Thursday, April 17, 2025

Operations Management and Industrial Engineering

 


2025 - A to Z Industrial Engineering - Blogging Theme - Industrial Engineering Benefits the Society and Organizations




Industrial Engineering - Systems/Processes/Methods Improvement Using Engineering solutions creatively.

Industrial Engineering - Prime focus - Productivity Improvement.

Productivity improvement gives National Prosperity and Organization Prosperity.



Source: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/national-productivity-council-gandhinagar_cartoonseriesabr10-productivity-economicgrowth-activity-7301162658278379520-eyyl




A to Z of Industrial Engineering - Blogging Challenge April 2025 - Proposed Posts

https://nraoiekc.blogspot.com/2025/02/a-to-z-of-industrial-engineering.html


Existing Collection of Articles

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


Modern Industrial Engineering - Summary Explanation.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/modern-industrial-engineering-summary-explanation-april-kvss-8hiyc

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Operations Management and  Industrial Engineering



Bulk of industrial engineering activities take place in operations function of organizations.


Operations functions include receiving all customer orders from sales department, planning their production or execution, arranging resources through supply/purchasing functions, production or execution, and despatch or fulfillment and further customer service. Maintenance of equipments and other resources, and monitoring payments to employees and suppliers are also operations functions.


Product Design is generally a separate activity but it is also sometimes included in operations.


Industrial and systems engineering (ISE) is defined as a discipline concerned with the design, improvement and installation of integrated systems of people, materials, information, equipment and energy. It draws upon specialised knowledge and skill in the mathematical, physical, and social sciences together with the principles and methods of engineering analysis and design, to specify, predict, and evaluate the results to be obtained from such systems (IISE 2024). 


The main components of ISE knowledge that reflect a categorisation of pertinent industrial and systems engineering theories and models include (1) work design & measurement, (2) operations research & analysis, (3) engineering economic analysis, (4) facilities engineering & energy management, (5) quality & reliability engineering, (6) ergonomics & human factors, (7) operations engineering & management, (8) supply chain management, (9) engineering management, (10) safety, (11) information engineering, (12) design and manufacturing engineering, (13) product design & development, and 14) system design & engineering.




Operations Management - Industrial Engineering Interface

By Narayana Kvss






Operations Management - People - Job Design - Role of Operations Management 


• Operations Management books do have a chapter on 

managing people. 

• Operations Management books also discuss cost 

management and productivity management. 

• Shop Management by F.W. Taylor - First book on production 

management. 

• Industrial engineering (IE) - A discipline started in 1908 for productivity improvement. 


Inadequate Description of IE in Production/Operations Management Books 


• But most of the operations management - 

production management books deliberately do 

not discuss the role of industrial engineering in 

productivity management, cost management 

and people management. 


Neglect of IE in Management Books 


• Specifically highlighted by Narayana Rao K.V.S.S. in a conference paper. 


• Appreciated by conference attendees 

including international delegates. 

Scientific Management 


• Nigel Slack et al. in their book on Operations 

Management, discuss the role of scientific 

management and the product of it, work study 

in the chapter on people and job design. 

Scientific Management - Science for Work 



• The term ‘scientific management’ became established in 1911 with 

the publication of the book of the same name by Fredrick Taylor. 

• ● All aspects of work should be investigated on a scientific basis to 

establish the laws, rules and formulae governing the best methods of 

working. 

• Workers should be selected, trained and developed methodically to 

perform their tasks. 

• ● Co-operation should be achieved between management and 

workers based on the ‘maximum prosperity’ of both. 

Managers - Workers - Responsibilities 

• Managers have equal responsibility with workers 

for the completion of work. 

• Managers do the work that they can do better. 

• Workers do the work that they can do better. 


Productivity Science 


• Development of science is the responsibility of 

managers. - F.W. Taylor 

• Now development of science is the responsibility 

of Industrial Engineering researchers. 

• Principles of scientific management are in use 

even today even though management textbooks 

are not giving right description of it. 


Systems for Management - Nigel Slack et al. 


• Scientific Management takes an ‘investigative’ approach to 

improving operations. 

• The term ‘systematic management’ was also popular. 

• Taylor’s effort gave birth to Industrial Management and 

Industrial Engineering. 

• Personnel Department is also from Taylor’s effort. 

• Gilbreth’s work gave birth to ergonomics. 



Frameworks for Productivity Science of Machine Effort and Human Effort 


• Science in Scientific Management - Taylor and Gilbreth. 

• Rao, Kambhampati Venkata Satya Surya Narayana. IIE Annual 

Conference. Proceedings; Norcross (2020): 429-434. 

• https://www.proquest.com/openview/5786c4e6edff56abf808b4db26 

f083b3/1.pdf 


Industrial Engineering 


• 1901 & 1908 

• Productivity improvement and productivity management aspects of 

production systems (in general engineering systems). 

• Facilities Industrial Engineering 

• Product Industrial Engineering 

• Process Industrial Engineering 

• Managerial Practices Industrial Engineering 


Industrial Engineering Principles 


• Presentation by Dr. K.V.S.S. Narayana Rao 

• 2017 IISE Annual Conference, Pittsburgh, USA. 

• YouTube Video 

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU8CdWfZZdU 


https://www.academia.edu/105277135/Operations_Management_Industrial_Engineering_Interface


IISE has to persuade authors of Operations Management Textbooks to discuss role of industrial engineering in operations management adequately. IISE has to publish a paper on it in its publications.



Post Included In

Modern Industrial Engineering - LinkedIn News Letter - May 2025 Issue. 

Topic of Focus - Current Issues of Interest in Industrial Engineering to Make it Effective.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/current-issues-interest-industrial-engineering-may-2025-kvss-1hekc



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2 comments:

  1. I manage a food production facility (part-time now) but most of the processes you outline apply there too...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes. Last year I taught a course on Industrial Engineerng. One of the students did her project in a bread manufacturing facility. We did discuss some IE aspects of the bread making process. Thank you for the visit and comment. I am not able to visit A to Z blogs now as I limited my online time. During May I shall visit more A to Z blogs.

      Delete