who have to evaluate and implement AI in each element of the processes as appropriate and rational. No doubt process designers have to implement AI in each of the processes. The AI technology team has to train process designers and industrial engineers in engineering
SUPPLY CHAIN INDUSTRIAL ENGINEER at DOLLAR GENERAL
Location Longview, Texas
Date PostedMay 21, 2023
Category Engineering
Job Type Permanent
Description
Dollar General Corporation has been delivering value to shoppers for more than 80 years. Dollar General helps shoppers Save time. Save money. Every day. by offering products that are frequently used and replenished, such as food, snacks, health and beauty aids, cleaning supplies, basic apparel, housewares and seasonal items at everyday low prices in convenient neighborhood locations. Dollar General operates more than 18,000 stores in 47 states, and we re still growing. Learn more about Dollar General at
Job
Supply Chain Industrial Engineering position will work in one of our six regions and will be responsible for our processes and procedures, engineered labor standards, maintaining our labor management system, continuous improvement, data analytics, and project management. This position will be responsible for the development, testing, change management, and execution of the all the key engineering focus areas to achieve our expected safety, quality, and productivity goals.
The individual for this position must have strong foundations in all IE principles and must understand general distribution processes and operations. The individual for this position also will serve as a change agent with our operations partners and must be able to drive execution of our process and procedures.
DUTIES and ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS:
Processes and Procedures (25%) Develop, implement, and maintain preferred methods and standard operating procedures for all warehouse functions.Evaluate current processes and procedures through process mapping to identify opportunities to improve safety, quality, and productivity. Training and coaching exempt leadership around new methods or compliance and opportunities around current processes, methods, and procedures.
Engineering Labor Standards & Labor Management Systems (30%) Development and maintenance of engineered labor standards through predetermined systems such as MOST, MTM, MSD, etc. Conduct time studies and analyze time study data.Maintain labor management system layouts, setup, and standards. Training and coaching of exempt leadership team on utilization of labor management systems and standards.
Continuous Improvement25%Root cause analysis including observations, developing recommendations, and implementing improvement opportunities to improve safety, quality, and productivity.Develop, identify ROI, present, and implement cost saving opportunities through key LEAN and Six Sigma principles.
Data Analytics & Data Mining10%Data mining of large data sets to understand key opportunities in relationship to safety, quality, and productivity.Present data findings to operations team in a way that can be interpreted and actioned.
Project Management10%Develop project plans and action items to support key company initiatives. Support key improvements through proper plan-do-check-act process.
KNOWLEDGE and SKILLS:
Thorough knowledge of key distribution processes including the development and implementation of methods, process steps, and standard operating procedures.
Thorough knowledge of distribution operations including building setup, labor planning, slotting optimization, etc.
Thorough knowledge of work measurement disciplines to including engineering labor standards, time study, methods time measurement, master standard data, etc.
Thorough knowledge or labor management systems and tracking (Blue Yonder, Manhattan, etc.)
Lead change management processes with ability to translate recommendations into clear and precise functional requirements.
Strong analytical, decision making, and problem-solving skills
Perform advanced analysis including process mapping, simulation, statistical modeling, and process re-engineeringKnowledge of distribution process improvement methodologies (lean, Six Sigma, etc.)
Strong influencing skills with internal stakeholdersAbility to handle confrontational situation in a mature and professional manner
Proficiency in Microsoft excel and Microsoft Office Suite
Strong organizational and project management skills
Strong communication skills within all tiers of the organizationExcellent written, oral, and interpersonal skills
WORK EXPERIENCE and/or EDUCATION:Bachelor s degree in Industrial Engineering or related field required. At least 5 years of warehouse experience required. An equivalent combination of education and experience may be substituted.Ability to travel up to 75%.
Dollar General Corporation Names David A. Perdue, Jr. CEO
April 03, 2003
Perdue earned a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering and a master's degree in operations research from Georgia Institute of Technology. He is a director of Alliant Energy Corporation and is on the Georgia Tech Advisory Board.
Dan Madison is a principal in Value Creation Partners. He facilitates process improvement using lean, six sigma, reengineering, and continuous improvement techniques. Dan is the author of Process Mapping, Process Improvement, and Process Management.
Dan Madison has studied what a business process should look like for fifteen years. He studied what major corporations did in process improvement that made them successful and distilled his findings into design principles that anyone can use. He has come up with 38 design principles that apply to all business processes.
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 1995. Information Technology for Manufacturing: A Research Agenda. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/4815.
Systems efficiency engineering is one of the focus areas of industrial engineering according to me. The other area of focus is human effort engineering.
Functional design of a system and efficiency design of system are different activities. In mechanical engineering, design of a mechanism and design of machine elements to implement the mechanism are different activities. A machine requires first a mechanism design and then machine element design. Then somebody has to do a process design to manufacture each element and then assemble them into an assembly. Similarly functional design of a system and efficiency design of a system are two different activities under division of labor.
Is efficiency engineering a new word that I am coining for the first time? No. Efficiency engineering was used in the past by many authors and thinkers. The new thing that I want to emphasize is the difference between functional engineering or design and efficiency engineering or design. Industrial engineering has focused on efficiency of systems.
References to Efficiency Engineering
Efficiency Engineering – Requirements for Tools from Industrial Practice
Andreas Möller*, Martina Prox**
University Lüneburg, Scharnhorststr.1, 21335 Lüneburg, Germany
I am now conceptualizing the two areas of efficiency engineering as Human Effort Engineering and Systems Efficiency Engineering.
THE CORE PURPOSE OF SYSTEM EFFICIENCY ENGINEERING IS TO BROKER KNOWLEDGE WITHIN OUR NETWORK TO SOLVE PROBLEMS WITHIN A SYSTEM AND IMPROVE ITS OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY. WE BUILD LASTING RELATIONSHIPS WITH CLIENTS BY ENABLING THEM TO OUTSOURCE COMPLEX PROBLEMS AND OPPORTUNITIES FACING THE FIRM TO OUR DEDICATED TEAM FOR ANALYSIS AND INPUT. OUR SERVICES INCLUDE HELPING CLIENTS SOLVE AND IMPLEMENT CHANGE AND ADAPTIVE PROGRAMS, COMPLETE FEASIBILITY STUDIES OR ASSIST IN INNOVATION AND ITS MANAGEMENT. WE CONSIDER EVERY PROCESS AND ENVIRONMENT AS A SYSTEM AND THEREFORE HAVE THE CAPACITY TO ANALYSE AND SCRUTINISE SYSTEMS IN A RANGE OF SECTORS TO IMPROVE THEIR EFFICIENCY FOR LONG-TERM SUSTAINABILITY AND HEALTHIER FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE.
Scientific Management, as it was called, involved the application of the scientific method to understand business problems and improve workplace efficiency. Previously, most managers lacked quantitative data and information and thus often relied on hunches and educated guessed to manage their business. By the early 1900’s, Scientific Management evolved into “efficiency engineering” with its main focus being optimization of a single process (i.e. point optimization), and then later “industrial engineering” whose focus expanded to system optimization – i.e. improvement of interrelated processes.
Industrial engineering as system efficiency engineering and human effort engineering - Narayana Rao
The system uses resources and system efficiency is attained by ensuring resource efficiency that is getting more out of each resource used by engineering systems. This view of industrial engineering is adopted and used by many organizations and academic departments.
F.W. Taylor, credited as father of industrial engineering has done efficiency improvement of machines and men and thus did system efficiency engineering, machine effort industrial engineering and human effort industrial engineering.
Increase the efficiency of engineering departments
Lean Engineering: A process to increase the efficiency of engineering departments
Lean Engineering is a continuous improvement process designed to increase the efficiency and horsepower of engineering departments within manufacturing companies to make them more competitive in their marketplace.
The goal of a Lean Engineering initiative is to increase the amount of valid engineering data (Engineering Intelligence) produced per dollar invested in your engineering assets.
Achieving engineering efficiency plays a pivotal role in helping you not only reach your goals, but increase productivity, reduce costs and give you a leg up on your competition.
Lean Six Sigma Engineering: Developing efficient and waste-free designs (the Lean aspect), as well as those that are defect and error-free (the Six Sigma aspect). https://www.whatislean.org/lean-engineering/
Industrial Engineering – efficiency improvement of your production
Industrial engineers help keep Oregon companies competitive by developing efficient processes using materials, machines, information, energy, and workers to make a product or provide a service.
Knowledge, skills, and abilities required for industrial engineering are also given in the article.
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Lecture delivered on 17 July 2018
As an industrial engineer, you'll find ways organizations create waste during production and replace those outdated systems with ones that work efficiently.
Industrial engineers work now to utilize machine learning and robotics for faster, more efficient production processes, and ensure that manufacturing systems don't fall obsolete.
Industrial engineering programs prepare you to face this reality and utilize all engineering disciples for innovative systems. https://www.edx.org/learn/industrial-engineering Accessed on 7 July 2019
Human factors alone cannot improve the operational efficiency of an aeroplane. A wider, ‘system perspective’ is required.
The human factors that relate to technological developments in aviation
Innovation in Aeronautics
2012, Pages 132-154 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9781845695507500070
Asset management systems are a class of software and hardware applications used in the process plants for the efficient and optimum utilization of the equipment.
Chapter 16 - Asset management systems
Industrial Process Automation Systems
Design and Implementation
2015, Pages 479-506 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780128009390000164
Many interesting results are there system efficiency engineering in Google search (9 Nov 2021)
Improvement of the engineering efficiency in a systems engineering context, case of automotive products and related manufacturing systems engineering
Process Engineering is also an established discipline with bachelors and masters degrees. Industrial engineering is also an established discipline. So there is a difference between them even though both deal with processes. Industrial engineering is more specific with its focus on productivity, efficiency and cost. Industrial engineering's involvement in process improvement is its productivity focus and productivity related improvements that give cost reduction and waste elimination.
Process engineering is the comprehensive engineering that brings a process into existence and effectiveness. A process designer has to first establish a process that gives the desired output from specified material inputs. Once a process is certified for effectiveness, many iterations of improvement are done on the process to improve it in various dimensions to make it a commercially feasible and profitable quality product. Many specialized engineering branches, specializing in dimensions of performance were created to help the process designers. For example industrial engineering, quality engineering and reliability engineering disciplines focus on specific dimensions of performance.
Process engineering is similar to industrial engineering; many job duties overlap with each other. However, industrial engineering focuses more on how to make general production processes more efficient.
Comparing Industrial Engineers to Process Engineers
Industrial engineers and process engineers are both involved in producing items. Industrial engineers focus more on the manufacturing process while process engineers may consider product design improvements, changes to the materials used and revising the manufacturing process or technology used.
Responsibilities of Industrial Engineers vs. Process Engineers
The main objective of an industrial engineer is to make manufacturing more efficient.
They look for ways to improve the manufacturing process so that companies can save money. Their work requires them to study a number of factors, such as schedules, the order of operations involved and types of equipment used so that they can determine ways to make modifications that will reduce the time and money needed to complete products.
Process engineers are involved with all aspects of production. Their work can involve producing design plans for new products or modifying existing schematics to improve existing products. They look for ways to change the design, materials and method of production to correct malfunctions, improve performance and save money.
Process engineering is the understanding and application of the fundamental principles and laws of nature that allow humans to transform raw material and energy into products that are useful to society, at an industrial level.
By taking advantage of the driving forces of nature such as pressure, temperature and concentration gradients, as well as the law of conservation of mass, process engineers can develop methods to synthesize and purify large quantities of desired chemical products. Process engineering focuses on the design, operation, control, optimization and intensification of chemical, physical, and biological processes. Process engineering theory and methods are used in a vast range of industries, such as agriculture, automotive, biotechnical, chemical, food, material development, mining, nuclear, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, and software development.
Process engineering and industrial management. Dal Pont, Jean-Pierre. London: ISTE Ltd. 2012.
Process engineering: Complete overview with examples and tips.
Software for process engineering today
One of the key software vendors in this field is CAD Schroer. With its M4 P&ID FX software it provides a comprehensive solution for process engineering design.
Process engineering is the engineering science of material transformation.
Mechanical process engineering involves the changes in material properties (e.g. particle size), and composition (concentration), due to mechanical effects.
Process Engineering Problem Solving: Avoiding "The Problem Went Away, but it Came Back" Syndrome
Joseph M. Bonem
John Wiley & Sons, 26-Sep-2008 - Technology & Engineering - 296 pages
Avoid wasting time and money on recurring plant process problems by applying the practical, five-step solution in Process Engineering Problem Solving: Avoiding "The Problem Went Away, but it Came Back" Syndrome. Combine cause and effect problem solving with the formulation of theoretically correct working hypotheses and find a structural and pragmatic way to solve real-world issues that tend to be chronic or that require an engineering analysis. Utilize the fundamentals of chemical engineering to develop technically correct working hypotheses that are key to successful problem solving.
Industrial and systems engineering (ISE) is concerned with the design, improvement and installation of integrated systems of people, materials, information, equipment and energy. It draws upon specialized knowledge and skill in the mathematical, physical, and social sciences together with the principles and methods of engineering analysis and design, to specify, predict, and evaluate the results to be obtained from such systems.
The Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE), is an international, nonprofit association that provides leadership for the application, education, training, research, and development of industrial and systems engineering.
Industrial and systems engineers make things better in any industry.
What is industrial and systems engineering? (IISE official definition)
Industrial and systems engineering is concerned with the design, improvement and installation of integrated systems of people, materials, information, equipment and energy. It draws upon specialized knowledge and skill in the mathematical, physical, and social sciences together with the principles and methods of engineering analysis and design, to specify, predict, and evaluate the results to be obtained from such systems.
IISE is recognized internationally as:
The leading provider of cutting-edge continuing education in industrial and systems engineering.
The acknowledged source of productivity improvement information via the Internet, publications, webinars, podcasts, and live events, including an annual conference, topical conferences, and career-enhancing courses.
https://www.iise.org/details.aspx?id=716
WHAT INDUSTRIAL & SYSTEMS ENGINEERS DO
The most distinctive aspect of industrial and systems engineering is the flexibility it offers. Whether it's shortening a rollercoaster line, streamlining an operating room, distributing products worldwide, or manufacturing superior automobiles, these challenges share the common goal of saving companies money and increasing efficiencies.
As companies adopt management philosophies of continuous productivity and quality improvement to survive in the increasingly competitive world market, the need for industrial engineers is growing. Why? Industrial and systems engineers are the only engineering professionals trained specifically to be productivity and quality improvement specialists.
Industrial engineers figure out how to do things better. They engineer processes and systems that improve quality and productivity. They work to eliminate waste of time, money, materials, energy and other commodities.
ISEs make processes better (more productive) in the following ways:
More efficient and more profitable business practices
Improved efficiency
Increased ability to do more with less
Making work safer, faster, easier and more rewarding
Are You Benchmarking Productivity and Cost of Your New Processes ?
Many consultancy organizations are predicting productivity increases due to digital transformation of manufacturing and business processes.
Industrial engineers have an additional task now. They have to provide benchmarking information to aid the design of new processes in their organization. The benchmarking information has to be gathered at process level, operation level and element level. The information is to be used appropriately. Element level information is the most useful. Information at process level may or may not be available for the processes of an organization.
After a new process is designed, industrial engineers have to evaluate it from the productivity perspective and try to benchmark it once again as possible. The benchmarking exercise can provide the leads for improvement at the time of next productivity improvement study.
2021
Productivity Is About Your Systems, Not Your People
AI and other digital technologies have been surprisingly slow to improve economic growth. But that could be about to change.
By Erik Brynjolfsson and Georgios Petropoulos
Productivity growth, a key driver for higher living standards, averaged only 1.3% since 2006, less than half the rate of the previous decade. But on June 3, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that US labor productivity increased by 5.4% in the first quarter of 2021. What’s better, there’s reason to believe that this is not just a blip, but rather a harbinger of better times ahead: a productivity surge that will match or surpass the boom times of the 1990s.
Process Designers have to take note and design more productive processes.
