Industrial Design Case Study: A 24-Hour Hot Meal Vending Machine
Spanner's work for Yo-Kai Express
By Rain Noe - March 29 in Design Business
https://www.core77.com/posts/131295/Industrial-Design-Case-Study-A-24-Hour-Hot-Meal-Vending-Machine
Yo-Kai Express
https://www.yokaiexpress.com/location
https://www.vendekin.com/hot-food-vending-machine
Sheldon Ross Wins 2024 TAA Textbook Award
March 29, 2024
Introduction to Probability Models was honored with the McGuffey Longevity Award from the Textbook and Academic Authors Association.
Daniel J. Epstein Chair and Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering Sheldon Ross has been recognized by the Textbook and Academic Authors Association (TAA).
Ross has been awarded a 2024 TAA William Holmes McGuffey Longevity Award for his textbook Introduction to Probability Models, which was first published in 1972. The textbook has been used extensively by professionals and in undergraduate courses in applied probability.
The McGuffey Longevity Award recognizes textbooks and learning materials whose excellence has been demonstrated over time.
Ross received his B. S. degree in Mathematics in 1963, M.S. degrees in mathematics in 1964 and his Ph.D. degree in statistics from Stanford University in 1968.
Ross served as a Professor at the University of California, Berkeley from 1976 until joining USC in 2004.
He serves as the editor for Probability in the Engineering and Informational Sciences, the advisory editor for the International Journal of Quality Technology and Quantitative Management, and an editorial board member of the Journal of Bond Trading and Management. Ross is the author of Introduction to Mathematical Finance: Options and Other Topics, Simulation, A First Course in Probability, Probability Models for Computer Science.
The award will be presented at the TAA Awards Ceremony on Friday, April 26th, 2024.
https://viterbischool.usc.edu/news/2024/03/sheldon-ross-wins-2024-taa-textbook-award/
One Year - March 2023 to March 2024
Total Visits 298 K
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McKinsey Quarterly
The human side of generative AI: Creating a path to productivity
March 18, 2024 | Article
https://wayne.edu/people/ac7940
https://today.wayne.edu/news/2024/03/13/darin-ellis-honored-for-work-on-behalf-of-wayne-states-first-year-students-61826
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=NQxxWb8AAAAJ&hl=en
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Prof. K.V.S.S. Narayana Rao
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IISE Album
https://www.flickr.com/photos/iise/albums/72157681799602003/
IME Penn State University Album
https://www.flickr.com/photos/psuengineering/albums/72157681129458334/with/34064850763
Thomas named IISE Fellow
Michael Foss (left), IISE Past President, presents Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus Warren Thomas with the IISE Fellow Award at the 2017 IISE Annual Conference and Expo.
2017 IISE Annual Conference & Expo-A glance to the future of ISE research
MAY 23, 2017 / LOPEZ BENSCOME
TMU. Most predetermined motion time systems (MTM and MOST) use time measurement units (TMU) instead of seconds for measuring time. One TMU is defined to be 0.00001 hours, or 0.036 seconds.
Chapter 5
REACH is the basic element employed when the predominant purpose is to move the hand and/or fingers to a destination or general location.
The predominant purpose of the motion is the deciding factor in classifying it as a reach. Holding or palming a light, small item such as a screw- driver, pliers, or scissors while moving the hand does not justify classifying the motion as a move rather than a reach. For example, in the needle trades, a scissors is often held in the palm of the hand while other operations such as reaching from the cloth on the working area in front of the operator to a bin containing pins are performed. The motion to the bin should be classified as a reach if the predominant purpose is to get the hand in a position to pick up some pins for the next operation.
Chapter 6
Move
Definition
MOVE is the basic element employed when the predominant purpose is to transport an object to a destination.
The predominant purpose of the motion is the deciding factor in classifying it as either a reach or a move. If the hand holds an object as an incidental fact to the reason for the motion, a reach will be performed. Basically, then, the decision as to predominant purpose hinges on the reason for moving the hand—was it to relocate the hand, or was it to relocate the object? Answering this question will clarify the kind of transport motion involved.
Turn may be defined as follows:
Turn is the motion employed to turn the hand either, empty or loaded by a movement that rotates the hand, wrist, and forearm about the long axis of the forearm.
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015003722058&view=1up&seq=156&skin=2021
Engineered work measurement; the principles, data, and techniques of methods-time measurement, modern time and motion study, and related applications engineering data, by Delmar W. Karger and Franklin H. Bayha.,
CHAPTER 9 Turn
Definition
TURN is the basic motion employed to revolve the empty or loaded hand by an action which rotates the hand, wrist, and forearm about the long axis of the forearm. While pure Turns as defined above do sometimes occur in industrial operations, they occur more frequently in combination with Reaches and Moves. This fact has led to statements by some sources that Turn is a special way of performing a Reach or Move. Such is not the case. While it is true that Moves and Reaches may include performance of the basic motion Turn, this does not preclude the ability of the worker to accomplish pure Turns alone.
CHAPTER 10
RELEASE LOAD
The basic element that requires the shortest time of any to perform is Release Load. Values of 1.7 TMU and 0 TMU have been assigned to the two cases thus far established. Undoubtedly the value of 1.7 TMU is high. It was obtained as the result of the measuring procedure employed when collecting data. Even in slow-motion pictures, Release Load is often found to consume only one or two sixty-fourths of a second, which would give values of approximately .4 or .8 TMU.
Release Load is so quick that its presence must usually be determined by analysis rather than by observation. In compiling the methods-time data, it was thought possible that Release Load might be ignored altogether in application. It was found after numerous checks with and without recognizing Release Load that the accuracy of the results was somewhat increased by including time for releasing. This may be attributable to the manner in which the data were compiled, i.e., time may have been assigned to Release Load which actually belongs to Move and Reach. Regardless of this, however, since the recognition of Release Load increases the accuracy of the methods-time data in application in their present form, it should be included in the manner outlined below.
DEFINITION OF RELEASE LOAD
Release Load is the basic element employed to relinquish control of an object by the fingers or hand.
The opening of the fingers, or hand, permitting the part to be free, as shown by Fig. 53, is the motion employed. It should be noted that, like Grasp, the definition limits the basic element of Release Load to releases which are performed with the hand only. If a part is released by opening a pair of tongs, it is accompanied by performing the basic element Move.
CHAPTER 11
DEFINITION OF DISENGAGE
Disengage is the basic element employed to break the contact between one object and another, and it is characterized by an involuntary movement occasioned by the sudden ending of resistance.
chapter 12
Walking
Operations that involve walking occur frequently in industry. Therefore a detailed study of walking time and methods is necessary if the method-time data are to be applied to this class of work.
Source
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015003722058&view=1up&seq=130&skin=2021
Engineered Work Measurement: The Principles, Techniques, and Data of Methods-time Measurement Background and Foundations of Work Measurement and Methods-time Measurement, Plus Other Related Material
Delmar W. Karger, Franklin H. Bayha
Industrial Press Inc., 1987 - Work measurement - 503 pages
Includes extensive information on I.E. and work measurement software. Focuses on the MTM material that has been refined for more than three decades. Provides accurate answers to all questions regarding MTM-1 found in the MTM Association for Standards and Research MTM-1 Examinations. Covers the minimum work measurement background essential to all who must understand and apply MTM-1.
https://books.google.co.in/books?id=K-JSTQ0tkkkC
MOST Work Measurement Systems, Third Edition,
K. B. Zandin
CRC Press, 19-Dec-2002 - Technology & Engineering - 552 pages
This book is an essential guide for those in training for their MOST® certification and a great value to anyone looking to enhance their marketability to prospective employers. Revised to accommodate the evolving needs of current and emerging industries, the third edition clarifies the working rules and data card format for BasicMOST®, MiniMOST® and MaxiMOST®, presents a thorough description of the application of AdminMOSTTM, a version of BasicMOST® for measuring administrative tasks in retail, banking and service environments, and contains new photographs and illustrations. It is an excellent resource for practicing professionals and newcomers in the fields of industrial engineering and management.
A Long Case Study Using MTM, Therbligs and Process Charts
Improving the process of Assembling and Unassembling an Electric Mosquito Swatter
19 min read
·
Sep 17, 2022
26 April
Industrial engineers add value to systems and processes by reducing the cost. The cost can be estimated cost or actual cost. At the design stage it is estimated cost. Value engineering studies in construction project designs are example of estimated cost reductions. It is done routinely in USA.
Industrial engineering departments are not reporting their achievements through the annual financial statements of their companies. They have to take courage and prepare annual reports of their department and ask their company management to make them public.
Value Creation Model for Industrial Engineering - Productivity Engineering
https://nraoiekc.blogspot.com/2020/03/value-creation-model-for-industrial.html
Part of
A to Z of Industrial Engineering - Principles, Methods, Techniques, Tools and Applications
https://nraoiekc.blogspot.com/2018/06/a-to-z-of-industrial-engineering.html
What do you do if you want to excel in leadership and secure a promotion in industrial engineering?
Powered by AI and the LinkedIn community
https://www.linkedin.com/advice/1/what-do-you-want-excel-leadership-secure-zylde
The Certified Quality Engineer (CQE) is a professional who understands the principles of product and service quality evaluation and control. This body of knowledge and applied technologies include, but are not limited to, development and operation of quality control systems, application and analysis of testing and inspection procedures, the ability to use metrology and statistical methods to diagnose and correct improper quality control practices, an understanding of human factors and motivation, familiarity with quality cost concepts and techniques, and the knowledge and ability to develop and administer management information systems and to audit quality systems for deficiency identification and correction.
CQE
Computer Delivered - The CQE
examination is a one-part, multiple
choice 175-question exam and is
offered in English only. 160 multiple
choice questions are scored and 15
are unscored. Total appointment time
is five-and-a-half hours, exam time
is 5 hours and 18 minutes.
Paper and Pencil – The CQE
examination is a one-part,
160-question, five-hour exam and is
offered in Mandarin and Korean in
certain locations.
INFORMATION
For comprehensive exam information on the Quality Engineer certification,
visit asq.org/cert.
The ASQ Certified Quality Engineer
D. Measurement and Test
1. Measurement tools
Select and describe appropriate
uses of inspection tools such as
gage blocks, calipers, micrometers,
optical comparators, and coordinate
measuring machines (CMM).
(Analyze)
2. Destructive and
nondestructive tests
Identify when destructive and
nondestructive measurement test
methods should be used and apply
the methods appropriately. (Apply)
E. Metrology
Apply metrology techniques such as calibration, traceability to calibration
standards, measurement error and its
sources, and control and maintenance
of measurement standards and devices.
(Apply)
F. Measurement System Analysis (MSA)
Calculate, analyze, and interpret repeatability and reproducibility (gage R&R) studies, measurement correlation, capability, bias, linearity, precision, stability and accuracy, using MSA quantitative and graphical methods. (Evaluate)
V. Continuous Improvement (26 Questions)
A. Quality Control Tools
Select, construct, apply, and interpret the
following quality control tools:
1. Flowcharts
2. Pareto charts
3. Cause and effect diagrams
4. Control charts
5. Check sheets
6. Scatter diagrams
7. Histograms (Analyze)
B. Quality Management
and Planning Tools
Select, construct, apply, and interpret
the following quality management and
planning tools:
1. Affinity diagrams
and force field analysis
2. Tree diagrams
3. Process decision
program charts (PDPC)
4. Matrix diagrams
5. Interrelationship digraphs
6. Prioritization matrices
7. Activity network diagrams
(Analyze)
C. Continuous Improvement
Methodologies
Define, describe, and apply the following
continuous improvement methodologies:
1. Total quality management (TQM)
2. Kaizen
3. Plan-do-check-act (PDCA)
4. Six Sigma
(Analyze)
D. Lean tools
Define, describe, and apply the following
lean tools:
1. 5S
2. Value stream mapping
3. Kanban
4. Visual control
5. 8 Wastes
6. Standardized work
7. Takt time
8. Single minute exchange
of die (SMED)
9. Overall equipment effectiveness
(OEE) (Evaluate)
E. Corrective Action
Identify, describe, and apply elements of
the corrective action process, including
problem identification, failure analysis,
root cause analysis, 5 Whys, problem
correction, recurrence control, and
verification of effectiveness. (Evaluate)
F. Preventive Action
Identify, describe, and apply various
preventive action tools such as error
proofing/poka-yoke, and robust design,
and analyze their effectiveness. (Evaluate)
VI. Quantitative Methods and Tools (34 Questions)
A. Collecting and Summarizing Data
1. Types of data
Define, classify, and compare
discrete (attributes) and continuous
(variables) data. (Apply)
2. Measurement scales
Define and describe nominal,
ordinal, interval, and ratio scales.
(Understand)
3. Data collection methods
Describe various methods for
collecting data, including tally or
check sheets, data coding, automatic
gaging, data automation, database
integration, and identify the strengths
and weaknesses of the methods.
(Apply)
ASQ Quality Engineer Handbook
https://asqassets.widen.net/s/txq7mpvlmj/43718-cqe-cert-insert
Quality Metrology Engineer (2024 advertisement)
Brunk Industries, Inc., a globally recognized industry leader specializing in high precision metal components for the Medical device industry, as well as other high-tech applications, is currently seeking a Quality Engineer with a strong background in Metrology. If you are motivated by new opportunities and business growth, seek a stimulating and rewarding career, we invite you to join our diverse team of talented professionals. Brunk offers a competitive salary, a wide range of attractive benefits, a flexible work environment and a culture built on innovation and excellence
Job Function:
Manage, develop, and approve development of incoming, raw material, all process, final inspection testing, and documentation responsibilities in accordance to Brunk Quality System to ensure that all components meet specifications.
Responsibilities:
Complete documented training and fully understand all SOPs/WIs that apply to the Engineer duties.
Develop and initiate standards and methods for inspection and testing. Automate inspection process using OGP Measuremind 3D and Zone 3 software’s.
Perform and analyze capability studies, GR&R’s, FAI reports on products in development phase.
Work with Manufacturing Engineering and Operations to update and maintain Process Flows, Process Control Plan and FMEA.
Provide training and mentoring of quality functions.
Manage and/or coordinate process troubleshooting and/or improvement activities.
Promote teamwork and effective communication within the department as well as peers and management.
Required Skills:
Broad knowledge of high-volume precision metal stamping process and metal finishing processes.
Advanced knowledge of programming CMMs and automated vision systems/OGP using Measuremind 3D and Zone 3 software’s.
Advanced knowledge and ability to interpret blueprint/drawing.
Advanced knowledge and ability to interpret GD&T.
Advanced knowledge and ability to interpret SPC using advanced statistics in JMP and Minitab.
Advanced knowledge and ability to interpret internal, customer, federal, and international specifications.
Advanced knowledge of micrometers, calipers, indicators, comparators and force testers.
Advanced knowledge of Microsoft Excel and an ERP system.
Excellent documentation practices, highly detail oriented.
Excellent communication skills, work independently while maintaining a team environment.
Education:
Minimum educational requirements listed below may be substituted by relevant experience, learned competencies and/or certifications obtained throughout one’s career.
4-year degree in Engineering or equivalent work experience is preferred.
Minimum 7 years quality experience in a manufacturing setting. Medical device component manufacturing desired.
ISO 13485 or equivalent experience desired.
ASQ Certified Quality Engineer desired.
Please complete an application or submit your resume, including salary history.
Brunk Industries, Inc. Attn: Human Resources, 1225 Sage Street, Lake Geneva, WI 53147
Fax: (262) 249-2479 EOE
https://www.brunk.com/careers/quality-metrology-engineer/
Moving from Quality Assurance to Quality Engineering. A brief history in time and what lies ahead.
Nitin Mehra
Senior Director, Software Engineering at Indeed.com
October 18, 2015
My comment on the article.
Quality is to be produced by the developer. Testing is to be done by the developer and also by user and also by specialist quality staff. Inspection and testing by specialist staff is being termed non-value adding. Quality engineering has to focus on developer first.
The International Journal of Metrology and Quality Engineering (IJMQE) is devoted to articles dealing with applied metrology and quality tools for process improvement in research (in environment, health, food, energy, aerospace, automotive, …). The International Journal of Metrology and Quality Engineering's main focus is related to measurement, sensors and instrumentation, products and systems reliability and safety, conformity assessment, process control, data sciences and quality management.
Quality Engineering by Prof. D.G. Mahato
A quality Engineer is responsible for developing, implementing, and maintaining quality systems and products at all stages and processes. These #systems #measure, #monitor, and #control product quality. The roles and responsibilities include process quality, product quality, work in progress, quality control of incoming materials, Outgoing finished products, Quality system and audit, Framing Quality policies and #procedures etc.
To be a well qualified quality engineer in an industry Bachelors Degree in Engineering is required . Through your education, you'll learn al the essentials of quality needs in an organization, including regulations (both state and national), #documentation, and testing practices. You have to supplement yourself with practical exposure. So your vibrancy, your #dedication, putting your #heart and #soul in learning quality tools and technologies will make your #future bright... Accentuate the Positive; Eliminate the Negative, latch onto the affirmative. This will enable you to build a perfect Quality Engineer.
If yes, then decide to be a Quality Engineer. Great to look for the most evolving profession...
Wrteup by Prof D.G. Mahato
Very interesting write-up. Quality engineers are required in every branch of engineering. Quality is not testing alone. Quality engineer has to know the process of production of goods or services and be able to locate and correct the manufacturing tasks to get quality output. And then he has to train the operators in the modified method.
Ud. 12.3.2024, 27.1.2024
Pub. 11.2.2022
Illustration: Google's Engineering Productivity Department - Evolution of the Department through Automation of Testing. Emergence of Software Engineering Productivity Engineer & Specialist.
2023 BEST E-Book on #IndustrialEngineering.
INTRODUCTION TO MODERN INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING. Free Download.
https://academia.edu/103626052/INTRODUCTION_TO_MODERN_INDUSTRIAL_ENGINEERING_Version_3_0
Industrial engineering is done in products, facilities and processes. Improvements or redesigns are done in products, facilities and processes to reduce the quantities of inputs to produce outputs with the designed effectiveness. Effectiveness first. Efficiency next.
https://nraoiekc.blogspot.com/2023/11/software-development-operation-process.html
10.3.2024
Very happy to notice that in the last year Industrial Engineering Knowledge Center Blog got 0.276 million page views in blog statistics.
-----------------------------
Very happy. Blog registered 2 million page views in blogger statistics on 20 March 2023. This gives the confidence that in the next 3 years 100,000 more persons will visit and read articles from the blog. A good audience which will make the effort spent in writing the blog useful to the society.
20 March Birthday of F.W. Taylor
Last 12 months it is 222K hits and 4K comments.
Ud. 10.3.2024
Pub. 20.3.2023
You can download pdf version.
MODERN INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING. IE OF PRODUCTS, FACILITIES & PROCESSES - Maximum Customer Value. Minimum Cost Value. Minimum Facilities and Minimum Use of Facilities.
https://academia.edu/103626052/INTRODUCTION_TO_MODERN_INDUSTRIAL_ENGINEERING_Version_3_0
INTRODUCTION TO MODERN INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING
Productivity Science
Industrial Engineering Strategy
Facilities Industrial Engineering
Product Industrial Engineering
Process Industrial Engineering
Industrial Engineering Optimization
Industrial Engineering Statistics
Industrial Engineering Economics
Human Effort Industrial Engineering
Productivity Measurement
Productivity Management
Data Processing and Information Systems for Industrial Engineering
Applied Industrial Engineering
Productivity Science: Science developed for each element of machine operation and each element of human tasks in industry.
Detailed Notes - Productivity Science Module of Industrial Engineering
Industrial Engineering Strategy: Industrial engineering is profit engineering. If a company is not employing industrial engineering, it is unnecessarily foregoing profits inherent in the products that it developed and designed to the performance satisfaction of good number of users. Profit conscious managers and owners have to understand and employ industrial engineering to achieve the full profit potential of their products. Certain strategic decisions related to industrial engineering function are to be taken by top management of the organization as part of strategic plan of the organization. Certain strategic decisions are to be taken by the Chief Industrial Engineer. These decisions are part of the focus area of industrial engineering strategy.
Detailed Notes - Industrial Engineering Strategy
Facilities Industrial Engineering: The processes of different products and its components are performed using the facilities of the organization. In designing various facilities of industrial buildings and different facilities within the building, industrial engineering has a role to play. In selection of the equipment used by multiple processes industrial engineering has a role to play. Improvement of machines to increase productivity was done by F.W. Taylor, founder of industrial engineering. Maintenance of various equipment and its overhaul can also be examined by industrial engineers as part of facilities industrial engineering. Layout of the equipment and various production departments decide the amount of material handling and transport within the facility. Layout improvement is an important task of industrial engineering. Hence facilities level industrial engineering or facilities industrial engineering is to be identified as an important area in industrial engineering.
Detailed Notes - Facilities Industrial Engineering
Product Industrial Engineering: Redesign of products to reduce cost and increase value keeping the quality intact.
Detailed Notes - Product Industrial Engineering
Process Industrial Engineering: Redesign of processes to reduce cost and increase value keeping the quality intact.
Detailed Notes - Process Industrial Engineering
Industrial Engineering Optimization (IEOR): Optimizing industrial engineering solutions created in Product Industrial Engineering and Process Industrial Engineering.
Detailed Notes - Industrial Engineering Optimization (IEOR)
Industrial Engineering Statistics: Using statistical tools like data description, sampling and design of experiments in industrial engineering activity.
Detailed Notes - Industrial Engineering Statistics
Industrial Engineering Economics: Economic analysis of industrial engineering projects.
Detailed Notes - Industrial Engineering Economics
Human Effort Industrial Engineering: Redesign of products and processes to increase satisfaction and reduce discomfort and other negative consequence to operators.
Detailed Notes - Human Effort Industrial Engineering
Productivity Measurement: Various measurements done by industrial engineers in industrial setting to collect data, analyze data and use the insights in redesign: Product Industrial Engineering and Process Industrial Engineering.
Detailed Notes - Productivity Measurement
Productivity Management: Management undertaken by industrial engineers to implement Product Industrial Engineering and Process Industrial Engineering. Management processes industrial engineering is also part of productivity management.
Detailed Notes - Productivity Management
Applied Industrial Engineering: Application of industrial engineering in new technologies, existing technologies, engineering business and industrial processes and other areas.
Detailed Notes - Applied Industrial Engineering
Productivity Science
Productivity Science - One Explanation
Productivity science is thus an approach to productivity measurement , analysis and improvement that attempts, in any specific situation, to identify the appropriate philosophy, culture, systems, processes, technology and methods that will maximize positive (social, environmental and economic) outcomes relative to the resources consumed.
“Productivity science is scientific effort, that in any specific work situation, identifies the appropriate philosophy, culture, systems, processes, technology, methods and human physical action and behavior and elements of each of them of that will maximize positive (social, environmental and economic) outcomes relative to the resources consumed.” - Narayana Rao (IISE 2020 Annual Conference Proceedings)
Productivity Science of Machine - Machining - F.W. Taylor
F.W. Taylor is the pioneer of scientific management. He advocated strongly that science in management of work in production shops did not exist and there is an immediate need to develop science for every element of production work. He himself conducted studies and experiments to develop science of machine tool work/effort and human effort. He contributed to the development of science in both the areas. But in the area of human effort, Frank Gilbreth followed Taylor with a more elaborate framework for productivity science of human effort.
F.W. Taylor did the pioneering research study on productivity science of machines for over 30 years. He did it on machine tools. The brief description Taylor's work on machining is as follows.
Study of Variables that have an Effect on Cutting Speed, Feed and Time of Cutting
The productivity science problem of machine tool can be solved by a careful study of the effect each of the twelve following variable elements has upon the selection of the cutting speed and feed and therefore on the cutting time.
a. The quality of the metal which is to be cut, i. e., its hardness or other qualities which affect the cutting speed;
b. The diameter of the work;
c The depth of the cut, or one-half of the amount by which the forging or casting is being reduced in diameter in turning;
d. The thickness of the shaving, or the thickness of the spiral strip or band of metal which is to be removed by the tool, measured while the metal retains its original density ; not the thickness of the actual shaving, the - metal of which has become partly disintegrated;
e. The elasticity of the work and of the tool;
f. The shape or contour of the cutting edge of the tool, together with its clearance and lip angles;
g. The chemical composition of the steel from which the tool is made, and the heat treatment of the tool ;
h. Whether a heavy stream of water, or other cooling medium, is used on the tool;
i. The duration of the cut, i. e., the time which a tool must last under pressure of the shaving without being reground; '
j. The pressure of the chip or shaving upon the tool;
k. The changes of speed and feed possible in the lathe;
l. The pulling and feeding power of the lathe at its various speeds.
The ultimate object of all experiments in this field is to learn how to remove the metal from forgings and castings in the quickest time, and that therefore the art of cutting metals may be briefly defined as the knowledge of how, with the limitations caused by some and the opportunities offered by others of the above twelve variable elements, in each case to remove the metal with the highest appropriate cutting speed.
Before entering upon the details of experiments, it seems necessary to again particularly call attention to the fact that “standard cutting-speed” is the true criterion by which to measure the performance of various variables like tool material, dimensions etc.
To give an illustration of the practical use of "standard cutting-speed." If, for example, we wish to determine which make of tool steel is the best, we should proceed to make from each of the two kinds to be tested a set of from four to eight tools. Each tool should be forged from tool steel, say, 5- inch x 1- inch and about 18 inches long, to exactly the same shape, and after giving the tools made from each type of steel the heat treatment appropriate to its chemical composition, they should all be ground with exactly the same shaped cutting edge and the same clearance and lip angles. One of the sets of eight tools should then be run, one tool after another, each for a period of 20 minutes, and each at a little faster cutting speed than its predecessor, until that cutting speed has been found which will cause the tool to be ‘completely ruined‘ at the end of 20 minutes, with an allowance of a minute or two each side of the 20-minute mark.
Every precaution must be taken throughout these tests to maintain uniform all of the other elements or variables which affect the cutting speed, such as the depth of the cut and the quality of the metal being cut. The rate of the cutting speed must be frequently tested during each 20-minute run to be sure that it is uniform throughout.
In the paper, Taylor explained that “the speed at which tools” give out in 20 minutes, as described above, will be, for the sake of brevity, referred to as the “standard speed.” After having found the “standard speed” of the first type of tools, and having verified it by ruining several more of the eight tools at the same speed, we should next determine in a similar manner the exact speed at which the other make of tools will be ruined in 20 minutes; and if, for instance, one of these sets of tools exactly ruins at a cutting speed of 55 feet, while the other make ruins at 50 feet per minute, these “standard speeds," 55 to 50, constitute by far the most important criterion from which to judge the relative economic value of the two steels for a machine shop.
Productivity science related research is being carried on machining processes even now also. Only thing is that it is not being presented as part of productivity science of machines. There is a need to collect all the studies under this heading and summarize these studies and present the current guidelines for maximum productivity of each of the machines.
Productivity Science of Human Effort - F.W. Gilbreth
F.W. Taylor is the pioneer of scientific management. He advocated strongly that science in management of work in production shops did not exist and there is an immediate need to develop science for every element of production work. He himself conducted studies and experiments to develop science of machine tool work/effort and human effort. He contributed to the development of science in both the areas. But in the area of human effort, Frank Gilbreth followed Taylor with a more elaborate framework for productivity science of human effort.
The aim of motion study is to find and perpetuate the scheme of perfection. There are three stages in this study:
1. Discovering and classifying the best practice.
2. Deducing the laws.
3. Applying the laws to standardize practice, either for the purpose of increasing output or decreasing hours of labor, or both.
There is no waste of any kind in the world that equals the waste from needless, ill-directed, and ineffective motions. When one realizes that in such a trade as brick-laying alone, the motions now adopted after careful study have already cut down the bricklayer's work more than two-thirds, it is possible to realize the amount of energy that is wasted by the workers of this country.
The census of 1900 showed 29,287,070 persons, ten years of age and over, as engaged in gainful occupations. Taking the case of the nearly thirty million workers cited above, it would be a conservative estimate that would call half their motions utterly wasted.
By motion study the earning capacity of the workman can surely be more than doubled. Wherever motion study has been applied, the workman's output has been doubled. This will mean for every worker either more wages or more leisure.
But the most advisable way to utilize this gain is not a question which concerns us now. We have not yet reached the stage where the solving of that problem becomes a necessity far from it! Our duty is to study the motions and to reduce them as rapidly as possible to standard sets of least in number, least in fatigue, yet most effective motions. This has not been done perfectly as yet for any branch of the industries. In fact, so far as we know, it has not, before this time, been scientifically attempted. It is this work, and the method of attack for undertaking it, which it is the aim of this book to explain.
PLACE OF MOTION STUDY IN SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT
Motion study as herein shown has a definite place in the evolution of scientific management not wholly appreciated by the casual reader.
Its value in cost reducing cannot be overestimated. In increasing output by selecting and teaching each workman the best known method of performing his work, motion economy is all important. Through it, alone, when applied to unsystematized work, the output can be more than doubled, with no increase in cost.
During the work of standardizing the operations performed, motion study enables the time-study men to limit their work to the study of correct methods only. This is an immense saving in time, labor, and costs, as the methods studied comply, as nearly as is at that stage possible, with the standard methods that will be synthetically constructed after the time study has taken place.
Even when Ultimate system has finally been installed, and the scientifically timed elements are ready and at hand to be used by the instruction card man in determining the tasks, or schedules, the results of motion study serve as a collection of best methods of performing work that can be quickly and economically incorporated into instruction cards (incorporation of motion description).
Motion study, practiced by Gilbreth, as a means of increasing output under the military type of management (traditional), has consciously proved its usefulness on the work for the past twenty-five years. Its value as a permanent element for standardizing work and its important place in scientific management have been appreciated only since observing its standing among the laws of management given to the world by Mr. Frederick W. Taylor, that great conservator of scientific investigation, who has done more than all others toward reducing the problem of management of work to an exact science.
Now tremendous savings are possible in the work of everybody, they are not for one class, they are not for the trades only; they are for the offices, the schools, the colleges, the stores, the households, and the farms. But the possibilities of benefits from motion study in the mechanic and construction trades are particularly striking, because all trades, even at their present best, are badly bungled.
PRESENT STAGE OF MOTION STUDY AND PRODUCTIVITY SCIENCE - 1911
We stand at present in the first stage of motion study, i.e., the stage of discovering and classifying the best practice. This is the stage of analysis.
The following are the steps to be taken in the analysis:
1. Reduce present practice to writing.
2. Enumerate motions used.
3. Enumerate variables which affect each motion.
4. Reduce best practice to writing.
5. Enumerate motions used in the best practice.
6. Enumerate variables which affect each motion.
Gilbreth started with a list of variable that are of help in developing science of human effort (motion).
Frank B. Gilbreth - VARIABLES THAT AFFECT MOTION ECONOMY
Every element that makes up or affects the amount of work that the worker is able to turn out must be considered separately; but the variables which must be studied in analyzing any motion, group themselves naturally into some such divisions as the following:
I. Variables of the Worker.
1 . Anatomy.
2. Brawn.
3. Contentment.
4. Creed.
5. Earning Power.
6. Experience.
7. Fatigue.
8. Habits.
9. Health.
10. Mode of living.
11 . Nutrition.
12. Size.
13. Skill.
14. Temperament.
15. Training.
II. Variables of the Surroundings, Equipment, and Tools.
1. Appliances.
2. Clothes.
3. Colors.
4. Entertainment, music, reading, etc.
5. Heating, Cooling, Ventilating.
6. Lighting.
7. Quality of material.
8. Reward and punishment.
9. Size of unit moved.
10. Special fatigue-eliminating devices.
11. Surroundings.
12. Tools.
13. Union rules.
14. Weight of unit moved.
III. Variables of the Motion.
1. Acceleration.
2. Automaticity.
3. Combination with other motions and sequence.
4. Cost.
5. Direction.
6. Effectiveness.
7. Foot-pounds of work accomplished.
8. Inertia and momentum overcome.
9. Length.
10. Necessity,
11. Path.
12. "Play for position."
13. Speed.
In taking up the analysis of any problem of motion reduction we first consider each variable on the list separately, to see if it is an element of our problem.
Our discussion of these variables must of necessity be incomplete, as the subject is too large to be investigated thoroughly by any one student. Moreover, the nature of our work is such that only investigations can be made as show immediate results for increasing outputs or reducing unit costs.
The nature of any variable can be most clearly shown by citing a case where it appears and is of importance. But it is obviously impossible in a discussion such as this to attempt fully to illustrate each separate variable even of our incomplete list.
Since first writing these articles for Industrial Engineering it has been of great interest to the writer to learn of the conscious and successful application of the principles involved to the particular fields of work that have interested various readers. It was thought that unity might be lent to the argument by choosing the illustrations given from one field. The reader will probably find himself more successful in estimating the value of the underlying laws by translating the illustrations into his own vocabulary, by thinking in his own chosen material.
The practical value of a study such as this aims to be will be increased many fold by cooperation in application and illustration. The variables, at best an incomplete framework, take on form and personality when so considered.
Industrial Engineering Strategy
Industrial engineering is profit engineering. (Taiichi Ohno)
Would you not like to budget for profit?
Industrial engineering is profit engineering. If a company is not employing industrial engineering it is unnecessarily foregoing profits inherent in the products that it developed and designed to the performance satisfaction of good number of users. Profit conscious managers and owners have to understand and employ industrial engineering to achieve the full profit potential of their products.
What are your strategic decisions related to industrial engineering function?
1. What is your productivity/Efficiency Improvement - Cost Reduction goal?
2. Are you planning to realize experience curve effect benefits?
3. How much of the cost reduction - productivity improvement should come from specialist industrial engineers and other engineers and managers?
4. What will be the ratio of industrial engineers to other engineers and managers?
5. What bottlenecks or limiting factors have you identified in you facilities?
6. What techniques are going to receive special emphasis?
7. What is your training plan for specialist industrial engineers and other engineers and managers?
8. What is the top management attention to industrial engineering - productivity improvement - cost reduction activity?
9. What is the research and development budget for IE activity?
10. What is the total budget for productivity improvement? What is the budget for productivity projects to be initiated by industrial engineering department? What is the budget for productivity projects to be initiated by operating departments?
1. What is your productivity/Efficiency Improvement - Cost Reduction goal?
Total productivity management promoted by Japan Management Association, covered as a chapter in the Maynard Handbook (5th Edition) advocates setting up targets for cost reduction and productivity improvement. Similarly, Yamashina talks of manufacturing cost reduction deployment as a strategic decision in his world class manufacturing implementation. Total industrial engineering is one of the pillars of WCM promoted by Yamashina.
The productivity improvement target can be allocated to each industrial engineer/process owner combinations also. (Value creation target for industrial engineers).
2. Are you planning to realize experience curve effect benefits?
Experience or learning curve effect is identified as one of the strategic cost drivers by strategic management literature in implementing cost leadership strategy (Creating and Executing Strategy: The Quest for Competitive Advantage, 14 Edition, Arthur Thompson Jr., A.J. Strickland, John E. Gamble and Arun K Jain, Tata McGraw Hill, 2006, p.119). Companies have to determine the slope of their learning curve and assess whether it is in line with the industry and have to take actions to improve learning in organization. Hence they have to plan to realize the experience curve effect.
3. How much of the cost reduction - productivity improvement should come from specialist industrial engineers and other engineers and managers?
F.W. Taylor (1911) identified that production work was being carried out without the support adequate science. Taylor developed science of machine working as well as manual working in certain activities and developed his scientific management thought and promoted industrial engineering as a subject and as a full discipline in engineering institutions. He recommended specially educated and trained industrial engineers to take up the work of developing science in various production activities and improvement of production processes using the science. According to Taylor, foreman at that time was already overloaded and similar is the case with senior production managers also as they were working without the support of staff specialists.
In 1921, Gilbreths described the process chart approach for process productivity improvement. They advocated involving many in improvement analysis of process chart including operators. They recommended exhibiting the process chart in a theater and conducting discussions on it.
By 1930s, the situation changed. Alan Mogensen identified that processes redesigned by industrial engineering using the recent discovered science can further be improved by the involving operators and supervisors as they observe many minor improvement opportunities in the doing the work day after day. He came out with work simplification program to involve operators, supervisors and engineers in operation/process improvement in workshop. According to Allen Mogensen, Work Simplification is the organized use of common sense — on the part of everyone Involved — to find easier and better ways of doing work.
Toyota Motors made exemplary use of utilizing the knowledge of every body in the production system to improve processes and operations. In Toyota, process charts are available in the shop floor for every body to see every day and suggest improvements. Now companies have a policy choice to make. What proportion of planned cost reduction will come from science/analysis based projects from industrial engineers and what proportion will come from line organization. The targets have to be included in the budgets of the various departments accordingly.
An answer for the amount of productivity improvement to be carried out by industrial engineers.
Value Creation for the Organization by Industrial Engineers - Productivity Engineering Potential
https://nraoiekc.blogspot.com/2020/03/value-creation-model-for-industrial.html
4. What will be the ratio of industrial engineers to other engineers and managers?
This decision is contingent of the decision above. The company has to employ some industrial engineers to promote total industrial engineering. Above that the number of IEs to be employed and their engineering background, and functional experience depends on the company's policy decisions regarding the planned cost reduction and responsibility given to IE and line departments.
5. What bottlenecks or limiting factors have you identified in your facilities?
Manufacturing cost reduction deployment is a topic in project appraisal chapter of financial management books as well as engineering economics and managerial economics books. They recognize that certain project proposals contain cost reduction a the benefit of the project. Yamashina in his WCM explicitly recognizes cost reduction projects as a major input into the budgeting process and comes out with a mathematical model to select a cost reduction project portfolio for the coming period. In this context and Goldratt’s theory of constraint improvement, company has to identify its limiting factors or bottlenecks whose productivity has to be improved by employing industrial engineering techniques. Based on this identification, the company personnel may come up with productivity improvement projects that make a significant improvement in the operation of the bottleneck facilities.
6. What techniques are going to receive special emphasis?
IE techniques are continuously refined and new techniques are being developed. The company has to opportunity of taking decisions on the intensive use of some techniques during the coming periods. For example many companies in India are now focusing on six sigma and industrial engineering techniques named as lean manufacturing or Toyota Production System to realize cost reduction and productivity improvement.
7. What is your training plan for specialist industrial engineers and other engineers and managers?
Based on the strategic decisions in the area of industrial engineering, the company has to conduct training programs to sensitize the employees on the need to use specified techniques and provide skills to those employees who presently do not have them. There is always a need to share recent success stories within the company as well as from other companies.
8. What is the top management attention to industrial engineering - productivity improvement - cost reduction activity?
If productivity is a strategic issue (it is for many companies as world's top companies declare their productivity improvement and cost reduction targets - Volkswagen and Coca Cola in 2014), top management has to participate in planning, organizing, resourcing, directing and controlling productivity improvement. They need to allocate time and participate in various activities related to productivity. Long time back, when Birla group was introducing WCM, in the first work shop of defect or waste identification, it was said that K.K. Birla, the chairman of the group himself participated to observe the work place and identify waste. Motilal Oswal, Motilal Oswal Securities Limited was another CEO, who participates in many training programmes organized by the company with enthusiasm.
9. What is the research and development budget for IE activity?
If companies have to use industrial engineering and enjoy the increased profits, they have to contribute to its theoretical development and first time application of the theory in company systems. Theoretical development is referred to as research and first time application is referred to as development. While, the big companies have a major responsibility to fund big projects, even smaller companies can contribute through their industry associations, industrial engineering professional organizations.
10. What is the total budget for productivity improvement?
What is the budget for productivity projects to be initiated by industrial engineering department? What is the budget for productivity projects to be initiated by operating departments?
Every year, the company has to ask for productivity improvement project proposals and include them as part of their investment budgets. Some companies do it and report them to shareholders.
Facilities Industrial Engineering
Facilities Industrial Engineering = Facilities Design Engineering + Facilities Productivity Science and Engineering [Productivity Philosophy - Science - Engineering - Management]
In industrial engineering process improvement using process charts (operation process chart and flow process chart) is the dominant method. Process charts are created for each finished product and for each of its components. The processes of different products and its components are performed using the facilities of the organization. In designing various facilities of industrial buildings and different facilities within the building, industrial engineering has a role to play. In selection of the equipment used by multiple processes industrial engineering has a role to play. Improvement of machines to increase productivity was done by F.W. Taylor, founder of industrial engineering. Maintenance of various equipment and its overhaul can also be examined by industrial engineers as part of facilities industrial engineering. Layout of the equipment and various production departments decide the amount of material handling and transport within the facility. Layout improvement is an important task of industrial engineering. Arrangement of materials and tools in store determines the time spent in storing and retrieving items for issue. Hence facilities level industrial engineering or facilities industrial engineering is to be identified as an important area in industrial engineering.
Facilities Industrial Engineering - Jobs
Facility Industrial Engineer
Pitney Bowes Monroe, NJ
Full-time · Entry level
10,001+ employees · IT Services and IT Consulting
About the job
At Pitney Bowes, we do the right thing, the right way. As a member of our team, you can too.
Job Description:
A Performance-driven Contributor who can develop and deploy operational metrics, continuous improvement initiatives, cost saving initiatives and processes to optimize the cost and performance in the designated facilities.
You Will
Be responsible for working with vendors, real estates, project management, technology, and strategy on multiple projects simultaneously including automation, new building designs, new building launches, system enhancement requirements, and cost savings initiatives.
Develop continuous improvement initiatives including evaluation of current operations, data analysis, justification and implementation of recommended solutions.
Evaluate current business processes and future needs to streamline operations and foster sustainable growth.
Design and develop facility layouts for new and existing facilities including ROI analysis, vendor selection, design implementations.
Monitor, analyze and recommend ways to improve productivity, service, cost performance and waste reduction in all areas of operations.
Develop capacity requirements for current and future operations, design and implement solutions to support capacity needs.
Implement 5S methodologies across the facilities with the management team, focusing on business priorities, efficiency improvement initiatives and the scope of work identified through the planning and design phase.
Assist with the deployment of Lean warehousing initiatives at the facility level, which includes kaizen events, rollout of progress boards, metrics boards and employee production standards.
Develop engineered labor standards to drive a performance and quality culture within the operations.
Continuously evaluate and optimize automation and warehouse storage by analyzing product dimensions and velocity by client.
Interface with Sales and Account Management on pricing solutions to ensure accurate cost and storage layout for new and existing clients.
Oversee and assist with new client implementations from an operational, engineering and project management standpoint. Create and design operational layout, considering timelines and overall operational impact to exceed client expectations and ensure a smooth transition within the operation.
Validate actual versus planned cost savings and performance improvement.
Communicate and coordinate with other internal business groups to ensure goals are achieved.
Your Background
As an Industrial Engineer of Facilities , you have:
Minimum of 3 years industrial engineering experience within the parcel shipping or 3PL fulfillment industry
Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering or related field required
Strong analytical skills and structured problem-solving skills
Expert in MS Word, Excel, Visio, PowerPoint and AutoCAD
Proficient with WMS & LMS systems
Must be a team player with a strong work ethic, as well as excellent people and organizational skills
Preferred
Six Sigma Green belt or higher
Project Management Skills
https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/2923115214/?refId=J4jp1nasRXeTCShIfURZYw%3D%3D
Product Industrial Engineering
Industrial engineering is concerned with redesign of engineering systems with a view to improve their productivity. Industrial engineers analyze productivity of each resource used in engineering systems and redesign as necessary to improve productivity.
An early article by Taylor describes and illustrates the productivity engineering of belting system based on the cost data accumulated over a period of 9 years (Industrial Engineering of Belting - 1893). I saw an article on industrial engineering with the title "continuous reengineering." I agree with the term and promote the term. Industrial engineering is continuous redesign of products and processes periodically as well as based on events at any time an opportunity arises. Taylor's articles makes the steps required to do industrial engineering. Thinking based on engineering and productivity orientation and then the experimenting or prototyping to validate the idea.
It has to be ensured that the increase in productivity due to the use of low-cost materials, processes and increasing speed of machines and men, should not lead to any decrease in quality of the output and or any desirable performance or aesthetic feature of the product or process. Both Taylor who promoted process industrial engineering and L.D. Miles, who promoted product industrial engineering - value engineering insisted on the condition. This can be described as quality principle of industrial engineering.
Similarly, operators should not feel any discomfort, not have any health problems or safety issues in the redesigned more productive processes. Gilbreths had done considerable work on this aspect.
Products and Process are two important outputs of engineering activity.
Product Industrial Engineering
This article with the title "Product Design Industrial Engineering was first published on 29 September 2012.
I now term this activity as Product Industrial Engineering. In the early days of industrial engineering only some peripheral features of the product that facilitated material handling and tolerances were evaluated by industrial engineering for redesign. But Value Engineering, developed by L.D. Miles brought out the scope for radical redesign of the products and components to do cost reduction without affecting the quality, functions or features and customer requirements. It brought out the waste being present in the design done with effectiveness or performance as the focus at the start of a new product introduction by companies. So it called for cyclical approach of effectiveness design followed by efficiency design and also a periodic efficiency design to incorporate recent knowledge regarding efficiency improvement or cost reduction and developments in engineering and technology. Product industrial engineering became an important focus area of industrial engineering and many others techniques facilitating product industrial engineering were developed by industrial engineers and other engineers and managers.
The major techniques that constitute product industrial engineering are:
1. Value Analysis and Engineering
2. Design for Manufacturing
3. Design for Assembly
4. Design for Additive Manufacturing
5. Design to Cost
6. Design to Value
7. Design to Target Cost
8. Engineering Optimization
9. Six Sigma for Design Improvement - Robust Design (Video)
10. Life Cycle Cost Analysis based redesign
11. Design analysis done during Process Industrial Engineering
12. Lean Product Design Concept
In the product industrial engineering chapter, value engineering will be discussed in detail and other techniques will also be introduced.
Definitions of IE and IE Design for "X"
Many designs for "X" fall under the domain of industrial engineering as per the definition of of IE.
AIIE
“Industrial engineering is concerned with the design, improvement, and installation of integrated systems of men, materials, and equipment. 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.” (AIIE, 1955). [4]
IE Design for "X": Industrial engineering aims to specify, predict, and evaluate the results to be obtained from such systems. Hence the special and unique role of IE is results or performance obtained from systems. Productivity, Time and cost are the original performance dimensions focused by the IE discipline. Slowly more got added. Still more can be added.
Process Industrial Engineering
Method, operation, process, task etc. are used in the context of improving production and engineering activities in organizations. The term "Method" was popularized by method study and methods engineering subjects. The term process was popularized by Gilbreth when he developed process charts. In the process chart, operation is one of the activities. Task was used by Taylor. Process seems to be more popular terminology now as process planning, process orientation and process mapping became popular terms. Industrial engineering carried on processes to do productivity improvement and reduce cost is termed as process industrial engineering. Product industrial engineering and process industrial engineering, redesign of products and processes for productivity improvement and cost reduction are the core engineering activities in industrial engineering.
The variables or actions that can increase productivity can be many depending on the level of detail we go down to. At high level machine effort (engines and engineering including industrial engineering), human effort (operators) and managerial effort (facilities provision, planning of processes, planning of material flow and batch flow quantities, and training of operators) have to be identified and are to be improved.
In the case of process industrial engineering, we can identify the three main areas as process machine effort industrial engineering, process human effort industrial engineering and process productivity management. Machine work study or machine effort study would study all the elements of machine and the machine process. Human work study (Method study and motion study) would study all human related aspects and the motions used. Process productivity management would look at managerial activities related to the process.
Production methods or processes efficiency engineering was indicated by Henry Towne in his 1886 paper. He specially emphasized that engineers managing manufacturing shops and works have to focus on reduction of cost of production and do engineering changes to achieve it. A logical and systematic procedure for reducing costs, increasing production without an impairment to quality was described by F.W. Taylor in his 1895 paper. Since then, many more improvement ways were added to the industrial engineering of processes.
Process Industrial Engineering - Methods and Techniques
Identifying, Analyzing and Installing High Productivity Equipment and Machines
Identifying, Analyzing and Utilizing High Productivity Special Processes
Developing special purpose machines
Installing accessories for productivity improvement
Using Jigs and Fixtures
Using more productive tools
Using new lubricants
Using new cutting fluids
Cutting parameters optimization
Process parameters optimization - Six Sigma - Tolerances
Assembly line balancing - Redesign of work stations to facilitate balanced load on work stations and matching the line to tact time.
Group technology and group layout
SMED
Poka Yoke
Digital Transformation of Processes
Machine Work Study
Operation Analysis
Process Analysis
Method Study
Electric power consumption analysis and reduction
Predictive maintenance
Preventive maintenance
Total Productive Maintenance
OEE improvement
Lean Manufacturing
Manufacturing Cost Policy Deployment (MCPD)
Six Sigma
Equipment Replacement Study and Decision
Process Industrial Engineering - Case Studies and Examples
Process Improvement - Gilbreths' View
Frank Gilbreth developed process analysis and improvement. In 1921, he presented a paper in ASME, on process charts. Lilian Gilbreth was a coauthor of this paper.
PROCESS CHARTS: FIRST STEPS IN FINDING THE ONE BEST WAY TO DO WORK
By Frank B. Gilbreth, Montclair, N. J. Member of the Society
and L. M. Gilbreth, Montclair, N. J. Non-Member
For presentation at the Annual Meeting, New York, December 5 to 9, 1921,
of The American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 29 West 39th Street, New York.
https://ia800700.us.archive.org/5/items/processcharts00gilb/processcharts00gilb_bw.pdf
At the end of the paper, the conclusion made is as follows:
The procedure for making, examining and improving a process is, therefore, preferably as follows:
a. Examine process and record with rough notes and stereoscopic diapositives the existing process in detail.
b. Have draftsman copy rough notes in form for blueprinting, photographic projection and exhibition to executives and others.
c. Show the diapositives with stereoscope and lantern slides of process charts in executives' theater to executives and workers.
d. Improve present methods by the use of —
1 Suggestion system
2 Written description of new methods or 'write-ups," "manuals," ''codes," ''written systems," as they are variously called
3 Standards
4 Standing orders
5 Motion study
6 Micromotion studies and chronocyclegraphs for obtaining and recording the One Best Way to do Work.
e. Make process chart of the process as finally adopted as a base for still further and cumulative improvement.
We see in the method described above, the method study steps of record, and examine. The practice of involving the workers in analyzing the process chart which was later popularized by Alan Mogensen is also present in the method suggested by Gilbreth to improve a process. Motion study as a later step in the process analysis method, which was emphasized by H.B. Maynard as part of the operation analysis proposed by him is also visible in the procedure described by Gilbreths.
H.B. Maynard proposed "Operation Analysis" for process improvement.
So, we can see the methods engineering and methods study which became popular subsequently were further development of Gilbreth's process improvement procedure only.
Process Engineering
Process engineering focuses on the design, operation, control, optimization and Intensification of chemical, physical, and biological processes. Process engineering encompasses a vast range of industries, such as chemical, petrochemical, agriculture, mineral processing, advanced material, food, pharmaceutical, software development and biotechnological industries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Process_engineering
Process Industrial Engineering
Process engineering is an established term in engineering. Hence process industrial engineering, which represents the redesign of processes by industrial engineers to improve productivity is an appropriate term.
Operation Process Chart, Flow Process Chart and other ways of recording the process flow are used for study and improvement of processes. Process Study, Methods Engineering, Operations Analysis, Method Study and Motion Study are various methods or procedures of process industrial engineering.
The process industrial engineering has to develop analysis and improvement of technical elements of a process in more detail to make industrial engineering an engineering based activity to increase productivity in engineering organizations, departments and activities.
Process industrial engineering also includes improvement of related management activities. F.W. Taylor was a pioneer in introducing many changes in management practices to improve productivity. Industrial engineering adopted the same objective. So within process industrial subject area comes the function of management process industrial engineering.
Process Analysis, Work Simplification, Method Study, Methods Engineering, Methods efficiency engineering are terms popular earlier. Process Industrial Engineering is a better description as it highlights it as part of industrial engineering. Product Industrial Engineering and Process Industrial Engineering are the two main components of productivity engineering, which are totally dependent on the engineering knowledge of the industrial engineer.
The Function of Process Industrial Engineering
Process industrial engineering or Methods industrial engineering was the activity performed by F.W. Taylor and explained first in his paper "A Piece Rate System." As it evolved over the years, it became a a logical and systematic procedure for reducing costs, increasing production without an impairment to quality. Process industrial engineering may be applied with equal success to repetitive work or to jobbing work, to simple, easily understood operations or to complex, specialized jobs. It is applicable to all man machine systems, manual work or automated work.
Definition of Process industrial engineering. It may be said that it is the industrial engineering component which is chiefly concerned with increasing the efficiency of resources used in a process (operations).
Process industrial engineering is the technique that subjects each operation of a given piece of work (process) to close analysis in order to eliminate every unnecessary operation and in order to approach the quickest and best method of performing each necessary operation; it includes the standardization of equipment, methods, and working conditions ; it trains the operator to follow the standard method. When all this has been done, it determines by accurate measurement the number of standard hours in which an operator working with standard performance can do the job. Reduction in standard time and standard is the improvement of the process productivity.
A methods efficiency study always begins with a careful primary analysis of existing conditions. The reason is that the existing system is taken as an effective system that is producing the required output at quality acceptable to the customers. The first factors that are considered are the number of pieces made or the yearly activity, the length of the operation, and the hourly rate of the machine/operator or operators doing the job. This information permits the computation of the yearly cost of the job. An estimate is next made of the probable improvement that methods study can make. This in turn determines the kind and amount of methods-engineering work that can profitably be undertaken.
The method or process is recorded for the purpose of presenting the study problem clearly. Then complete information is compiled for each operation concerning such points as the purpose of the operation,tolerance requirements, material and material handling, and tools and equipment used.
As a part of methods efficiency engineering, machine work study and motion study, that is study of motions of the operator are made. In machine work study, the work of the machine and the speed at which the machine is running are studied to increase the speed of the machine maintaining the quality. In motion study, each individual motion used in doing the work is considered in detail to try to shorten the motion or to eliminate it altogether.
After the new method has been devised, information and records describing the redesigned procedure must be carefully made and communicated. If the method is available in a written form, frequent audits can be done to make sure it is being followed.
The operator or operators must next be taught to follow the new method. This may be done by verbal instructions, demonstrations at or away from the workplace, instruction sheets or operator process charts; or by the highly successful procedure that employs motion pictures.
Development of Process industrial engineering - History
Early Factory Work
Factory work was started by giving work to persons who were already producing the items required in their own household production. What is the reason for their acceptance of factory work abandoning their household production work? It can be an offer of higher payment and the opportunity to devote to production work without spending time on marketing. There has to be a promise of higher income and more leisure.
Initially, piecework payment was used factories. The weaver who worked a loom in his own home was paid for what he produced and not for the number of hours he spent at work. In the case of piecework, some plan that encouraged a definite output by the workers was felt necessary. Incentive plans came into existence. The production supervisor was using records of past performance and his own judgment of what a man could accomplish if he worked with an honest effort to fix piece rates.
These two factors proved to be utterly unreliable. Records of past performance told only how much was produced and gave no indication of the conditions under which the work was done or of the method used by the operator. Under the stimulus of an incentive, the operator could almost always devise a better method and, by working steadily with a good effort, could make earnings that often exceeded those of the foreman. The various problems associate with these incentive plans, defeated the purpose of incentives which was to stimulate production.
All this time, competition was becoming increasingly keen. The need for incentives was felt most strongly, and the importance of proper rate setting caused a search for a better way of handling the matter. Thus the position of rate setter was established. The new setup gave somewhat better results, but conditions were far from satisfactory. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, therefore, the more progressive plants began to feel the need for a better, fairer, and more accurate method of handling the rate question. The problem was attacked independently in a number of plants in USA and abroad, and various solutions were offered which have contributed to a greater or lesser extent to methods-engineering practices.
Taylor's Pioneering Efforts in Process/Methods Improvement
Taylor used stop watch time study of understand the best practices of doing work at elemental level. Through the study of work and output using time study, Taylor found that some were following improper methods, many did not take full advantage of their tools and equipment, and all were subject to many interruptions. Hence, Taylor often found that a man could do two or three times as much as he had previously done in a day. Taylor carefully selected individual workman, guided, trained and made them produce the expected output under the guidance of management or supervision specialists. As one person produced according to the expected output, he trained one more man. In this manner gradually more and more operators were trained to produce the increased output. Since those days, time study has increased the productivity of industry many fold. It has resulted in improved conditions, standardization, reduced costs, better production control, and better satisfied labor wherever it has been properly applied, and it has been applied to nearly every class of work.
Taylor' s system was to give the workman a definite task to be accomplished in a definite time in a definite manner. The workman was told in detail how to do the job. The method was established by careful study.
Taylor's original procedure forms the basis of methods engineering. It has been improved upon by those who came after him, as is the case when any new science is developed. Taylor stressed the importance of improving method of doing the job and he used stop watch time study for that purpose. Frank B. Gilbreth stressed the importance of the detailed study of methods and thereby made a distinct contribution to methods efficiency engineering . As an apprentice bricklayer, he became impressed with the fact that most brick- layers had their own way of doing a job. Being very observant, he noticed further that each worker had three ways of doing the same job: one that he taught to other inexperienced workers, one that he used when working slowly, and one that he used when working at his normal speed. Gilbreth became interested in the reasons underlying this, analyzed the work of number operators and developed the technique of motion study. The Gilbreths established a laboratory and studied motions by laboratory methods. As a result, they made a number of fundamental discoveries and originated the concept of therbligs, or basic divisions of accomplishment. They were the first to recognize that there are certain definite principles which govern efficient working practices, and they developed several techniques for studying the motions used in performing operations. Of these, the motion study made with the aid of motion pictures, often called the "micromotion technique' is the best known and most used. Of the originality, soundness, and value of their contribution to methods engineering, there can be no question.
As has been pointed out, Taylor's original work forms the basis of modern Methods efficiency engineering. Paralally, the developments made by the Gilbreths were incorporated.
Motion study was improved further. Better designs of industrial motion-picture equipment permit the wider use of the motion picture at a greatly reduced cost. The element of time has been tied in with the concept of therbligs, or basic divisions of accomplishment, thus offering a new and valuable approach to methods study. The leveling principle permits adjusting the time data obtained from a study taken on any kind of performance over a wide range to a standard level with a high degree of accuracy, thus permitting the setting of accurate and consistent rates. Finally, time-formula derivation has been developed to a point that makes possible the quick and accurate setting of a large number of rates or time allowances with a minimum of engineering effort. This later became pre-determined motion system. MTM and MOSt are widely used predetermined motion time systems.
Methods Efficiency Engineering Procedure
Methods efficiency engineering is now a carefully planned, systematic procedure. Standard process charts have been developed to a state of greater flexibility and have become more useful for analysis purposes.
Economic Function of Methods efficiency engineering
Under modern business conditions, one of the major problems which faces the managers of industry is that of constantly reducing costs. Markets are restricted for any product because many individuals are economically unable to purchase the product at the current market price. Even in periods of prosperity, millions of people are able to supply themselves with only the barest necessities of life because of high prices of many items.
In any country, there are the fewest individuals in the highest group of income and the greatest number of people are in the lowest group with some groups of people at intermediate income levels. At each level, there is a group with a certain purchasing power.
The consumers at any economic levels but the highest few have only a limited amount to spend. All kinds of products are offered to them in various enticing ways. Competition as a result is keen and ruthless. The only way an industrial unit an hope to survive under these conditions is constantly to seek to keep production costs as low as possible.
Taylor's "Shop Management" paper described methods that give lower production cost and higher income to operators. Cost reduction methods aim at waste elimination in machine work and man work so that greater production is secured with less effort.
Methods efficiency engineering is primarily concerned with devising methods that increase production and reduce costs. Hence, it plays an important role in determining the competitive position of a plant. As competition appears to be become keener, Methods efficiency engineering becomes increasingly important.
Methods efficiency engineering in an industrial unit can never be considered as completed. Costs that are satisfactory and competitive today become excessive in a comparatively short time because of the improved developments of other units of the industry. If the producer who is in a good competitive position today decides that his costs have reached rock bottom and that no further attempt to improve them is necessary, within a short while he is likely to find himself facing loss of his commercial standing as owner of an efficiently managed plant. Only by constantly seeking to improve can any unit safeguard its competitive position. Conditions in industry are never static, and steady progress is the only sure way to success.
Cost-reduction work is important as a factor for survival, but it also expands the industry and the firm. There are various economic strata of society. Assume that a certain company is manufacturing a product that, although universally desirable, is priced so high that only those individuals in group C or higher can purchase it. The market for the product is thus rather limited. If, however, properly conducted cost-reduction work permits the lowering of the selling price so that the individuals in group D can purchase the product, the market is at once greatly expanded, perhaps doubled or even tripled. Henry Ford was among the first to combine recognition of this principle with the courage to act upon it.
In society, incomes range, in small steps, from next to nothing to the highest. Hence, each time the selling price of a product is reduced, even though it is as little as 1 per cent, the product is brought within the reach of more people. Therefore, it may be seen that cost reduction as a means of increasing the distribution of the product is at all times important.
Methods Efficiency Engineering and Shop Supervisors
The methods efficiency man is by no means the only one who takes an interest in establishing economic costs and improving methods. The foremen, the tool designers, and the other shop supervisors can make worth-while improvements in manufacturing methods. The differences between the methods efficiency man and the other shop supervisors are two. In the first place, the methods man devotes all his time to methods work, whereas the other supervisors have numerous duties, which force them to consider methods work as incidental to their major activities. In the second place, the methods, man conducts his methods studies systematically and makes improvements as the result of applying a carefully developed technique. This technique is based upon a large amount of specialized knowledge which can be acquired only by special study and training. Therefore, unless a course in Methods efficiency engineering has been given to the other shop supervisors, their improvements are less certain and are due more to inspiration than to deliberate intent.
For these reasons, the major part of methods improvement is usually made by methods engineers. This is not a necessary condition, however; for the principles that they use can be learned by the other supervisors and can be applied, in part at least, during the course of their other work. Certain progressive organizations have realized this and have given methods engineering training in more or less detail to their various key supervisors. The results, as may be expected, have been gratifying, and methods-improvement work has received a marked impetus (Maynard 1938).
It is hoped that this technique will be used by shop supervisors such as foremen, tool designers, and so on, as well as by methods engineers; for if the principles of methods efficiency work are understood throughout an organization, that organization will be in a good position to meet competition, depressions, or any other economic disturbances which may come its way.
Alan Mogensen advocated work simplification methodology. In this method, he used to conduct methods work shops based on process chart to supervisors and operators and used to improve processes with the involvement of the workshop trainees. He was very successful in this endeavor for three decades and his method was adopted by Training Within Industry (TWI) program and then from them by Toyota Motors. Now, industrial engineering is being taught in undergraduate engineering programs to make all engineers practice industrial engineering and also to train their supervisors and operators. But in undergraduate programs, only in mechanical branch it is being taught and other branches are not teaching. It is important that it is taught in all engineering branches.
Industrial Engineering Optimization
Operations Research methods are characterized as efficiency improvement techniques by many scholars.
1. From efficiency measurement to efficiency improvement: The choice of a relevant benchmark, Eduardo González, and Antonio Álvarez, European Journal of Operational Research, Volume 133, Issue 3, 16 September 2001, Pages 512-520
2. Measuring Efficiency in Primary Health Care Centres in Saudi Arabia, ASMA M. A. BAHURMOZ,
http://www.economics.kaau.edu.sa/Faculty_Mag/Magallat/A12A2_PDF/122-ASMA999.pdf
3. Improving Transportation Efficiency at the Nanzan Educational Complex,
http://www.scienceofbetter.org/can_do/success_stories/iteatnecm.htm
4. Operations Research: The Productivity Engine: How to create unassailable productivity gains in your business, Lew Pringle, OR/MS Today, June 2000.
http://www.lionhrtpub.com/orms/orms-6-00/pringle.html
Lew Pringle wrote:
"Operations research, as a field, is all about the creation and management of Productivity Gain. In fact, in a very real sense, productivity gain is virtually the sole purpose of OR. It's what we do. To raise the question of improvement in an organization's productivity without taking full advantage of all that OR offers would be analogous to pursuing a required improvement in one's health while ignoring the entire medical community. The realm of operations research is Productivity Gain.
OR people, in turn, are identifiable by: 1. our focus on productivity, and 2. the way we find, identify and come to describe, understand, appreciate and represent a problem. Operations research people are problem-conceptualizers. Our "solutions," in this sense, can (and should) be seen as flowing naturally and easily from the unique way in which we have visualized the problems/opportunities in the first place. We operate on such traditional quantities as profit, cost, efficiency and other practical, measurable items. Our goal, ordinarily, is to achieve higher and higher levels of performance. We are the people whose job it is to create productivity. We are, in fact, the productivity engine of an organization."
5. Productivity Improvement through Operational Research
G. W. Sears
Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A (General) Vol. 126, No. 2 (1963), pp. 267-269
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2982368?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
6. The Necessity of Implementation of Operations Research for Managers for Decision-Making and Productivity Increase in Production
M. K. Amoli, S. M. T. Hosseini, M. Salehi, "The Necessity of Implementation of Operations Research for Managers for Decision-Making and Productivity Increase in Production", Advanced Materials Research, Vols. 488-489, pp. 1651-1656, 2012
http://www.scientific.net/AMR.488-489.1651
Synergy Between Industrial Engineering and Operations Research
Industrial engineering is developed by engineers working in engineering departments of business companies engaged in manufacture using machines and metals. No doubt construction which is the earliest engineering activity also contributed in the development of industrial engineering as Frank Gilbreth was from construction sector. Operations Research as a discipline is identified with persons from science background working in the area of military operations. Industrial engineering and Departments of Mathematics and Statistics embraced the discipline of operations research in a big way. What is the synergy between industrial engineering and operations research?
Industrial engineering is system efficiency improvement. It examines proposed ways of doing work and improve them. Operations research has number of efficiency improvement tools. Operations researchers developed various standard models and have the ability to develop custom models that improve the efficiency of operations. Linear programming models, transportation, and assignment can be cited as examples using which the operations of an organization can be evaluated for efficiency of resource use subject to the constraints and optimal or efficient solutions can be found. Hence industrial engineers have to be the first group among various corporate organizations to recognize and implement OR models in the business organizations. This opportunity was correctly identified by the industrial engineering profession and OR was adopted as an important technique in the arsenal of industrial engineering.
What is the Contribution of IE to OR?
Industrial engineers could have promoted the practical utilization of OR by proving data in the form the OR models require. In systems engineering, there is mention of this step. From the synthesized design for a system design problem, various models are to be developed to evaluate the proposed design. To use OR models, various types of data are required and industrial engineers have the advantage of developing the required data. Why IEs have the advantage? Industrial engineers have the advantage because they have a strong attachment to measurement in one of their core subjects work measurement. IEs also do productivity measurement and cost measurement. Industrial engineers also are given inputs in understanding the financial and cost accounting data. Thus they are in the unique position to develop and provide the data that OR models require and come out the most efficient solutions and help the operating managers in implementing the solutions. But this does not seem to have happened in big scale.
The reason for the lack of popularity for OR in many organizations is the lack of this viewpoint in IEs. IEs have to use OR models as efficiency improvement avenues. To use OR models they have to develop the required data from the operations of the organization. They have to interact with the accounting departments meaningfully and acquire the required accounting data and statements. They have to develop engineering data and then use appropriate OR models. In the IE journals and magazines we need to read articles and papers that point out how IEs are able to come out with solutions to data development challenges of OR models.
Engineering Optimization
Optimization Principle of Industrial Engineering. Maximize the benefit. Minimize the cost. Maximize the difference.
https://nraoiekc.blogspot.com/2017/06/optimization-principle-of-industrial.html
In engineering design as well as in process planning, optimization is now used. Industrial engineers have to optimize their engineering redesigns and also check whether the current engineering solutions are optimized or not? Thus the industrial engineering optimization focus area is concerned with optimization problems of product design and process design. Industrial engineering is also concerned with planning of jobs and flow of material quantities in processes.
Problem Areas for Applying Operations Research
Loading machine centers for maximum utilization of equipment.
Controlling raw materials and in-process inventories.
Planning the minimum production costs schedules through the sequencing and allocation of men and machines.
Minimizing waiting times between operations
Determining the true incremental benefits of adding new production equipment.
Scheduling direct labour.
Determining the most favourable preventive maintenance plans.
Assigning individuals to specific jobs
Specifying least-cost shipment patterns in multiplant multivendor purchasing situations.
Locating warehouses so as to minimize freight and production costs.
Allocating advertising budget in the most efficient manner.
Source:
"Operations Research", Chaper 9-3 in Industrial Engineering Handbook, H.B.Maynard (Ed.) 2nd Edition
OR Case Studies Discussed in Chapter 11.2 of Maynard's Industrial Engineering Handbook, 5th Edition
http://www.pitt.edu/~jrclass/or/or-intro.html
REFERENCES
Leachman, R. C., R. F. Benson, C. Liu and D. J. Raar, "IMPReSS: An Automated Production-Planning and Delivery-Quotation System at Harris Corporation - Semiconductor Sector," Interfaces, 26:1, pp. 6-37, 1996.
Rigby, B., L. S. Lasdon and A. D. Waren, "The Evolution of Texaco's Blending Systems: From OMEGA to StarBlend," Interfaces, 25:5, pp. 64-83, 1995.
Flanders, S. W. and W. J. Davis, "Scheduling a Flexible Manufacturing System with Tooling Constraints: An Actual Case Study," Interfaces, 25:2, pp. 42-54, 1995.
Subramanian, R., R. P. Scheff, Jr., J. D. Quillinan, D. S. Wiper and R. E. Marsten, "Coldstart: Fleet Assignment at Delta Air Lines,", Interfaces, 24:1, pp. 104-120, 1994.
Kotha, S. K., M. P. Barnum and D. A. Bowen, "KeyCorp Service Excellence Management System," Interfaces, 26:1, pp. 54-74, 1996.
Industrial Engineering Statistics
F.W. Taylor himself advocated maintaining of records and data for decision making. The other industrial engineering pioneers also promoted record keeping and data analysis. As sampling based decision making became more robust, industrial engineers promoted it as a productivity improvement initiative and imperative. One of the prominent areas of application is statistical quality control. Sampling was also used in work measurement and work sampling technique was developed in industrial engineering. Now six sigma, a statistics based technique is being promoted by the IE profession.
F.W. Taylor has indicated that data collected for machine shop will be in thousands of pages. Harrington Emerson included records in his book 12 Principles of Efficiency. Their contemporary, professor of industrial engineering, Diemer wrote:
Department of Records.
"It is primarily a research and advisory department the results of whose investigations and whose recommendations are brought up at such meetings of department heads and others as may have been predetermined. It is the duty of the record department to see that records kept by various departments are not merely kept and stored away, but that from each set of records is secured a method of most effective analysis so that the records of the past may be compared with records of the present and conclusions may be drawn as to future action. The individuals engaged in this department must be experts in theory of accounts, the science of statistics, the art of graphical presentation and cost accounting. The tendencies and facts indicated by an analysis of the records must be brought forcibly to the attention of all individuals whose actions based on experience and intuition differ from the action indicated by an analysis of figures, records and statistics."
Reference: Factory Organization in Relation to Industrial Education
Author(s): Hugo Diemer
Source: The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 44, The
Outlook for Industrial Peace (Nov., 1912), pp. 130-140
Industrial engineering has taken up the responsibility of using statistics to make processes in organizations efficient. May be Walter Shewart is the first statistician to develop a systematic method for applying the concepts and methods of statistics to industrial process control problems and industrial engineering has adopted statistical process control as a method to be installed in companies through IE department.
The role of statistics as a tool of management
J. M. Juran
Statistica Merlandica
Volume 4, Issue 1‐2, February 1950, Pages 69-79
First published: February 1950
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9574.1950.tb00414.x
Paper presented at the 26th session of the International Statistical Institute in Bern, September 1949.
Growth of the mass production industries has posed new and complex problems in industrial management. Scientific solution of these problems necessitates statistical analysis of the vast quantities of data generated in these industries as a by‐product.
Improvements bordering on the spectacular have been achieved in selected instances of industrial applications of statistical analysis. Quality control and market research afford two such instances.
The professional statistical societies can do much to aid the greater utilization of statistics in industry by:
(a). organizing in each society a major division to deal with the problems of statistics in industry.
(b). sponsoring joint meetings with societies of managers, industrial engineers, and others interested in industrial statistics.
Important applications of statistics in industrial engineering: Work Sampling, Statistical Quality Control, Design of Experiments to improve productivity, Six Sigma
Variability
No two objects in the world around us, nor any two actions performed by the same or by different individuals, are exactly identical. Precision machine parts produced in quantity by the same operator busing identical tools and equipment will, upon examination show a definite variability.
Manufacturers try to reduce the variability of their output. The complete elimination of variability in production is usually not feasible, and would be entirely uneconomical even if feasible. Instead, the manufacturer's philosophy is based on a tolerable, statistically predictable, level of imperfect product.
Source: Siegmund Halpern, The Assurance Sciences, Prentice-Hall, Inc,. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1978,p.66.
Quality control enables us to ascertain sudden or gradual changes in product variability (or establish trends) to permit the institution of timely corrective action that will avoid production of costly scrap.
Industrial Engineering Economics
An Article to Note: “The Role of IE in Engineering Economics.”
By Riel, Philippe F.
IIE Solutions, April 1998
Industrial engineering (IE) plays a significant role in engineering economics. IE promotes investment justification processes that determine the appropriateness and value of projects. It also supports investment analyses correlated with the overall corporate strategy. Moreover, IE advocates evaluation processes that advance interdisciplinary thinking among company employees who design cost models and evaluation frameworks that are utilized in decision support systems for a variety of technological projects.
The idea that I advocate in this article is that the set of evaluation methods of Engineering Economics is an efficiency improvement tool in the hands of industrial engineer. Industrial engineering is human effort engineering and system efficiency engineering.
The system functional designers come out with an effective system design that produces an output acceptable to the customer and may also be profitable with reference to the rate of return prescribed by the organization. That does not mean that it is the most efficient solution. In the system engineering process, there is a step in which the proposed basic system is evaluated in various dimensions and further optimization is done. Industrial engineers make efficiency evaluation in various dimensions and further improve the efficiency. Engineering economics is one such area. Engineering economics indicates that search for economic efficiency has to take place on either side of currently proposed engineering equipment. Industrial engineers have to consider various engineering alternatives to the one currently proposed by the system synthesizer to evaluate the current efficiency and if needed propose alternatives that improve the system efficiency using engineering economics methods.
A Quote
“Engineering Economics is applicable to all the fields of engineering since engineers design and make things that people buy. However, it is especially significant to Industrial Engineering, Systems Engineering, and Management Engineering, since these disciplines often are involved in the cost management of engineering systems.”
http://www.download-it.org/free_files/Pages%20from%20Chapter%2016%20-%20Engineering%20Economics%20-1faea7ed1d0c63b4b3980e536ad46e1e.pdf
Engineering Economic Appraisal - A Special Role for Industrial Engineers
Engineering economic analysis is to be carried out by all engineers. These analysis reports must be appraised by IE department engineers. IEs can evaluate whether sufficient technical alternatives were considered in proposing the technical solution now recommended and then check the data and calculations of the economic analysis. From IE department, the proposal can go the project appraisal committee.
Human Effort Industrial Engineering
Human effort industrial engineering is a focus area of industrial engineering.
Relevant Principles of Industrial Engineering
Human effort engineering for productivity - Principle of Industrial Engineering
In the resources used in engineering systems, human resource is important because all economic activity is to satisfy needs of various categories of persons. Human resources employed in engineering systems have their own needs. Industrial engineers are unique in engineering disciplines in taking up the engineering of human effort. They have to synthesize the theories of human sciences, some of which are developed by industrial engineering also, to design human work for an optimal combination of productivity, income, comfort, health, safety and satisfaction of the employed.
Motion economy - Principle of Industrial Engineering
Operators use motions to do work directly or indirectly through machines. Principles of motion economy were developed by Frank Gilbreth initially. The set of principles is being extended by further research studies. They need to be employed in all industrial engineering studies in the redesign of human work in engineering systems of all branches.
Operator comfort and health - Principle of Industrial Engineering
As human effort engineers, industrial engineers are also concerned with comfort and health of operators. The productivity improvement should not lead to discomfort, fatigue and musculoskeletal disorders. Each human effort redesign project must be accompanied by an assessment of the comfort, fatigue and health dimensions
Selection of operators - Principle of Industrial Engineering
Different types of engineering trades and work require different types of proficiency from operators. Industrial engineers as well as managers have to identify the proficiency required and select persons for specific operations. Science provides the basis for identifying the proficiencies required for a trade and also the method of evaluating various persons.
Training of operators - Principle of Industrial Engineering
Industrial engineers have to train the operators in the new machine methods proposed by them and in the new man motions. The need to demonstrate the expected output from new methods by specially trained IE department operators is to be emphasized for acceptance of the new methods and resulting higher output.
Motion Study
Motion study is the basic method to study the effort of men in using hands, hand tools and machines and machine tools. Stop watch time study is used to determine the best practice of doing any element of work and such best elemental movements are incorporated in various tasks and operators are trained in the new productive way. Operator comfort, safety, and health are given due consideration in redesigning work in human effort industrial engineering.
Purpose: The goal of motion study is to enhance work performance (quantity and quality of output) of the human operator through analysis and improvement of body and hand movements. Motion study can be thought of system improvement at a micro level and is a part of human effort industrial engineering.
In the contemporary work environment, motion study also involves reducing the ergonomic stresses associated with a job. This reduces costs (medical treatment and time lost) associated with work injuries. It may also reduce production losses associated with hiring and training replacement workers as well as rehabilitation of persons with work-related injuries.
Motion economy was proposed and developed by Frank Gilbreth through various articles and books and became an important subject of industrial engineering as Time and Motion Study or Motion and Time Study. This subject was modified by European thinkers and practitioners of productivity improvement as Work Study, by proposing methods study as an additional component.
Principles of Motion Economy are to be used in motion design, motion analysis, motion study of human operators. Motion design is a technique of Human Effort Industrial Engineering, a core focus area of Industrial Engineering. They can also be used in robot motion design.
Use of the Human Body
1. The two hands should begin as well as complete their motions at the same time.
2. The two hands should not be idle at the same time except during rest periods.
3. Motions of the arms should be made in opposite and symmetrical directions and should be made simultaneously.
4. Hand and body motions should be confined to the lowest classification with which it is possible to perform the work satisfactorily.
5. Momentum should be employed to assist the worker wherever possible, and it should be reduced to a minimum if it must be overcome by muscular effort.
6. Smooth continuous motion of the hands are preferable to straight line motions involving sudden and sharp changes in direction.
7. Ballistic movements are faster, easier and more accurate than restricted (fixation) or controlled movements.
8. Work should be arranged to permit an easy and natural rhythm wherever possible.
9. Eye fixations should be as few and as close together as possible.
Arrangement of the workplace
10. There should be a definite and fixed place for all tools and materials. (5S)
11. Tools, materials and controls should be located close to the point of use.
12. Gravity feed bins and containers should be used to deliver material close to the point of use.
13. Drop deliveries should be used wherever possible.
14. Materials and tools should be located to permit the best sequence of motions.
15. Provisions should be made for adequate conditions for seeing. Good illumination is the first requirement for satisfactory visual perception.
16. The height of the work place and the chair should preferably arranged so that alternate sitting and standing at work are easily possible.
17. A chair of the type and height to permit good posture should be provided for every worker.
Design of tools and equipment
18. The hands should be relieved of all work that can be done more advantageously by a jig, a fixture, or a foot-operated device. (Jig and Fixture Design)
19. Two or more tools should be combined wherever possible. (Combination Tools)
20. Tools and materials should be prepositioned whenever possible.
21. Where each finger performs some specific movement, such as in typewriting, the load should be distributed in accordance with the inherent capacities of the fingers.
22. Levers, hand wheels and other controls should be located in such positions that the operator can manipulate them with the least change in body position and with the greatest speed and ease.
References
Ralph M. Barnes, Motion and Time Study Measurement of Work,
John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1980
Productivity Measurement
Relevant Principles of Industrial Engineering
Productivity measurement - Principle of Industrial Engineering
To maintain system level focus, productivity measures at system level have to be developed and used. The relation between productivity measures at the enterprise level, process level, and work station level have to be established to facilitate decision making.
Work measurement - Principle of Industrial Engineering
To determine the best combination of motion elements, measurements of the time required to do each motion as well as bundles of motion are needed. Work measurement is an important measure in industrial engineering to select the best work method for machine elements, purely manual work elements or a combination of man-machine work elements. It is useful to set day’s task for an operator. Task-based incentives can be set based on the standard time which is an output of work measurement.
Cost Measurement - Principle of Industrial Engineering
Productivity improvement has to lead to decreased cost at the unit level for products. The ultimate proof of productivity improvement is the reduced unit cost reflected in the reported unit cost of products. As cost accounting is a well-developed independent area now with statutory bodies in many countries, industrial engineers have to work in cooperation with them to get the representative cost figures that are reliable for decision making.
Industrial Engineering Data and Measurements
Industrial engineering is engineering done in response to data generated as engineering products are produced or as engineering processes are used in the organizations. The important data used in industrial engineering are costs, human factor related data, time taken for completing machine tasks, manual tasks and man-machine tasks, productivity related data, defects related data and resource related data.
Cost data is the earliest focus for industrial engineers. Henry Towne and F.W. Taylor first focused on cost data based industrial engineering. Then, the importance of task completion times was pointed out by Halsey and Taylor came out with time study to find the time taken by manual tasks. Taylor also pointed out to the need to calculated machine task completion times by formulas. Tayor and Gilbreth focused on fatigue and its measurement. The definition of productivity emerged and productivity measurement started. Both Taylor, who advocated redesign or tasks, methods and processes and Miles who advocate redesign of products strongly emphasized the objective of maintaining the quality of the system, product or process while redesigning for cost reduction. Thus industrial engineers have to make defect or quality measurement before and after redesign and make sure that quality deterioration does not take place in any dimension.
Thus number of IE measurements have to be made by industrial engineers to do industrial engineering and present persuasive redesign projects to management for implementation.
Cost Measurement and Analysis-A Necessary Part of Industrial Engineering Education & Training
Balbinder S. Deo and Doug Strong
Balbinder S. Deo, Assistant Professor, Department of Finance & Management Science,
College of Commerce, University of Saskatchewan, 25 Campus Drive, Saskatoon, SK,
Canada S7N 5A7.
Doug Strong, Professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Manitoba,
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3T 5V6.
Some Important Points made in the paper.
One of the basic duties of Industrial Engineering professionals is to make improvements in operations, and systems of operations, to reduce the cost of operations.
Two assumptions play a major role in promoting the use of physical measures of productivity.
1. There exists an inverse relationship between physical measures of productivity and cost.
2. Increasing the physical productivity of resources used in production operations can reduce the cost of production of a manufactured product or service.
These relationships may hold true provided reduction in the physical quantity of one resource in one operation does not increase the consumption of other resources in the same operation and / or in other operations of the production system. Gain in the physical productivity of one resource may cause loss in others. For example, increase in the productivity of labor by employing high production capacity machines may cause loss in the productivity of machinery employed or vice versa. In a similar fashion, within a production system, gain in physical productivity measure of one functional area may cause loss in productivity of other related functional areas.
Improvement in productivity at the firm level, not just at the functional level, can be helpful in reducing the cost of production.
The measurement activity done by cost accounting accounts for material, labor and expenses. To do this all resources used by the organization are recorded for the purchase, use and salvage disposal if any. Thus resources are measured as part of cost measured. Defects and defectives produced are also recorded in cost accounting records based on shop production data.
Cost Measurement in Engineering Profession - An Historical Perspective
Increasing sales and reducing cost of production by productive use of resources in operations can achieve increase in profit. The use of cost as a measure of productivity is not new among engineering professionals. Literature describing the history of engineering provides significant evidence of its use and promotion among engineers by the pioneers of the profession.
Henry C. Metcalf (1885), as a superintendent of ordnance depots, realized the importance of cost measurement and analysis in manufacturing. He proposed to measure costs to the minutest detail possible within the organization to measure the efficiency of manufacturing and administration operations and also to create plan of cost of operations by knowing the detailed elements of cost involved for each operation performed on a product during manufacturing process. He published his thoughts in a book titled “The Cost of Manufactures and the administration of Workshops, Public and Private” in 1885, for providing guidance to other engineering professionals in the field.
Henry Towne (1886), another engineering professional, wrote a paper titled ‘Engineer as an Economist’ for one of the meetings of The American Society of Mechanical Engineers. According to him, determination of cost was one of the important duties of an engineer. To achieve this end he proposed the establishment of a separate shop accounting section at each workshop level to collect cost related information to meet the cost information needs of engineering professionals.
Hugo Diemer (1910), is the first faculty member of Industrial Engineering subject at Pennsylvania State College, quoted F.W. Taylor's appeal to engineering professionals to take up the responsibility of cost related data collection and analysis as part of profession.
Charles Buxton Going published a book titled, "Principles of Industrial Engineering" in 1911. He called industrial engineering, “New branch of engineering grown out of the rise of, and enormous expansion of the manufacturing system.” This branch of engineering, according to him, “has drawn upon mechanical engineering, economics, sociology, psychology, philosophy and accountancy to form a distinct body of science of its own”. In this definition of industrial engineering, inclusion of the subjects of economics and accountancy testify to the fact that the cost measurement and analysis was regarded as part of industrial engineering theory and practice at that time.
Howell, in his presentation at the 1995 International Industrial Engineering Conference, advised industrial engineers to reclaim their traditional industrial engineering responsibilities, such as, measurements of labor costs, manufacturing methods, and productivity improvement, along with other responsibilities so that their demand in industry, job title and functional identity remains intact. According to him, cost estimation should be one of the areas for which an industrial engineer should also be responsible and accountable.
Recent Developments
Recent studies by Barnes (1991), Dhavale (1992), and Eaglesham (1998), found in the Industrial Engineering literature on Activity Based Costing technique, broadly point out that some industrial engineers take interest in cost measurement.
Lenz and Neitzel (1995) developed their own methodology to develop a cost simulation model. In this model, they have used a cost equation that consists of eight components, such as station cost; labor cost; overhead cost; inventory cost; automation cost; capacity cost; material cost; and indirect cost. In this type of modeling, they claimed, all performance measures can be translated into costs by applying cost equations to the results of factory model.
Deo (2001) developed an Operation Based Costing model to measure cost of each resource in each operation, and the cost of each operation in a production system. In this model, an operation is considered as the basic unit of production system. The structure of the model matches the typical structure of an operation.
It is observed by the authors that cost measurement and analysis is slowly becoming one of the basic requirements for various job openings related to industrial and manufacturing engineering area. Education and training of industrial engineers in cost measurement and analysis, can give them an extra advantage in raising productivity and reducing cost in industrial organizations. Industrial engineering schools and departments need to introduce the subject as a necessary part of industrial engineering education and training for future generation of industrial engineers.
Work Measurement
F.W. Taylor focused on reduction of machine time and operator times as the foundation for productivity improvement. So the machine time and operator time have to be measured and the rationale behind the time taken has to be understood. Science needs to be developed to hypothesize and validate input variables and time required to complete various elements of operations and processes. Then inputs can be modified using engineering alternatives and time can be reduced. Taylor gave the name of "Time Study" to this process of measuring time, understanding the time taken to do a task and reducing the time by redesigning the process, operations and elements.
Hence in industrial engineering, to improve performance and productivity, time taken to complete tasks and elements are measured. Time taken by men for manual elements, time taken by machines for machine elements and time taken by robots etc. are measured in work measurement either by direct observation or standard data or predetermined standard data which is more universal. Time taken by machine elements are determined by formulae determined for various machines and processes.
Productivity Measurement - Industrial Engineering Measurements
Productivity in simple terms is production quantity for unit of each resource utilized. These simple measures are called partial productivity measures. Productivity can be measured for unit input of various combinations of resources by defining unit of inputs appropriately. For output from a specific machine can be measured. Output of manpower of a section can be measured. Productivity is also defined by unit of total resources. In this case, all outputs and inputs are expressed in money terms.
As an example, output of a machine tool can be calculated and whether it is improving or not over time can be assessed. Productivity improvement occurs if the output of the machine tool per unit time is increasing over time. The output can be expressed as output of parts or as revenue earned or material removed or as cost of production. The decision of the output is based on the appropriateness to the situation in the organization.
Waste Measurement
Waste elimination is the objective of industrial engineering. The paper "Scientific Management" by Taylor is focused on eliminating waste of human effort in unnecessary and inefficient motions, movements and activities of men.
It is Taiichi Ohno, we brought the waste measurement into more focus with his 7 waste model.
In the TPM model, six big losses and as a further breakup 16 losses were indicated. Now measuring these wastes with respect to standards and eliminating these wastes apart from improving the standard themselves has become a significant pursuit. Hence waste measurement is now an important IE Measurement activity.
Productivity Management
In the Eleventh edition of "Operations Management for Competitive Advantage" Chase, Jobs and Aquilano start the preface with statement "Operations Management (OM) has been a key element in the improvement in productivity in businesses around the world." Productivity growth created by operations management creates competitive advantage.
Productivity is defined in simple terms as (output of goods and services)/(input of resources) and productivity improvement results in reduction of unit cost of products of the organization. Henry Towne, in a paper presented in 1886 in the ASME Annual meeting proposed that reducing cost of production is the responsibility of engineers entrusted with shop management and works management.
"Gain Sharing" Productivity Benefit - Towne
Involving workmen in the task of improving productivity and decreasing the cost of production received attention and Towne mentioned in 1886 itself that he will present a paper shortly on the topic
In the paper presented in 1889, with the title "Gain Sharing" Towne suggested a plan of sharing the reduction of cost production with workmen and foremen. He gave his argument of the same.
The factors affecting the profit may be divided into several distinct groups, as follows :
1. Those contributed or controlled by the owner or principal, —such as capital, plant, character of buildings, machinery and organization; and, to a greater or less degree, the skill, experience, industry, and ability of the owner so far as he personally manages the business.
2. Those influenced by the mercantile staff, — the buyer and the selling agent in the case supposed.
3. Those determined by causes beyond the control of the principal and his agents; such as fluctuations in cost of raw material or in the market value of the finished product, the rate of interest, losses by bad debts, etc.
4. Those influenced by the workmen or operatives ; such as care of property, economy in the use of material and supplies, and, chiefly, efficiency in the use of machinery and employment of labor.
The right solution of "gain sharing" with persons involved in increasing profit will manifestly consist in allotting to each member of the organization an interest in that portion of the profit fund which is or may be affected by his individual efforts or skill, and protecting this interest against diminution resulting from the errors, of others, or from extraneous causes not under his control. Such a solution, while not simple, is attainable under many circumstances, and attainable by methods which experience has shown to be both practical and successful.
In the case of employees it will be best solved if it can be so formulated that as presented to the employee, it becomes an invitation from the principal that they should enter into an industrial partnership, wherein each will retain, unimpaired, his existing equitable rights, but will share with the other the benefits, if any are realized, of certain new contributions made by each to the common interest. Let us suppose that the wages of the operatives are already fairly adjusted according to the prevailing scale, so that for the employer to offer them a portion of his profits without a guaranty of return would be equivalent to his giving them more than the fair market value of their services; while if, under this inducement, they gave him better or more work than before, they would not receive fair recompense in case, by reason of causes beyond their control, his business yielded no profit. But let us suppose, further, that the principal, wishing to enlist the self-interest of his employees to augment the profits of the business, should offer to the operatives a proposition somewhat as follows:
"I have already ascertained the cost of our product in labor, supplies, economy of material, and such other items as you can influence. I will undertake to organize and pay for a system whereby the cost of product in these same items will be periodically ascertained, and will agree to divide among you a certain portion (retaining myself the remainder) of any gain or reduction of cost, which you may affect by reason of increased efficiency of labor, or increased economy in the use of material, or both; this arrangement not to disturb your rates of wages, which are to continue, as at present, those generally paid for similar services."
For this system, I have adopted the designation of "Gain-sharing." The system is now in actual use as affecting some 300 employees, has been in operation more than two years and is demonstrated to be practical and beneficial. Its most obvious application is to productive industries, especially those whose product is of a simple or uniform kind; but it may be adapted to many others, and also to the business of large mercantile houses. It is equally applicable to cases where labor is employed either by the piece, by the day, or by contract, and in no way impairs the existing freedom of the relation between employer and employee, but tends to confer substantial benefit on both sides.
The basis or starting-point of the system is an accurate knowledge of the present cost of product ( or, in the case of mercantile business, the cost of operating it ), stated in terms which include the desired factors, that is, those which can be influenced or controlled by the employees who are to participate in the result, and which exclude all other factors. In some cases the previous method of accounting or book-keeping may have been such as to supply this information, in which case the gain-sharing system can be easily and promptly organized. As a general rule it may be stated that, in the case of an account affecting the operatives in a producing or manufacturing business, the following items should be included, viz. : labor at cost, raw material, measured by quantity only ( for which purpose an arbitrary fixed price may be assumed ); incidental supplies, such as oil, waste, tools, and implements at cost; cost of power, light, and water, where means exist for correctly measuring them (for which purpose it often pays to provide local meters); cost of renewals and repairs of plant; and, finally, the cost of superintendence, clerk hire, etc., incident to the department covered by the system. In like manner the following items should be excluded viz. : market values of raw material (which are liable to fluctuation); general expenses, whether relating to management of works or to commercial administration, and, in general, all items over which the operatives can exercise no control or economy.
I will organize the system, will assume the cost of book-keeping and other expenses incident to it, and will provide all the facilities reasonably required to assist you in reducing the cost of product; I will credit the account with the output at the cost price heretofore obtaining, namely $1 per unit, and will charge it with the items in the inclusive list; if at the end of the year the credits exceed the charges, I will divide the resulting gain or reduction in cost, with you, retaining myself one portion — say one-half — and distributing the other portion among you pro rata on the basis of the wages earned by each during the year. " Suppose, then, that at the end of the year it was found that the cost per unit of product had been reduced from $1 to 95 cents, that the total gain thus resulting was $800, and that the aggregate wages paid during the year had been $10,000. One-half of the gain would be $400, which would equal 4 per cent, on the wages fund, so that each operative would be entitled to a dividend of 4 per cent, on his earnings during the year. This is equivalent to two weeks' extra wages, no mean addition to any income, and amounting, even in the case of a laborer earning $1.50 per day, to a cash dividend of $18 at the end of the year.
To accomplish this the Company agrees to organize the method of operation, to keep the necessary accounts, and in general to facilitate matters so far as it reasonably can; the employees, on the other hand, agree to use their best efforts to increase the efficiency of their work, to economize in the use of supplies and material, and in general to do their share toward reducing the cost of finished products.
Hasley
Criticism of Gain Sharing
First The workmen are given a share in what they do not earn. Increased profits may arise from more systematic shop management, decreased expenses of the sales department, or many other causes with which the workmen have nothing to do. Anything given them from such sources becomes simply a gift, the result of which is wholly pernicious —in fact the entire system savors of patronage and paternalism.
Hasley Plan
The plan assumes two slightly different forms, according to the nature of the work ; one form being suited to work produced in such quantities as to be reducible to a strictly manufacturing basis, and the other form to the more limited production of average practice. In both forms the essential principle is the same, as follows: The time required to do a given piece of work is determined from previous experience, and the workman, in addition to his usual daily wages, is offered a premium for every hour by which he reduces that time on future work, the amount of the premium being less than his rate of wages. Making the hourly premium less than the hourly wages is the foundation stone on which rest all the merits of the system, since by it if an hour is saved on a given product the cost of the work is less and the earnings of the workman are greater than if the hour is not saved, the workman being in effect paid for saving time. Assume a case in detail : Under the old plan a piece of work requires ten hours for its production, and the wages paid is thirty cents per hour. Under the new plan a premium of ten cents is offered the workman for each hour which he saves over the ten previously required. If the time be reduced successively to five hours the results will be as follows :
In certain classes of work an increase of production is accompanied with a proportionate increase of muscular exertion, and if the work is already laborious a liberal premium will be required to produce results. In other classes of work increased production requires only increased attention to speeds and feeds with an increase of manual dexterity and an avoidance of lost time. In such cases a more moderate premium will suffice.
F.W. Taylor - Productivity Management
Productivity management activity was practiced and described in a systematic manner in production shop activities by F.W. Taylor.
In the paper, "A Piece-Rate System, Being a Step Toward Partial Solution of the Labor Problem," presented to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1895. F.W. Taylor described a system of management, which was rapid in attaining the maximum productivity of each machine and man. Thus, productivity management as an area of management was introduced in the published literature by Taylor in 1895.
Evolution of Productivity Management Practice by Taylor
F.W. Taylor started the productivity improvement and management practice with the system implemented by him in the works of the Midvale Steel Company, of Philadelphia . He described the system and developed it further in number of papers and books. He also implemented the system in number of companies as an executive and consultant.
Contribution of Taylor – Piece Rate System
The system described in 1895 paper [6] had the objective of rapid attainment of the maximum productivity of each machine and man. It consisted of three principal elements:
(1) An elementary rate-fixing department.
(2) The differential rate system of piece-work.
(3) A method of managing men who work by the day.
The rate fixing department is actually an engineering department in the machine shop that determined the production processes of the goods produced and operations of the machine to get maximum productivity from the machine. The department personnel also observed large number of operators working on the machines at elementary operation levels and determined the best way of doing manual elements. The choice of the best ways of machining operations and manual operations was done on the basis of time taken. Hence time study or measuring time is an essential element of this system. But it is very important to emphasize that in machine shops and in general engineering systems, improvement of the engineering aspect is the core of the productivity improvement and management system proposed by Taylor.
Taylor – Shop Management
In Shop Management presented in 1903, Taylor defined art of management "as knowing exactly what you want men to do, and then seeing that they do it in the best and cheapest way." The definition identifies two activities. Managers of business or industrial organizations have to find out what goods and services the market wants and decide what their organization can produce and sell at the prevailing market prices. The second activity is then focusing on the doing the production at the cheapest way. This is an area of productivity improvement and management. Taylor’s focus in shop management paper/book is productivity improvement and management. He elaborated the system that he described in piece rate system further in shop management. He stated that there was enormous difference between the amount of work which a first-class man can do under favorable circumstances and the work actually produced by the average man of the time. The favorable circumstances in engineering sections/departments and processes are to be created by redesigning the engineering elements. Presently, industrial engineering identifies machine, material, energy and information as the key engineering elements in engineering systems. All engineering aspects of an engineering system are to be examined by industrial engineers to create favorable circumstances that facilitate operators to get maximum productivity from the machine effort as well as human effort.
In all man-machine systems the large increase in output is due partly to the changes, in the machines or small tools and appliances, and the total gain made is due to the redesign of the system that includes machine effort and human effort. Taylor gave number of steps in organizing the productivity improvement effort at enterprise level. He wrote that before starting productivity improvement effort, some issues should be carefully considered: First, the importance of choosing the general type of management best suited to the particular case. Second, that in all cases money must be spent, and in many cases a great deal of money, before the changes are completed which result in lowering cost. Third, that it takes time to reach any result worth aiming at. Fourth, the importance of making changes in their proper order, and that unless the right steps are taken, and taken in their proper sequence, there is great danger from deterioration in the quality of the output and from serious troubles with the workmen, often resulting in strikes.
Four principles were given in shop management for high productivity. There are:
1. Standardized conditions that enable an operator to complete a task with certainty.
2. A large definite daily task that promises extra income for higher than average output.
3. High pay for success.
4. Loss in case of failure.
As part of productivity management, many details in the production shop, which are usually regarded as of little importance and are left to be determined workmen, and foremen, must be thoroughly and carefully designed and standardized as part of plan of the work and directions for actual jobs are to be given based on such designs. Some of the detail specially highlighted in cases of machine shop include the care and tightening of the belts; the exact shape and quality of each cutting tool; the establishment of a complete tool room from which properly ground tools, as well as jigs, templates, drawings, etc., are issued and received back. Each machine tool must be standardized and a table or slide rule constructed for it showing how to run it to the best advantage. Modern engineering is practiced with the help of drawings for designs. Modern shop management for productivity is also to be done similarly based on process and operation designs or instruction sheets which specify the time to be taken to complete them.
Taylor made the statement in his shop management paper that almost all shops are under-officered. He advocated increase in number of shop officers to as high as eight as part of his productivity improvement organization. The role of top management in introducing the productivity management activity was also described Taylor. They have to understand the benefits and challenges of introducing the change in management process and have to be prepared to handle the objections and complaints that are likely to arise. They have to approve the investment required to introduce the productivity management system and provide resources.
Taylor – Scientific Management
In the paper/book, Scientific Management, Taylor expressed the view that the principal object of management should be to secure the maximum prosperity for the employer, coupled with the maximum prosperity for each employee. He further explained that the greatest permanent prosperity for the workman, coupled with the greatest prosperity for the employer, can be brought about only when the work of the establishment is done with the smallest combined expenditure of human effort, plus nature's resources, plus the cost for the use of capital in the shape of machines, buildings, etc. Or, to state the same thing in a different way: that the greatest prosperity can exist only as the result of the greatest possible productivity of the men and machines of the establishment--that is, when each man and each machine are turning out the largest possible output. Thus productivity focus of the paper “Scientific Management” is brought out clearly by Taylor.
Close, intimate, personal cooperation between the management and the men is the essence of modern scientific or task management, which gives greatest possible productivity. The emphasis on machine in machine shops is to be noted. Machine is to be improved by industrial engineer first and then effort of man to operate the improved machine operation has to be designed. Taylor in 1911, claimed that at least 50,000 workmen in the United States were employed under the new scientific management system; and they were receiving from 30 per cent to 100 per cent higher wages daily. The companies that successfully employed the scientific management had increased the output, per man and per machine, on an average to double the earlier production.
Recent Publications on Productivity Management
Scott Sink authored the book “Productivity Management: Planning, Measurement and Evaluation, Control and Improvement in 1985. He also described the productivity management process with the starting point as productivity measurement. The steps in the productivity management process are given as: (1) measuring and evaluating productivity; (2) planning for control and improvement of productivity based on information provided by measurement and evaluation process; (3) making control and improvement interventions; and (4) measuring and evaluating the impact of these interventions. For productivity evaluation, standards are to be generated by one of the various methods as appropriate. The methods indicated include: 1. Estimation 2. Engineering approach 3. Historical information 4. Normative values. Both Sumanth and Sink indicated large number of productivity improvement methods and techniques which can be used for productivity improvement.
Propokenko also described productivity management based on productivity measurement and analysis. Recent research studies in productivity measurement are summarized in a book on productivity management authored by Phusawat in 2013.
The literature reveals that Taylor started his productivity improvement publications with a management system applicable to the whole enterprise using piece rate system or day-payment system or both. But he highlighted in the paper that elementary rate fixing is the primary tool or system. Differential piece rate helps in implementing the output specified by rate fixing section. His subsequent works are also aimed at the enterprise application of shop management or scientific management.
Applied Industrial Engineering
The "Applied Industrial Engineering" term was used by Shafeek et al. [2014] . Rao [2017] stated in Principles of Industrial Engineering that "Industrial engineering defined as system efficiency engineering has application in all branches of engineering. Productivity improvement is needed in engineering systems of all branches and therefore industrial engineering needs to be used in all branches of engineering. It needs to be taught in all engineering branches."
New engineering areas like biotechnology and nanotechnology are growing. Productivity improvement is an essential activity in all technology systems. Industrial engineering programme designers have to answer the question: Is there a need to start education in a new technology now in the IE programme? Industrial engineering professionals have to apply the current industrial engineering theory and practice to the new technologies. Applied industrial engineering is application of the current IE theory in new technologies and utilizing new technologies in IE techniques. We all know presently, industry 4.0 is the revolution in all engineering disciplines. In this context, the paper by Sackey and Bester [2016] exploring the implications of industry 4.0 for industrial engineering is a laudable exercise.
What are the process steps in applied industrial engineering?
An initial proposal.
Monitor - The technology environment for identifying new technologies.
Explore - The selected technology
Analyze - Measure and determine productivity improvement opportunities
Develop - Ideas to improve productivity
Analyze - Economics and optimization opportunities
Participate - in full project report finalization
Incorporate - Productivity improvements
Install - The project
Manage - Productivity maintenance and improvement activities in the projects and technology
Modified steps
Monitor - Explore - Analyze - Develop - Optimize - Participate - Install - Improve
Brief explanation of the Applied Industrial Engineering - Process Steps
Monitor - Technology Monitoring
Explore - Technology Exploration
Analysis - Productivity Analysis of New Technology
Develop - Develop Productivity Knowledge of New Technology
Optimize - Optimize Productivity Engineering Ideas
Participate - Participate in New Technology Implementation Projects
Install - Be An Active Member of the Project Execution and Management Team
Improve - Continuous and Periodic Improvement of Productivity of the New Technology
Kambhampati,Venkata Satya Surya Narayana Rao. (2017). Principles of industrial engineering. IIE Annual Conference.Proceedings, , 890-895.
https://search.proquest.com/docview/1951119980
Sackey, S.M., and Bester, A., (2016), “Industrial Engineering Curriculum in Industry 4.0 in a South African Context,” South African Journal of Industrial Engineering Vol. 27, No. 4, December, pp 101-114
Shafeek, Hani, Mohammed Aman, and Muhammad Marsudi, (2014), “From Traditional to Applied: A Case Study in Industrial Engineering Curriculum,” International Journal of Social, Behavioral, Educational, Economic, Business and Industrial Engineering Vol. 8, No. 10, pp. 3378-87.
Source: https://nraoiekc.blogspot.com/2018/05/applied-industrial-engineering-process.html
In the book, Introduction to Modern Industrial Engineering, the principles, functions and focus areas are introduced to the learners. Each focus area will be covered in detail in separate books.
INTRODUCTION TO MODERN INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING
(History, Principles, Functions and Focus Areas)
By
Prof. K.V.S.S. Narayana Rao, B.Tech, PGDIE, PhD.
Author Global Number 1 Blog on Industrial Engineering - Industrial Engineering Knowledge Center
https://nraoiekc.blogspot.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/narayana-rao-kvss-b608007/
A Collection of Blog Posts on Industrial Engineering.
I am making this consolidation as number of my friends and readers are requesting a pdf version of the articles published by me. I thank them for motivating me to do this compilation. Version 2.0 was received with enthusiasm. So I got the interest to further expand the content to version 3.0. I request you to give suggestions for various improvements needed through comments or LinkedIn posts.
© 2023 K.V.S.S. Narayana Rao
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(Version 3.0 - June 2023)
INTRODUCTION TO MODERN INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING - Chapter 1
3. Contribution of Taylor, Gilbreth and Harrington Emerson
4. Principles of Industrial Engineering
