Industrial Engineer articles from August 2004

Industrial Engineer archives from August 2004

Necessity over nuisance.(Editor's Desk)
August 1, 2004... THE SYSTEM IS DOWN. THE SYSTEM IS UP. THE SERVER WASN'T BACKED UP. No incoming e-mails. The Internet is slow. No outgoing e-mails. The Internet is "acting weird." That image had a virus attached to it. Access to all files has been denied. ...

Rampant consumerism has no place in IE.(Rants and Raves)(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2004... I am writing to express my irritation over the article "Clothing in on Success" included in the June issue. "Goodbye pocket protector, hello Burberry"? "Dressing well is an engineer's best image booster"? If I wanted to spend my time perusing...

Will the real Hawthorne please rise?(Rants and Raves)
August 1, 2004... In the June Ask the Expert department, we are treated to an inaccurate statement of one of the fundamental parts of IE history. Greg Hart mentions the "Westinghouse Hawthorne Study." The Hawthorne Studies or experiments were conducted from 1927...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
August 1, 2004... In the June issue Focus story "A Face from the Past," one of Jane Algee's statements was printed incorrectly due to editing errors. The question and corrected answer appear below. We apologize for the mistake. IE: What are your plans as...

Clarification.(Correction Notice)
August 1, 2004... In Figure 4 of the June article "The Truce between Lean and IT," the abbreviation ECO stands for engineering change orders.

Poor supply chain infrastructure costly: better integrated information exchange could save billions.(Front Line)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Inadequacies in managing inventory, scheduling, and accounting information cost the automotive and electronics industries a combined total of almost $9 billion annually, according to a study commissioned by the National Institute of Standards...

Hand mishaps.(Front Line)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... More than a million U.S. workers receive emergency treatment for acute hand injuries each year. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that 110,000 workers with hand and finger injuries lose days at work annually, which is second only to...

Business ignorance.(Prime Number)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... More than 25% of critical data within Fortune 1,000 companies is inaccurate or incomplete and will continue to be so until 2007. Source: "Using Business Intelligence to Gain a Competitive Edge," Gartner Inc.

Uncommon IE: the spaces in between.(Front Line)(Industrial & Systems Engineering)(Industrial Engineer)(Interview)
August 1, 2004... Julie Jacko, Ph.D., became aware of the challenges faced by the vision-impaired when her mother was diagnosed with a degenerative eye disease at age 35. As her mother's sight faded, a lack of assistive technology made it difficult for her to...

Quote, unquote: career aspirations.(Front Line)
August 1, 2004... "The engineer of 2020 will aspire to have the ingenuity of Lillian Gilbreth, the scientific insight of Albert Einstein, the creativity of Pablo Picasso, the determination of the Wright brothers, the leadership abilities of Bill Gates, the...

Corporate assets shift from manufacturing: fast-growing services are getting more attention.(Front Line)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Corporations are moving assets into high-growth sectors, pulling out of manufacturing and moving into services. They are also pulling out of nontechnology manufacturing and moving into technology manufacturing. These were findings of a...

Book of the month: resource for continuous improvement.(Front Line)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... IIE fellow Jack ReVelle, Ph.D., has committed his considerable expertise to the printed page with Quality Essentials: A Reference Guide from A to Z. The book includes a collection of concepts and tools that will be useful to everyone who...

Bag screener efficiency.(Front Line)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Airport baggage screeners have just seconds amid loud noises and the pressure of unhappy travelers to scan X-rays of carry-on items for weapons. Their efficiency in finding banned items depends on the specificity of their training, say...

The comfort connection: workers get more done with good ergonomics.(Front Line)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Nine out of 10 office computer users say the setup of their workstation directly affects their ability to be productive at work, according to a survey conducted on behalf of Microsoft Hardware. Comfort and good ergonomics matter more than...

Events.(Calendar)
August 1, 2004... AUGUST AUG. 23-25 * Sig Sigma Green Belt, Norcross, Ga. AUG. 26-29 * P.E. Exam Review for Industrial Engineers, Norcross, Ga. SEPTEMBER SEPT. 8-15 International Manufacturing Trade Show, Chicago; (800) 828-7469...

Manufacturing execs' high expectations: RFID investments will pan out, they believe.(Front Line)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Faced with an increasing number of customer mandates, almost half (47 percent) of North American manufacturing executives anticipate a high return on their radio-frequency identification investments, according to results of a survey released by...

No end to innovation: not just for products but processes, too.(Front Line)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Most companies say innovation has been a high priority during the past few years and will remain so through 2006, according to a Conference Board study. Seventy percent of the 100 global companies surveyed hold innovation in this high...

700,000 strong.(Front Line)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Mazda Motor Corp. marked a milestone this spring as the 700,000th Mazda Roadster--known as the Miata in the U.S. market--rolled off the assembly line at the Ujina No. 1 plant near headquarters in Hiroshima, Japan. Vehicle no. 700,000, finished...

Globalization: no letup; Trends in procurement.(Front Line)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Expect the trend in global sourcing to increase, says the Value Chain Survey conducted by IBM Business Consulting Services and Industry Week magazine. Driving the trend are cost advantages, best-market capabilities, and shared risk. ...

Offshore or not.(Front Line)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... U.S. industrial companies continue to seek the global advantage by determining which operations are better relocated elsewhere--to "low-cost countries," The Boston Consulting Group, says. According to a new report by the consultancy, the...

The challenge of our choices.(Performance)
August 1, 2004... JUST A FEW MONTHS SHY OF 18 YEARS old, I made a choice that would both haunt and help me for the remainder of my life. At the time, I did not have much perspective on the consequences of making it. What was that important choice? To obtain an...

World-class benchmarking.(Management)(Fortune 100 Manufacturing)
August 1, 2004... A FORTUNE 100 MANUFACTURING company asked me to review its quality improvement initiatives, which had great support throughout the company. The source of the president's commitment was probably studies linking quality and profitability, yet the...

Leading change.(Manufacturing)
August 1, 2004... HISTORY IS FULL OF EXAMPLES OF dynamic leaders who are able to get followers to do the wrong things. This happens in business today. Frequently, leaders do not recognize that they are leading in the wrong direction because they are reacting to...

Clarity through simulation.(Member Forum)(use of simulation in engineering )
August 1, 2004... A PIPE WRENCH IS NOT A TOOL THAT you hang on your tool belt, and unless you are in the middle of a major plumbing project, you are not likely to have such a tool. When you have a problem that might require a pipe wrench, you have probably tried...

Burned by IT: new imperatives for information technology investment and management.(information technology)(Cover Story)
August 1, 2004... ALTHOUGH INDUSTRY AS A WHOLE HAS MADE GREAT progress in adopting information technology, a different picture emerges when you look at individual firms. As companies have installed systems during the IT buildout, they've made many missteps and...

The strongest link: Tasman Networks reaps benefits from a solid supply chain partnership strategy.
August 1, 2004... ALL COMPANIES NEED A PROCESS FOR TRANSFORMING raw materials into end products as quickly and cost effectively as possible. No matter what strategies and capabilities a company possesses, it must develop and leverage its supply chain to maximize...

Taking a queue from simulation: the many rules of scheduling semiconductor material handling.
August 1, 2004... THE SEMICONDUCTOR WAFER FABRICATION INDUSTRY involves products with production processes that typically consist of hundreds of steps and jobs traversing routes through scores of machines. Scheduling jobs in such systems requires forming...

The value of vision: the language of lean production is self-ordering and self-improving.
August 1, 2004... THE VISUAL WORKPLACE is not about posters and signs. The visual workplace is the language of lean production made visual. The purpose of the visual approach is to identify and eliminate deficits in information through visual solutions...

Research.(Institute of Industrial Engineers)
August 1, 2004... The three studies summarized below can be found in full in the August issue of IIE Transactions (Vol. 36, No. 8). Reverse production Carpet is a major component of offices, homes, and institutions, but what happens to it at the end of...

24/7 cycle counting.(Answers to Your Technical Questions)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Q: What advice can you give me about cycle counting in an operation that runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week? A: It's probably obvious that to do cycle counting correctly, you must create cutoff controls to ensure the count and the...

Engineered standards in the warehouse.(Answers to Your Technical Questions)
August 1, 2004... Q: I belong to an organization that is just beginning to use established engineered standards to track and measure performance in warehousing. Unfortunately, we do not have a warehouse management system to help track performance of operations...

At large in Texas: IE stars shine big and bright in Houston.(Keeping Pace With IIE)(caption)
August 1, 2004... The IIE Annual Conference solidified its reputation as the industrial engineering event of the year as 1,340 attendees poured into the May event. Staffers, exhibitors, and presenters were ready for them, offering the most diverse, insightful,...

Inventory manager.(What Engineers Want)
August 1, 2004... FastPic TXP provides an easy-to-use interface that permits extended inventory, personnel, and equipment management of inventory using a facility's existing host software systems such as enterprise resource planning or warehouse management...

Energy efficient skylights.(What Engineers Want)
August 1, 2004... Solatube tubular skylights have earned Energy Star ratings. The 10- and 14-inch skylights, which are used in both residential and commercial applications, now come standard with this enhanced energy efficiency. Energy Star is a...

Pallet picker.(What Engineers Want)
August 1, 2004... Designed to pick up a load on a skid or open-bottom pallet, the Presto Skid Lifter can transport the load to a workplace and then raise it to a convenient working height. It is ideal for feeding presses, binders, cutters, conveyors, and a wide...

Clear up project uncertainty.(What Engineers Want)(@Risk 4.1 introduced)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Project managers deal with ambiguity every day. With @Risk 4.1 for Project, they can account for uncertainty and gain a clear picture of the risks and opportunities embedded in their projects. Integrating with Microsoft Project, the software...

Monitor employee training.(What Engineers Want)
August 1, 2004... A new QSi Web System module enables organizations to manage the status of employees' task, safety, and management training. Because the Employee Training and Qualification module is tightly integrated with the QSi Web System for Document...

RFID label printer.(What Engineers Want)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Weber Marking Systems has introduced R4Mplus, an RFID smart label printer and encoder that offers thermal and thermal-transfer printing. The unit encodes information on very thin, ultra-high-frequency transponders embedded in smart labels and...

Safety on the dock.(What Engineers Want)
August 1, 2004... According to the U.S. Department of Labor, every year, more than 4,762 forklift accidents are due to lift trucks running off loading docks. The Dok-Guardian SB-5000 Safety Barrier protects workers and equipment from falling off vacant loading...

High-production conveyor.(What Engineers Want)(MK Automation Engineering Inc.)
August 1, 2004... A new line of timing belt conveyor systems from MK Automation is designed for accurate product staging and indexing where the same parts (or family of similar parts) must be accurately positioned for automatic loading of assembly components....

Optimizing sleep time.(Beyond the Norm)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Leave it to an engineering student to figure out how to save fellow scholars from the misery of 7 a.m. classes. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Kansas State University electrical engineering junior Michael Smyers, frustrated by trying to line...

Dilbert[R].(Beyond the Norm)(Reprint)
August 1, 2004... Dilbert reprinted by permission of United Feature Syndicate, Inc. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Heads, you win.(Beyond the Norm)(Persi Diaconis; coin tossing)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... A random coin toss isn't so random after all. At the request of statistician Persi Diaconis, Harvard University engineers built a mechanical coin flipper to test Diaconis' theories. What Diaconis discovered was that the random nature of a...

Literate analysis.(Beyond the Norm)(operations research and financial engineering major researches the New Yorker)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Princeton operations research and financial engineering major Katherine Milkman could have taken a predictable route and turned her trained analytic eye to the evaluation of financial management for her senior thesis. Instead, she used rigorous...