IIE Solutions articles from December 2001

IIE Solutions archives from December 2001

More than you expected. (Editor's Desk).(www.iienet.org)(Brief Article)(Editorial)
December 1, 2001... Jane Gaboury When was the last time you got more for your money than you expected -- faster service, a better product, more overall benefit? It hasn't happened to me lately, either. But lucky you. You're an IIE member, and that means...

Letters to the Editor: Ongoing ergo debate.(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2001... In the September 2001 issue of IIE Solutions, there was a mention that David Alexander recently gave testimony regarding ergonomics to a U.S. Senate subcommittee ("Ergo Conference Finds a Home"). You should also be aware that he and I gave...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
December 1, 2001... The September article "A Wired Education" misidentified the place of employment of an lIE member. Glen Rauwerdink is a senior industrial project engineer for Kohler Co. of Kohler, Wisc.

Texas Task Force responds to terrorist attack. (News).(emergency response professionals)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
December 1, 2001... On Sept. 11, the world watched in horror as terrorists attacked New York City and Washington. About 2,000 miles away in central Texas, emergency response professionals -- members of the elite Texas Task Force 1 -- received a simple message by...

Shared management doesn't empower hospital workers. (News).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... A shared management structure makes health service workers feel less empowered, according to a study published in BMC Health Services Research. Divisions between doctors, nurses, and administrative staff may mean the buck is passed from one...

Grading doctoral programs. (News).(Georgia Institute of Technology)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... The Georgia Institute of Technology's Industrial and Systems Engineering School always comes out a top pick in U.S. News & World Report's ranking of graduate programs, but students of the school's doctoral program grade it a C+. The tables...

Nissan moving production to Tennessee. (News).(Maxima manufacturing plant)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
December 1, 2001... Nissan Motor Co. will move production of its new Maxima sedan from Japan to Tennessee as part of its $1 billion expansion of manufacturing plants in the American South. A redesigned model of the Maxima will begin rolling off assembly lines...

Newsmakers.(appointments)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... * Fawzi Bawab became national training manager for KPMG Quality Registrar Inc. A manager and a lead assessor with KPMG for two years, Bawab has more than 11 years' experience in process improvement and quality management systems. Formerly of...

Ergonomics rules trigger suit. (News).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... A Washington state coalition of business groups and employers is suing the state over ergonomics rules designed to protect workers. Filed in October by Washington Employers Concerned About Regulating Ergonomics, the suit claims rules by the...

California warehouse stores face forklift rules. (News).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... New state legislation means that California retail warehouses such as Home Depot and Costco will be required to use rails, netting, or other restraints to protect customers from merchandise falling from storage shelves. The measure also bars...

The future of manufacturing. (Book of the month).(Future Capable Company)
December 1, 2001... It's time for companies to stop being victimized by fads and adopt a dynamic, consistent approach to manufacturing, according to James A. Tompkins. Tompkins' newest book, Future Capable Company, promises to offer tools to help manufacturers...

Cutting costs without cutting safety. (News).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... As industries and government agencies struggle to remain competitive by reducing operating expenses, safety managers face difficult implementation decisions. University of Arkansas researcher Terry Collins developed an approach to measure the...

Irish engineering. (Netsource).(http://www.realisedvision.com)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... Enjoy a virtual tour of the Emerald Isle's engineering marvels at Realised Vision (http://www.realisedvision.com). Sponsored by the Western Region of the Institution of Engineers of Ireland, the site offers an elegant exhibition of fascinating...

'Work memory' affects scheduling success. (News).(cross-training employees)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... Many service and manufacturing industry employers cross-train employees to help cover turnover and absenteeism. At the same time, this technique is believed to increase workers' interest in their jobs. But what seems like a win-win situation...

People management enhances productivity. (News).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... Companies that implement training and offer job security may be rewarded with greater productivity, says research funded by the British Economic & social Research Council's Future of Work Programme. The research findings confirm that...

Manufacturing employees are confident. (News).(study)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
December 1, 2001... Despite the continuing troubling news about the U.S. economy, manufacturing employees are registering confidence in the future of their company. A study of 90,000 U.S. manufacturing workers revealed that 56 percent of them are not worried about...

Virginia's top engineering educator. (News).(Hanif Sherali)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... Virginia Tech professor of industrial and systems engineering Hanif Sherali was honored as the 2001 Virginia Engineering Educator of the Year. Sherali was presented the Pletta Award in September. The award was established in honor of the...

The Alaska Manufacturers Association and the Nevada Manufacturing Assistance Partnership were selected to provide manufacturing and business expertise. (In Brief).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... Two organizations have been added as affiliates of the NIST Manufacturing Extension Partnership, which provides help to small U.S. manufacturers. The Alaska Manufacturers Association and the Nevada Manufacturing Assistance Partnership were...

The Dow Chemical Co. has committed $1.5 million to the Kansas State University Foundation. (In Brief).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... The Dow Chemical Co. has committed $1.5 million to the Kansas State University Foundation to establish the Dow/KSU Diversity Partnership. Among other programs, the partnership will fund scholarships for multicultural students in the College of...

Manhattan Associates, a provider of supply chain execution and collaborative commerce products. (In Brief).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... * Manhattan Associates, a provider of supply chain execution and collaborative commerce products, earned 23rd place on the Forbes magazine list of the 200 Best Small Companies in America.

Educational sprawl.(Penn State student lounge financed by Ingersoll-Rand)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... Industrial engineering students at Penn State's West Campus have a comfortable place to call their own, thanks to a new student lounge funded by Ingersoll-Rand. A $75,000 gift by the company allowed the Harold and Inge Marcus Department of...

Size matters. (Performance Improvement).(smaller companies)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... I began my career with a relatively small, family-owned corporation. During the next 13 years, I worked for two Fortune 500 companies and an international conglomerate. It was not until I returned to a much smaller, privately held company that...

Ergonomic incentives. (Ergonomics).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... Ergonomic incentives: Sounds oxymoronic. 'I'm not sure why I even thought to place those two words together to create a phrase. I have never been in a facility that was using production incentives and had much success in addressing ergonomics....

Computer-age freedom fighter. (Profile).(Kate Brew)
December 1, 2001... Kate Brew is vice president of product development at E-Security, a leading provider of real-time threat management software, where she and her computer security colleagues fight against the damage of computer viruses. In these perilous...

Don't be Fooled by Fake Flow: Knowing how to identify 'fake flow' develops your eyes for recognizing continuous flow.(Cover Story)
December 1, 2001... You read the books, took the seminars, and brought your new knowledge back to the factory by implementing lean processes. But look around. Did you achieve your goal of creating continuous flow? Here is a quick but accurate way to tell if a...

The ISO to know: The new quality standard gives IEs an opportunity to thrive. (Quality).(industrial engineers)
December 1, 2001... ISO 9001 has attracted its share of critics through the years. The criticism has been well deserved, since the standard was often incorrectly applied and resulted in little more than additional bureaucracy and paperwork in many organizations....

Let there be appropriate light: To keep workers healthy and productive, give them good lighting for their tasks. (Human Factors).
December 1, 2001... Appropriate lighting is critical in the design of work environments. The amount of illumination required, color temperature, color rendering index, and spectral power distribution of lamps are all important considerations. But before we launch...

Electronic leap: Forward in Voting Protocol. (Focus on IIE).(Statistical Data Included)
December 1, 2001... The upcoming IIE elections mark a technological leap: For the first time, members will submit ballots electronically The change, which was approved by the IIE Board of Trustees in October, will save the Institute nearly $4,000 this year in...

Predicting the future. (Marketplace).(Statistica Enterprise-wide Data Mining System)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... The Statistica Enterprise-wide Data Mining System is a set of data mining tools that enables users to analyze data for the purpose of uncovering trends, explaining patterns, and predicting the future. The program, which is produced by StatSoft,...

Root cause analysis. (Marketplace).(TapRoot: Root Cause Analysis, Problem Investigation, Proactive Improvement)
December 1, 2001... The book TapRoot: Root Cause Analysis, Problem Investigation, Proactive Improvement explains what is said to be a revolutionary process that helps put an end to the negative cycle of failure, crisis management, and blame in companies. The...

SCM for electronic components. (Marketplace).(supply chain management)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... Capable of being implemented in a matter of days, Arrow Collaborator is an interactive, information-based supply chain management tool for the electronic components industry The product addresses everyday supply chain issues and improves...

Canadian quality. (Marketplace).(Canadian Standards Association handbook)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
December 1, 2001... The Canadian Standards Association has released an updated edition of its ISO 9000 Essentials handbook. A guide for quality management system practitioners worldwide, the book provides important information, including the complete vocabulary...

Rolling with the flow. (Marketplace).(Engineered Products)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... Engineered Products has introduced two new case flow products: Selectrak and Traytrak. They are designed to maximize storage density, increase product flow, and improve picking speed and accuracy. Selectrak is designed for use with new or...

Bilingual statistics. (Marketplace).(Minitab)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... Minitab has released a Japanese/English version of its Minitab statistical software package that is specifically designed for the Japanese market. It features Japanese language support tools that give users translated versions of the online...

Drivable stock picker. (Marketplace).(JLG Axxessor)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
December 1, 2001... The Axxessor drivable stock picker lifts workers and products for overhead storage. With a 15-foot platform height and 500 pounds of unrestricted platform capacity, this lift from JLG can be used to shelve and pick stock in retail locations and...

Enclosed-track conveyors. (Marketplace).(Jervis B. Webb Co.)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
December 1, 2001... Unibilt conveyors from Jervis B. Webb Co. are designed for high-volume material handling. Increased productivity is achieved by making use of available space and improving material flow. The enclosed-track conveyors are available in six models...

Shower curtain researcher earns dubious acclaim. (Punchline).(David Schmidt)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... Did you hear the one about the engineer who spent his free time analyzing shower curtain movement and was rewarded with international acclaim? David Schmidt is an assistant professor in the mechanical and industrial engineering department...