Industrial Engineering articles from May 1992

Industrial Engineering archives from May 1992

ADA and compliance: facts every engineer should know. (Americans with Disabilities Act)(Competitive Edge) (Column)
May 1, 1992... Every industrial engineer should have a well-read, marked-up copy of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) on their desk. The time for volunteer efforts to make facilities open to people with disabilities is a thing of the past. Since...

Exciting times for new developments in tracking systems. (Automatic Identification)
May 1, 1992... I take some comfort in knowing that there are other people whose offices and desks appear to be as cluttered as mine. A person walking into my office may have the mistaken opinion that I do not know where things are. I admit that the...

Management systems can be a friend or a foe - it's up to you. (Managing Distribution)
May 1, 1992... As a logistics consultant, I see scores of warehouses every year, and despite this "overexposure," I continue to marvel at the diverse operating efficiencies of these facilities. Even among warehouses with similar products and levels of...

Timken's new bearings facility stresses info flow. (The Timken Co.)(Systems Integration, Applications)
May 1, 1992... The Timken Co. dedicated on Sept. 27, 1991, an advanced "smart building" that links plant floor, purchasing, quality control and five other business functions into a paperless, plantwide network. The company used Information engineering...

Bar code shipping system streamlines operations from Alpha to omega. (Alpha Products.)(Automatic Identification, Applications)
May 1, 1992... The yearly production of billions of advertising specialties, such as mugs imprinted with a company logo, posed no problems for Alpha Products. But problems did begin when the boxes containing those items had to be labeled with shipping...

Shipbuilder speeds shakedown process with software. (Bath Iron Works)(Project Management, Applications)
May 1, 1992... Founded in 1884, Bath Iron Works (BIW) in Bath, Maine, is one of the country's oldest shipbuilders. And yet it is using the newest techniques in project management software within its Post Shakedown Availability (PSA) program at overhaul...

Software assists material handling analysis. (Mid Central Plastics uses Cimtechnologies Corp.'s FactoryFLOW software)(Material Handling, Applications)
May 1, 1992... Industrial engineers and factory managers often rely on experience gained through trial and error to make decisions on plant layouts and material handling systems. While experience is valuable, determining the costs and benefits of...

Achieving inventory reduction through the use of partner-shipping. (Integrating JIT)(just-in-time logistics systems)
May 1, 1992... Throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, inventory levels have steadily decreased. Some manufacturers, besieged by foreign competition and escalating carrying costs, have adopted "just-in-time" (JIT) logistics systems. Others, spurred by...

A comprehensive decision framework for assembly systems. (Assembly Systems)
May 1, 1992... Manufacturing assembly lines have existed since Eli Whitney's time and have received considerable academic attention after Salveson's formulation of the assembly line balancing problem in a linear programming format. Assembly lines have...

Relying on competency-based training for computer-based systems. (includes sample test questions)
May 1, 1992... Most companies have had major problems with the implementation of computer-based systems. A long list of reasons exist for these problems with the majority focusing on requirements definition and software development tasks. Interestingly,...

Landfill gas used as fuel reaps economic and environmental benefits. (Environmental Issues)
May 1, 1992... Energy conservation and the environment remain a top priority for today's corporations striving to preserve valuable natural resources and offset rising fuel costs. Utilizing landfill gas as an energy source is a cost-efficient,...

Re-opening Pandora's box: sources of project conflict in the 90's. (includes definitions of 13 conflict categories)(Project Teams)
May 1, 1992... In recent years, the use of cross-functional, multi-disciplined project teams as an alternative organizational strategy has become increasingly popular. Self-directed, project and quality teams appear to fit into the corporate quest for...

A new approach to solving a problem: training the trainer. (Education)
May 1, 1992... Early in 1991, the Engineering Research Center for Net Shape Manufacturing (ERC/NSM) at The Ohio State University (OSU) proposed a technology transfer and outreach demonstration project to bring faculty and students from two Ohio technical...

How to cheat chaos when physically moving an organization. (The Office Move)
May 1, 1992... Moving has been called creating chaos out of organization. This seems to be an apt description for many organizational moves. Experience indicates that productivity drops to the lowest point on the Kelvin scale and all activity stops for...

Hassle-free office moving (how to select the right mover). (The Office Move)
May 1, 1992... The office is moving and you have been charged with the responsibility of choosing the right mover to accomplish this task successfully. "Simple," you say. "I'll just get the phone book and let my fingers do the walking." Unfortunately,...