industrial engineering

—industrial engineer.

engineering applied to the planning, design, and control of industrial operations.

[1970-75]

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Application of engineering principles and techniques of scientific management to the maintenance of high levels of productivity at optimum cost in industrial enterprises.

Frederick W. Taylor pioneered in the scientific measurement of work, and Frank (1868–1924) and Lillian (1878–1972) Gilbreth refined it with time-and-motion studies. As a result, production processes were simplified, enabling workers to increase production. The industrial engineer selects tools and materials for production that are most efficient and least costly to the company. The engineer may also determine the sequence of production and the design of plant facilities or factories. See also ergonomics.

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Introduction

      application of engineering principles and techniques of scientific management to the maintenance of a high level of productivity at optimum cost in industrial enterprises.

Engineering and science as a support to management

      The managers responsible for industrial production require an enormous amount of assistance and support because of the complexity of most production systems, and the additional burden of planning, scheduling, and coordination. Historically, this support was provided by industrial engineers whose major concern was with methods, standards, and the organization of process technology.

      Industrial engineering originated with the studies of Taylor, the Gilbreths, and other pioneers of mass production methods. Their work expanded into responsibilities that now include the development of work methods to increase efficiency and eliminate worker fatigue; the redesign and standardization of manufacturing processes and methods for handling and transporting materials; the development of production planning and control procedures; and the determination and maintenance of output standards for workers and machines. Today the field is characterized by an emphasis on mathematical and computer modeling.

The evolving nature of industrial engineering

      In recent years industrial engineering has broadened significantly as a discipline, and the support it now provides to production and manufacturing managers comes from staff specialists drawn not only from the field of industrial engineering but also from operations research, management science, computer science, and information systems. In the 1970s and 1980s industrial engineering became a more quantitative and computer-based profession, and operations research techniques were adopted as the core of most industrial engineering academic curricula in both the United States and Europe.

      Since many of the problems of operations research originate in industrial production systems, it is often difficult to determine where the engineering discipline ends and the more basic scientific discipline begins (operations research is a branch of applied mathematics). Indeed, many academic industrial engineering departments now use the term industrial engineering and operations research or the reverse, further clouding the distinction.

William K. Holstein Ed.

Additional Reading

H.B. Maynard (ed.), Industrial Engineering Handbook, 3rd ed. (1971).

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