Thursday, March 23, 2017

Subject Areas in Industrial Engineering - A New Scheme



I am currently teaching an advanced course in industrial engineering with the following subject scheme.

Subject Areas in Industrial Engineering - A New Scheme


Industrial engineering principles
Product industrial engineering
Process industrial engineering
   - Technical process industrial engineering
   - Management process industrial engineering
Industrial engineering optimization
Industrial engineering technometrics (Application of statistics in industrial engineering projects and practice).
Industrial engineering economics
Human effort industrial engineering
Measurements in industrial engineering
Productivity management

The course is going smoothly. We are studying the basic content on each topic for two hours based on the notes prepared by our first year masters students based on their class lecture, discussion and study. Then we are examining some recent research papers.

A presentation was done to the prospective masters students based on this scheme and they appreciated the presentation.

What is missing in the scheme is productivity science or industrial engineering science. Under this head we need to discuss scientific method and some of the experiments, research and theory building done in the industrial engineering field. In the textbooks of sociology and psychology, scientific enquiry is described as one chapter.



Introductory Articles on the New Subject Areas in Industrial Engineering


Industrial engineering principles


Industrial engineering Principles, Methods Tools and Techniques
http://nraoiekc.blogspot.com/2012/03/industrial-engineering-principles.html


Product industrial engineering


Product Industrial Engineering
http://nraoiekc.blogspot.com/2017/02/product-industrial-engineering.html


Process industrial engineering


Process Industrial Engineering
http://nraoiekc.blogspot.com/2017/02/process-industrial-engineering.html

   - Technical process industrial engineering

   - Management process industrial engineering


     Management Process Industrial Engineering
     http://nraoiekc.blogspot.com/2017/03/management-process-industrial.html


Industrial engineering optimization (IEO)

Product and process alternative concepts developed by industrial engineers initially start as concepts, go through technical feasibility and commercial feasibility stages. Optimization using mathematical and operations research methods becomes an important stage in industrial engineering studies and projects. The optimization done in IE projects is one component of industrial engineering optimization. Independently, IEs may examine systems for lack of optimality and suggest or do optimization. This aspect also comes under I.E.O.

Industrial engineering technometrics (Application of statistics in industrial engineering projects and practice).

Sampling increases productivity of activities. So industrial engineering field suggests and utilizes sampling at appropriate stages in the production process. Industrial engineers use experiments in developing science as well as engineering solutions. Use of statistics by industrial engineers is convered in industrial engineering technometrics.

Industrial engineering economics


Use of engineering economic analysis in IE studies is explained in Industrial engineering economics.

Human effort industrial engineering


Human effort is redesigned by F.W. Taylor, Frank Gilbreth, R.L. Barnes and H.B. Maynard to realise productivity improvements. Motion study and work measurement are two important methods of IE in this area. The concern of IE regarding fatigue and comfort of operators is now supported by ergonomics discipline in providing science of occupational impact on the workmen. The musculoskeletal disorders suffered by the workers are prevented by early analyses of ergonomists. IEs take the scientific theories developed by ergonomics and engineer human effort.

Measurements in industrial engineering

Work measurement, Productivity measurement and Cost measurement are the three important measurement subjects for industrial engineers.

Productivity management


Productivity Management
http://nraoiekc.blogspot.com/2016/11/productivity-management.html

Sunday, March 19, 2017

Implementing Japanese Industrial Engineering Developments in India - UNIDO ACMA Approach



Lean is Japanese industrial engineering practice.


Journal of Industrial Engineering International
June 2015, Volume 11, Issue 2, pp 179–198
Roadmap for Lean implementation in Indian automotive component manufacturing industry: comparative study of UNIDO Model and ISM Model
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40092-014-0074-6

The article by Jadhav, J.R., Mantha, S.S. & Rane, S.B describes UNIDO-ACMA model and also ISM model proposed by them.

UNIDO Model

Sustenance
Productivity Improvement
Inventory Management
Quality Management
5S
Employee Involvement


Steps suggested by authors

Human resource management practice bundle
Creativity and innovation practice bundle
Health and safety practice bundle
Waste elimination practice bundle
Conformance quality practice bundle
Volume flexibility practice bundle
Delivery reliability practice bundle
Low-cost practice bundle
Sustenance and perfection

An Explanation of Industrial Engineering - 19 March 2017



Functions of Industrial Engineering


Came across this explanation of industrial engineering today in  MM Industrial Spectrum Special Issue of 2015.  The title of the article is Machinery and Industrial Engineering.         http://www.mmspektrum.com/

The ambition of industrial engineering is to prepare specialists who are able to search and
implement system solutions of manufacturing and supply problems, to increase efficiency
of enterprise processes, who are able to plan and project manufacturing processes and
systems, to provide their high productivity and reliability and to eliminate all sorts of losses
and costs which do not create value added.


Characteristics
Industrial engineering is a multidisciplinary branch combining knowledge of the engineering  field and  experience  of enterprise management.

This branch should use all available sources inside the company as effectively as possible, which are e. g. information itself, financial sources, human work,  knowledge  and  abilities  of  people etc. Therefore, its main task is to rationalize, optimize and improve manufacturing and
non  manufacturing  processes.

Changes are applied at practice through projects which shall eliminate all losses and to provide the highest possible productivity. 

Monday, March 13, 2017

Work Study - Important Issues to Notice


Work Study Definition


British Standard 3138: 1969 No. 10001

Work Study is defined as:
“A management service based on those techniques, particularly method study and work measurement, which are used in the examination of human work in all its contexts, and which lead to the systematic investigation of all the resources and factors which affect the efficiency and economy of the situation being reviewed, in order to effect improvement.”

Notes from ILO Work Study, 2nd Edition 1969


Work study is thus especially concerned with productivity. It is most frequently used to increase the amount produced from a given quantity of resources without further capital investment except, perhaps, on a very small scale.

Work study was widely known for years as "time and motion study", but with the development of the technique and its application to a very wide range of activities it was felt by many people that the older title was both too narrow and insufficiently descriptive. The term "work study" entered the English language only after the Second World War, but it is now generally accepted; "motion and
time study" is however still used in the United States although the newer term is gaining currency there. The word Arbeitsstudium, which has a similar meaning, has been used in Germany for many years.

It has been assumed in work study that productivity would be raised by using existing resources. Productivity can almost always be greatly increased by heavy investment of money in new and improved plant and equipment. How much can we expect to gain through the use of management techniques, and especially work study, to improve the use of existing resources as against investing capital in new plant?

It will be seen that the most effective way of raising productivity in the long run is often the development of new processes and the installation of more modern plant and equipment which is capital intensive. Even to achieve worth-while improvements in existing processes to improve productivity may take considerable time and money.

Work study is concerned primarily with operation rather than with technical processes as such, and operation involves human beings, whether as workers, planners, technicians or managers.

*The study of the behaviour of plant divorced from the operator is almost entirely a technical problem, and work study is not usually concerned with it.

By carrying out systematic procedures quite ordinary men can achieve results as good as or better than the results achieved less systematic geniuses. Work study succeeds because it is systematic both in investigation of the problem being considered and in the development of its solution. Systematic investigation takes time.


Only by continuous study at the workplace or in the area where the activity is taking place can the facts be obtained to do work study. This means that work study must always be the responsibility of someone who devotes full time to the study when it is taking place.

Work Study is one of several techniques to improve productivity. Some of these techniques at Product Design, Process and Facilities Design, and Operations stage are given below.

It is to be noted that industrial engineers have to do more activities than work study alone in the engineering field to improvement productivity. Product industrial engineering and process industrial engineering are the terms proposed by Dr. K.V.S.S. Narayana Rao to describe the areas of industrial engineering which focus on identifying, developing and installing engineering alternatives to increase productivity in engineering activities, processes, departments and organizations.


Productivity Techniques that can be used during Operations Stage


1. Reduce the work content of the product -

Product research
Product development
Quality management
Method study (Work Study)
Value analysis



2. Reduce the work content of the process -

Process research
Pilot plant
Process planning
Method study (Work Study)
Operator training
Value analysis



3. Reduce ineffective time (whether due to management or to workers) -
Ineffective time - Man and machine are idle. They are working but no required output is coming

Work measurement (Work Study)
Marketing policy
Standardisation
Product development
Production planning and control
Material control
Planned maintenance
Personnel policy
Improved working conditions
Operator training
Incentive schemes




Method study has some application at various stages.

Product design: Method study to improve ease of operation and maintenance at design stage. Method study people can give some suggestions at the design stage based on their experience on the shopfloor on some design features.



Technical Process and Facilities Development: Method study in plant layout and to improve ease of operation when modernising.

Method study to improve design for ease of production - minor changes in design (Not changes in basic design)

Method study to reduce wasted effort and time in operating the process by eliminating unnecessary
movement (with in the permanent layout)

Work measurement to investigate existing practice, locate ineffective time and set standards
of performance as a basis for

A. Planning and control
B. Utilisation of plant
C. Labour cost control
D. Incentive schemes


The full effect is felt in an organisation only when work study is applied everywhere, and when
everyone becomes imbued with the attitude of mind which is the basis of successful work study: intolerance of waste in any form, whether of material, time, effort or human ability; and the refusal to accept without question that things must be done in a certain way "because that is the way they have always been done".


THE BASIC PROCEDURE OF WORK STUDY

There are eight steps in performing a complete work study. They are-

1. Select the job or process to be studied.
2. Record from direct observation everything that happens, using the most suitable of the recording techniques (to be explained later), so that the data will be in the most convenient form to be analysed.
3. Examine the recorded facts critically and challenge everything that is done, considering in turn: the purpose of the activity; the place where it is performed; the sequence in which it is done; the person who is doing it; the means by which it is done.
4. Develop the most economic method taking into account all the circumstances.
5. Measure the quantity of work involved in the method selected and calculate a standard time for doing it.
6. Define the new method and the related time so that it can always be identified.
7. Install the new method as agreed standard practice with the time allowed.
8. Maintain the new standard practice by proper control procedures.


The sequence           Select, Record, Examine
                                 Develop, Measure, Define,
                                 Install and Maintain
should be learnt by heart.









Work study is a most penetrating tool of investigation. It is systematic and the places where effort and time are being wasted are laid bare one by one. In order to eliminate this waste the causes of it must be looked for. The causes include bad planning, bad organisation, insufficient control or lack of proper training of workers. Members of the management and supervisory staffs are responsible for these things and thus they are also made responsible for making improvement to increase productivity. Applying work study in one shop can start a chain-reaction of investigation and thr reason may be pointed occurring in the plant engineer's department,the accounts department, the design office or the sales force. Hence the  technique must be handled with great care and tact. Nobody likes to be made to feel that he has failed, especially in the eyes of his superiors. The work study man has to point out his findings without hurting the emotions of the people concerned.


It was the experience of the ILO productivity mission that productivity could often be increased simply by improving the working conditions, before method study techniques were applied. It is little use making elaborate investigations into the improvement of working methods if lighting is so bad that operatives have to strain their eyes to see what they are doing or if the atmosphere is so hot and humid, or so charged with noxious fumes, that they have constantly to go into the open air to refresh themselves. Bad working conditions were listed among the main causes of ineffective time due to shortcomings of the management. Not only is time lost in the manner described but an excessive amount of bad work is caused which means waste of material and loss of output.