4 Big Ideas in Industrial Engineering
Chapter Table of contents
At times while reading this book, you may wonder exactly what you are learning and you may not be able to point to specific new skills and knowledge you have, but I guarantee that you will have new ideas and new ways of thinking by the time you complete this book.
How does an IE think?
One example of how an IE thinks is that when something goes wrong – a customer got the wrong shipment, a worker was injured, a plant did not produce the quantity of product that was planned for that day – an IE blames the system, not the people. Until the root cause of a problem is identified, an IE keeps asking “why?”
- Why did the customer receive the wrong shipment?
- Because the wrong shipping label was put on the customer’s shipment.
- Why was the wrong shipping label put on the customer’s shipment?
- Because some shipments were removed from the shipping department.
- Why were the shipments removed?
- Because the customer had made some last minute changes to the order.
- Why did the customer make some last minute changes?
- And so forth.
The IE in this example could end up identifying problems in how customer orders are tracked, in how the sales people identify appropriate products for customers, or in when and how shipping labels are printed and applied to shipments. The IE will probably end up making changes to the physical system (including the information system) and to the procedures used. Perhaps the shipping label should not be printed until the order is actually being shipped.
Big Ideas
The big idea from this example is that an IE blames the system, not the people. Now, that idea may not always be true; yes, sometimes people simply make mistakes, but the IE should always think first, second, and often about how systems can be improved so people don’t make mistakes. An IE tries to set up systems so people do tasks right the first time every time.
Here is a list of ideas that you will read about throughout this book and that we will bring up repeatedly in our discussions:
- If a problem occurs, blame the system, not the people.
- Design the system so people do tasks right the first time every time.
- Design the system so people can do their work efficiently, well, and safely.
- Reduce the variation in a system, so tasks are done consistently.
- If it ain’t broke, it can still be improved.
- Small incremental improvements of a process add up, but more radical reengineering may sometimes be needed.
- A system should help ordinary people do extraordinary work.
- IEs are always thinking “this could be done better.”
- How a person does a job is important in achieving efficiency, quality, and safety.
- The process for doing a task makes a big difference in how efficiently, well, and safely the task is done.
- Achieve quality in goods and services by having good processes, not by inspecting goods and services to fix problems after they have occurred.
- While most engineers design physical objects,