The persons in leadership roles in industrial engineering discipline have failed industrial engineering discipline. Peter Drucker, the management guru highlighted the issue. They have not augmented industrial engineering discipline adequately and ceded ground to other professional associations mainly because they pursued short term incomes following the latest successful fad without developing the IE discipline through appropriate research and method development and improvement efforts.
IE is very broad in its foundation purpose to contribute to any technology developed in any engineering branch. Similary is it has the mandate to respond to any development in management or in any social science. Developments in other subjects strengthen IE. They do not weaken its purpose or practice.
Lean Has Failed!
Jim Womack in Planet Lean
On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Lean Enterprise Institute and the 10th anniversary of the Lean Global Network – Womack said that he was thinking about the original promise of the lean movement created by the books "The Machine That Changed the World in 1990" and "Lean Thinking in 1996.“
Failures of lean is an idea in that thinking.
The article by Michel Baudin discusses the issue further.
https://michelbaudin.com/2017/09/03/where-lean-has-failed-jim-womack-planet-lean/
I made a comment on it. I have taken important points from others comments and replies. You can read full comments from the above Baudin's post.
Narayana Rao KVSS
SEPTEMBER 11, 2017 @ 10:00 PM
Comment on LinkedIn:
I attended the 2017 Annual Conference of IISE and presented Principles of Industrial Engineering. Lean systems as systems having 50% or 100% productivity advantage was a correct description for what TPS achieved in comparison to other earlier productive organizations. It is a wrong strategy to ignore the earlier productivity improvement discipline “industrial engineering’ altogether. The lean movement would have succeeded to a more extent if industrial engineers were included in the strategic thrust right from the start. Yes, still what Womack says is right. The lean transformation of systems giving a significant boost to productivity has to be continued by finding root causes for the delay in transformation projects and lower than expected results.
A reply by Ashok Motwani
Where is an evidence that industrial engineering was ignored when Lean ‘movement’ was started and was part of some strategy?
My reply Narayana Rao KVSS
SEPTEMBER 11, 2017 @ 10:11 PM
Yes. The books on lean by Womack actually criticized IE. They did not interpret lean as an advance in IE or productivity movement. They did not recommend adding lean section in IE. They recommended a separate lean promotion office without any reference to IE department. In the Pittsburgh conference, I actually heard from professional IEs, that they were ignored by the lean movement.
Michel Baudin replied
There are many types of engineering involved with manufacturing, but essentially ignored by the bulk of the “Lean movement.” Under the Lean flag, people like Art Smalley or JT Black and myself. did not ignore them.
Process engineers work on the physics and chemistry of the manufacturing process in laboratories; manufacturing engineers on process planning in the factory or shop floor. industrial engineers work on the shop floor to improve the process on a continuous basis to reduce costs further.
Social scientists downplay the engineering dimension of TPS because they don’t understand it.
Lonnie Wilson then commented
I am amazed that Womack and other academics who studied rather than implemented Lean have become such thought leaders. "I would add that the key is to understand it. That understanding comes from actually doing it….and doing it as a manager within a company, rather than doing is as a consultant at arms length…"
REPLY
Michel Baudin
Good managers don’t always make good consultants and vice versa. The two are different professions, best suited for different personalities and require different skill sets.
In manufacturing, before becoming consultants, I think people should first put in 5 to 10 years as engineers or managers in a manufacturing company after coming out of school. If they are comfortable in that environment and adept at managing their careers in it, they are better off staying and rising through the ranks.
Lean Manufacturing Story - Pierson Workholding - 2018
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZd2Bj-wfqk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8MQhX3QPEE Pierson Workholding factory tour.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPUmY8WnnpU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUpbbK104Zg
Updated 6.12.2020
First published 29.11.2019
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