Industrial Engineering articles from March 1993

Industrial Engineering archives from March 1993

Industrial engineers help quality shine through at Reynolds Metals. (total quality management at Reynolds Metals Co)
March 1, 1993... Having each worked more than 20 years in industrial engineering at Reynolds Metals, David B. Smith and E. William Moore have seen lots of changes within their department and within the company. They have watched computers replace mechanical...

Customer service: lessons from world-class companies. (results of survey of companies offering strong customer service) (Management) (Column)
March 1, 1993... A customer is a terrible thing to loose. Many companies, however, are losing customers because of weaknesses in their customer servicee activities. The leakage of customers can be stopped. Customers service requires more than good intentions or...

Waste minimization and the EPA: hidden opportunities. (industrial waste minimization projects to satisfy Environmental Protection Agency requirements) (Environmental Issues) (Column)
March 1, 1993... Most, if not all, industrial plants generate waste materials on a continuing basis. With out national focus on maintaining a clean environment, waste minimization is quickly becoming a major goal for U.S. based corporations. Many people do not...

Components conveyed to smooth finish with Richards-Wilcox. (Richards-Wilcox Manufacturing Co.'s ZIG-ZAG monorail conveyor)
March 1, 1993... When Richards-Wilcox began using power coatings finish its rotary filing cabinets, steel shelving units and conveyor systems, they drew on their own expertise to design a conveyor system to move components through the process. Power coatings...

MAC-PAC fixes information system woes to help company manage growth. (Machinery Systems Inc. uses Andersen Consulting's MAC-PAC computer-aided manufacturing software)
March 1, 1993... As one of the largest distributors of manufacturing technology and industrial equipment in the United States, Machinery Systems Inc. needed to keep more current with its own internal information system in order to manage the company's 35...

CAD systems improve labor relations during plant consolidation. (Hi Voltage Engineering's Anderson Power Products Division uses CADKEY Inc.'s CADKEY computer-aided manufacturing software for space allocation management)
March 1, 1993... People are very territorial about the size of their work space. Shrink it and employees are likely to consider themselves wronged or being penalized for some imagined transgression. Give one employee a larger work area than another, even if it...

U.S. Repeating Arms sets sights on world-class facility. (U.S. Repeating Arms Company Inc. builds new facility, implements total quality management program)
March 1, 1993... Winchester. To most people the name is synonymous with the taming of the American West, old John Wayne movies and hunting. But few people ever stop to realize that today's Winchester firearms are built in a manufacturing plant that has been...

Fairtron scores big with new cabinet production layout redesign. (Fairtron Fairplay Scoreboard uses relationship analysis planning methods to design new plant) (includes related article on relationship classifications)
March 1, 1993... Layout planning using relationship analysis methods has been around since Richard Muther published his first book on systematic layout planning (SLP) in the early 1960s. The relationship analysis method is very simple to use and learn, and...

Develop standard operating procedures in warehousing and manufacturing. (includes related articles demonstrating prose style, cookbook style, numbered instructions style and playscript style) (Tutorial)
March 1, 1993... The implementation of a strategic master plan for a warehouse or manufacturing facility requires that numerous process changes occur in the way workers perform their functions. In order to facilitate the implementation of these changes,...

Redesigning the facility development process. (companies' facility development plans)
March 1, 1993... In recent months, much has been written of the relationship between capital investments and the competitive ability of corporations. This certainly has been true of Boeing. Boeing's leadership in the commercial plane market is linked to a...

Kitting elimination supports just-in-time principles. (study comparing IMED Corp.'s kitting assembly with simulated direct assembly method)
March 1, 1993... Today, electronic packaging and assembly products are built according to a procedure called kitting. Kitting requires that every component of a final product be collected and sent to different assembly stations for assembly operations. The...

Time management helps first-line maintenance supervisors handle pressures. (includes sample time management schedule)
March 1, 1993... Being a first line maintenance supervisor is certainly no easy task. Whether you have planning help or not, whether you follow a traditional management structure (first line supervisors with craftsmen as subordinates) or whether you follow a...

Fitting the workplace to the human and not vice versa. (use of ergonomics in work area design)
March 1, 1993... The human is the most important component of a system since she or he drives the output. Hence, the human must be accommodated first: the design of the workplace components should fit all operators and allow many idiosyncratic variations in...

The ADA: working towards an empowered America for all. (ease and advantages of supporting the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990)
March 1, 1993... The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) declares "a clear and comprehensive prohibition of discrimination on the basis of disability." Taken in combination with existing disability rights law, it is a legal mandate for the full equality of...