Thursday, July 26, 2007

Research Opportunities in Industrial Engineering

http://www.imse.iastate.edu/academics_new/majors-and-programs/doctor-of-philosophy-in-industrial-engineering-phd-ie.html

The Ph.D. in IE program prepares students for careers in consulting, industry research, and academia. It provides an opportunity to explore challenging research problems and make a research contribution to the field of industrial engineering. Students learn how to write proposals, plan and conduct research, write research papers, and make technical presentations.

Dissertation
The primary focus of the program is on the research process. Students must successfully complete and defend a dissertation that describes the significance, methods, and results of their reserach investigations.

Examinations
Students must demonstrate knowledge of industrial engineering principles at an advanced level and an ability to conduct sound independent research. Each student must pass three examinations.

Qualifying Exam
A combination of course work and a research paper
Preliminary Exam
Oral examination on the dissertation proposal
Final Exam
Oral examination on the completed dissertation
Course work
A total of 21 credits (typically 7 courses) at the graduate level are required beyond the M.S. degree.



More details on the Ph.D. program can be found in the IMSE Graduate Handbook.

Attacks on Industrial Engineering Discipline and Counterattack by IE Profession

Attack by Organisation behaviour scholars
Attack by Quality movement led by Juran and Deming
Attack by BPR
Attack by Lean system promoters

In all the cases the attacks were quite stong, aggressive and explicit but the counter attack is very weak and invisible.

Human Effort is a popular term

"Industrial Engineering is Human Effort Engineering. It is an engineering discipline that deals with the design of human effort in all occupations: agricultural, manufacturing and service. The objectives of Industrial Engineering are optimization of productivity of work-systems and occupational comfort, health, safety and income of persons involved." (Narayana Rao, Definition of Industrial Engineering: Suggested Modification, Udyog Pragati, Oct-Dec 2006, pp. 1-4.)

I used the words human effort to bring out the uniqueness of industrial engineering among engineering disciplines and also to use the meaning of the word 'industry' which is habitual employment in useful work (The concise oxford dictionary of current english, 7th ed., 1982). My basic aim is to make industrial engineering understandable to the lay people. Of course its focus and purpose are clearly specified.

Today I came across, two definitions which also use words 'human effort.'


Lean production: The pursuit of concurrent improvement in all measures of manufacturing performance by the elimination of waste through projects that change the physical organization of work on the shop floor, logistics and production control throughout the supply chain, and the way human effort is applied in both production and support tasks. (Michle Baudin)

Methods Engineering: A technique used by progressive management to improve productivity and quality and reduce costs in both direct and indirect operations of manufacturing and nonmanufacturing business organizations. Methods engineering is applicable in any enterprise where human effort is required. It can be defined as the systematic procedure for subjecting all direct and indirect operations to close scrutiny in order to introduce improvements that will make work easier to perform while maintaining or improving quality, and will allow work to be done smoother, in less time, with less energy, effort, and fatigue, and with less investment per unit. The ultimate objective of methods engineering is profit improvement. (Benjamin W. Niebel)

Monday, July 16, 2007

The ranking of American universities on Industrial Engineering

The following shows the ranking of American universities on Industrial Engineering field which has been printed out by H.J. Newton (Professor of Statistics and Executive Associate Dean of College of Science Texas A&M University)



1 Georgia Tech 4.71
2 Cal Berkeley 4.44
3 Purdue 4.43
4 Michigan 4.36
5 Texas A&M 3.81
6 Northwestern 3.73
7 Stanford 3.68
8 VPI 3.66
9 Penn State 3.50
10 Wisconsin 3.48
11 North Carolina State 3.46
12 Ohio State 3.24
13 Illinois 3.13
14 RPI 3.12
15 Lehigh 3.03
16 Oklahoma State 2.99
17 Arizona State 2.97
18 SUNY Buffalo 2.86
19 Florida 2.82
20 Auburn 2.73
21 Iowa State 2.69
22 Southern Cal 2.64
23 Pittsburgh 2.61
24 Iowa 2.49
25 Massachusetts 2.42
26 Oklahoma 2.37
27 Arkansas 2.33
28 Nebraska 2.28
29 Kansas State 2.27
30 Northeastern 2.17
31 Wayne State 2.08
32 Clemson 2.08
33 Missouri 1.78
34 Wisconsin Milwaukee 1.77
35 Alabama Huntsville 1.71
36 Houston 1.61
37 Oregon State 1.28


Source: http://amirazizi-ise.blogspot.com/2007/04/ranking-of-american-universities-on.html

Thursday, July 5, 2007

First Book with title Industrial Engineering

Princples of Industrial Engineering by Charles Buxton Going seems to be the first book with the term "Industrial Engineering" mentioned in its title. This was published in 1911 by McGraw-Hill Book Company.

You can download this book from http://www.archive.org/details/principlesofindu00goinrich

I am preparing a summary of the book. I shall post in the handbook www.nrao-ie-handbook.blogspot.com