Industrial Engineering articles from February 1992

Industrial Engineering archives from February 1992

There is profit in empowerment. (Competitive Edge) (Column)
February 1, 1992... Empowerment moves the decision making process to the lowest level possible in the organization. The goal is to have decisions made at the very first level of initial customer contact. At this level, customer satisfaction reaches the highest...

Increased personal control equals increased individual satisfaction. (The Human Side)(includes bibliography for further reading) (Column)
February 1, 1992... Recent articles in a few of America's most reputable business publications have been caustic. They imply work has an increasingly poor reputation at large companies. There is low personal satisfaction, little individual control, and...

The future factor and today's facilities planner. (Facilities Planning)(includes bibliography for further reading)
February 1, 1992... Try to imagine a classroom in the year 2092. It is a typical college history classroom and the topic for the day is "U.S. Industry In the Late 20th Century." "Class, " the teacher says. "What was it that made U. S. manufacturers of...

State-of-the-art German engineering moves to America. (Facilities Management)
February 1, 1992... When first walking through O&K Escalators' new factory on the outskirts of Newport News, a port city in Virginia, a visitor may think this is just an ordinary plant. Raw materials logically flow in one end of the building and finished...

Ten nontraditional aspects of facility planning. (Facilities Management)
February 1, 1992... Facility planning methodologies traditionally fall short because they fail to identify breakthrough opportunities for improving the operational efficiency of a new facility, and they fail to explore adequately the potential ramifications of...

New airplane hangar demonstrated in 3-D. (Boeing Co.'s 777 paint hangar, AutoSimulations Inc.'s AutoMod) (Applications)
February 1, 1992... When The Boeing Co. began manufacturing R&D for a new 777 paint hanger, the project teams had some new fundamental ideas it wanted to incorporate into the design of the building in terms of layout. Essentially, the project team felt that...

Universal film stored with modified storage system. (Universal City Studios, White Storage and Retrieval Systems Inc.'s Aisle-Saver) (Applications)
February 1, 1992... In consolidating the storage of almost a million reels of film and audio tape, Universal City Studios uses four separate extra-tall Aisle-saver mobile shelving systems from White Storage & Retrieval Systems inc. The popular film maker...

Belt splicing reduces downtime. (Mid-Connecticut project: ABB Resource Recovery Systems, Northeast Utilities and Metropolitan District Commission; waste disposal, Flexible Steel Lacing Co.'s Flexco SR Rivet-Hinged Fasteners) (Applications)
February 1, 1992... Recycling trash into energy may not be a new idea, but its technology is still advancing through the experience of those concerned enough to invest in continuing improvement. Among the leaders in this endeavor is the MidConnecticut Project, a...

Plant diagrams enhance safety at American Cyanamid. (PlanPrint Co.'s Utilities PLUS) (Applications)
February 1, 1992... In early 1990, Jeffrey Notrangelo, plant engineer at American Cyanamid Co.'s adhesives manufacturing facility in Havre-de-Grace, Md. realized that an accurate, comprehensive set of drawings of the plant structure and utilities layout could...

AExcel paints clearer picture with integrated system. (Datalogix International Inc.'s CIMPRO) (Applications)
February 1, 1992... For many years, AExcel Corp., a specialty paint and coatings manufacturer based in Mentor, Ohio, ran its business using an antiquated bookkeeping and manual inventory management system, which created an unmanageable amount of paper and...

Buffer storage provides FIFO rotation of rubber tape. (first in/first out, Interroll Corp.) (Applications)
February 1, 1992... First-in/first-out (FIFO) product rotation in warehousing is relatively simple to achieve when items are uniform in size and shape, or palletized. However, ground rules change when FIFO rotation is required for material, parts or components...

Managers forum focuses on competitive strategies and continuous improvement. (IE Managers Forum)
February 1, 1992... "Continuous Improvement: Managing for Manufacturing Excellence," IIE's 14th annual IE Managers Forum, is coming up March 9-11 in Atlanta and is designed to make managers in manufacturing environments knowledgeable about new manufacturing...

Mercy Hospital: simulation techniques for ER processes. (emergency room) (Simulation)
February 1, 1992... Simulation is a widely accepted and proven analysis tool in manufacturing, distribution and transportation systems. Health care presents a significant new area of application for simulation. Whereas in other fields the focus is on vehicle...

OSI, distributed MRP II and you. (Open Systems Interconnect, Manufacturing Resource Planning) (MRP II)
February 1, 1992... Open systems strategies have not yet penetrated the Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP II) market to any significant degree. Despite this lag, this situation will have to change. Plant-wide Research Group recently reviewed the issues...

Getting to know advanced manufacturing technologies. (Manufacturing Technologies)
February 1, 1992... There have been many misconceptions about what constitutes advanced Manufacturing Technologies (AMTs). While many practitioners and academicians look at the hardware aspect of it, many others consider the software components of AMTs. In fact,...

Activity-based costing in cellular manufacturing systems. (Activity-Based Costing)
February 1, 1992... What is cellular manufacturing? The idea that manufacturing efficiencies of job-shops can be greatly improved by creating mini assembly lines to manufacture similar products i s not new. This reconfiguration of a job-shop into lines...

Managing capacity: getting the most from your company's assets. (MRP II)
February 1, 1992... Managing manufacturing capacity effectively is critical to your company's success. Manufacturing capacity is not a fixed design parameter, but a measure of your ability to meet customer demand. It is your company's most important asset....

Manufacturing management information systems require simplification. (MRP II)(includes bibliography for further reading)
February 1, 1992... There is a sense of disappointment in the use of CIM, FMS, MAP, and MRP II as manufacturing management information systems (MMISs). These approaches follow the notion that proper control of the manufacturing process requires a full knowledge...