History of Industrial Engineering (IE) IE110 Technical English

Before Industrial Engineering Engineering history lies back to the beginning of civilization. Until the end of 17hundreds, production meant crafts (A craftsman used to treat material and assemble the pieces) Until then a single person used to Plan Select and supply material Produce and control

Industrial Revolution In 1776, James Watt invented the steam engine. (Turning steam power into mechanical power) This is the beginning of industrial revolution. Since then, first factories started to be established in USA and UK (United Kingdom) Earlier factories were textile and metal working plants.

Significant Events in IE You should stress that the time-based historical perspective is only one way to look at the development of Operations Management, outcome focus is another.

Eli Whitney © 1995 Corel Corp. In 1798, received government contract to make 10,000 muskets Showed that machine tools could make standardized parts to exact specifications Musket parts could be used in any musket You might ask students why standardization is so important. If their answers do not raise the issue, here is a good time to introduce the concept of “setup.” Discussion of Whitney also raises issues of quality control, and even worker training.

Frederick W. Taylor Known as ‘father of scientific management’ In 1881, as chief engineer for Midvale Steel, studied how tasks were done Began first motion & time studies Created efficiency principles Some students argue that Taylor’s main objective was to get more from the workers. You might discuss the difference between trying to get more out of the workers and trying to improve their efficiency. © 1995 Corel Corp.

Taylor: Management Should Take More Responsibility for Matching employees to right job Providing the proper training Providing proper work methods and tools Establishing legitimate incentives for work to be accomplished There are several issues which can be raised here: - the individual nature of individuals (not everyone is suited to the same job) - how does one decide what is “proper” training? - perhaps “a poor workman blames his tools;” but a workman may only be as good as his tools - “a day’s pay for a day’s work” - what is a “day’s work”? How do we decide? How do we arrive at a monetary value for this day’s work?

Frank & Lillian Gilbreth Husband-and-wife engineering team Developed work measurement methods Applied efficiency methods to their home & 12 children! (Book & Movie: “Cheaper by the Dozen,” book: “Bells on Their Toes”) © 1995 Corel Corp. Ask the students: So what? Get them to think about task performance at various levels of detail. - How does one determine the most efficient motions to be used? - How does one “balance” the performance of a task so that one limb does not bear an excessive load? - How can one “design a job” before actually performing a task? You might also wish to discuss the book and movies about the Gilbreths and their children.

Henry Ford In 1903, created Ford Motor Company In 1913, first used moving assembly line to make Model T Unfinished product moved by conveyor past work station Paid workers very well for 1911 ($5/day!) © 1995 Corel Corp. ‘Make them all alike!’ Assembly lines are widely accepted and used. Are they actually “God’s gift to repetitive manufacturing?” Have students consider the Volvo experiment where teams were used to build automobiles.

Contributions From Human factors Management science Biological science Physical sciences Information science Here you might try to make two points: - there are many contributions from outside the OM/business disciplines (one of the most important characteristics of an Operations Manager is the ability to work with or within multiple disciplines) - the greater contribution from the information sciences is not to make things occur faster (automation) but to enable the operations manager to look at problems from a different perspective.

Significant Events in IE Division of labor (Smith, 1776) Standardized parts (Whitney, 1800) Scientific management (Taylor, 1881) Coordinated assembly line (Ford 1913) Gantt charts (Gantt, 1916) Motion study (the Gilbreths, 1922) Quality control (Shewhart, 1924) Gives you a chance to summarize some of the critical events in the evolution of OM.

Significant Events - Continued CPM/PERT (Dupont, 1957) MRP (Orlicky, 1960) CAD Flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) Computer integrated manufacturing (CIM)

New Challenges in IE Local or national focus Batch shipments From To Local or national focus Batch shipments Low bid purchasing Lengthy product development Standard products Job specialization Global focus Just-in-time Supply chain partnering Rapid product development, alliances Mass customization Empowered employees, teams Use this and the subsequent slide to get students thinking about some of the changes taking place in OM. Try to help them understand both the causes of the changes and the implications. In particular, have them consider the role of information and of information technology.