Industrial Engineer articles from August 2008

Industrial Engineer archives from August 2008

Shaking off illness.(editor's desk)
August 1, 2008... Wellness accounts for billions of dollars in services, products, research and development, technology and labor hours. Often thought of as being separate from health care, the business of wellness has become an industry in itself with lush...

$100 million supercomputer unleashed: world's first "hybrid" technology uses green engineering, video game chips.(NEWS, TRENDS & TACTICS)(International Business Machines Corp.)
August 1, 2008... It's not a Mac. It's not PC. It's the world's fastest computer and it goes by the name of "Roadrunner." Named after the state bird of New Mexico, where the computer is based at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Roadrunner cost about $100...

ASQ offers input to white house; Society lauds executive order on performance improvement.(Front Line)(American Society for Quality)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... A professional quality group wants to assist in driving efficiency throughout the executive branch of the U.S. government. The American Society for Quality (ASQ) welcomed an executive order issued in November 2007 by President Bush that...

Build a lean and green vocabulary.(SITE TO SEE)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... The ties between lean manufacturing goals and U.S. environmental policy are more apparent than ever, thanks to the growing adaptation of "green" conservation and waste approaches among a wide range of industries. But as new standards are formed...

Bottled water drops.(PRIME NUMBER)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... Think twice before hitting the button for bottled water on the office vending machine. According to Beverage Digest, U.S. consumers spent $16.8 billion on bottled water in 2007. While it's a 12 percent increase from the year before, it's also...

UPS follows best route: company's IEs develop system that guides drivers.(front line)
August 1, 2008... It looks like Brown can avoid getting stuck in traffic for you. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] All UPS deliveries are now planned with the help of a $600 million computer system that was implemented two years ago, according to an article in...

Taking after good service.(BOOK OF THE MONTH)
August 1, 2008... Traditional manufacturing companies are borrowing concepts from service industries to improve how they make and sell their products, says Richard Crandall, a professor in the Walker College of Business at Appalachian State University. "Service...

Inventor rests in his own design: chemist created iconic Pringles package, specialized in quality control.(OUTLIERS)
August 1, 2008... Some industrial engineers may snack on Pringles potato chips bite after bite, but it's likely that they've overlooked the innovation put into designing and producing the can they bought. They probably also ignored the can's potential other...

Navy pilot.(UNCOMMON IE)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... THE TASK AT HAND: Isaac Stutts wanted to fly, but he wasn't going to do it off the handle. The 1999 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy was most recently deployed on the USS Nassau as the assistant air officer, where he was responsible for the...

Dilbert.(Cartoon)
August 1, 2008... OUR ALTERNATIVE FUEL DIVISION HAS FOUND A WAY TO TURN FRESH WATER INTO FUEL! [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] www.dilbert.com scottadams@aol.com WOULDN'T THAT TURN THE WORLD INTO AN UNINHABITABLE WASTELAND IN THE LONG RUN? ...

The Baldrige Syndrome.(performance)
August 1, 2008... DURING THE FIRST FEW YEARS OF serving as a Baldrige Quality Award Examiner while also attending the IIE Annual Conference, I was not aware of the effect that the Baldrige Syndrome was having on me. I would go to training for a week, follow up...

Best of breed.(management)
August 1, 2008... IS THERE A SILVER BULLET APPROACH to application software solutions? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Best-of-breed software refers to stand-alone applications that are optimized to support a single or small number of business processes rather...

Documentation and control.(manufacturing)
August 1, 2008... I OFTEN ASK A SINGLE QUESTION during my assessments and floor visits: "Assuming I was just hired for this job, can you show me the right way to do it?" The operators are often very enthusiastic to show me how; but once I ask how I can make sure...

Saving our departments.(member forum)
August 1, 2008... AFTER A PERIOD OF DECLINE DUE to the loss of manufacturing jobs in the United States, the industrial engineering profession has regained its strength due partly to the worldwide growth of the service sector. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics...

Lollipops for excellence: a pediatric hospital's quality program.
August 1, 2008... QUALITY PRINCIPLES ARE WELL-RECOGNIZED IN TYPICAL manufacturing companies, but what about health care? There are many opportunities for hospitals to improve the process of delivering patient care just as a manufacturer improves a mechanical...

Education in modern solutions: RFID is a must in the industrial engineering curriculum.
August 1, 2008... RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION (RFID) TECHNOLOGY is fast becoming one of the most important technologies that industrial engineering students need to master. Due to mandates in the supply chain from various retail industry and government...

Anticipatory management cannot be compromised.(CARPE FUTURUM!)
August 1, 2008... THE PHRASE, "IF ONLY I HAD KNOWN, then I could have done something about it" is being heard with increasing frequency in firms of all sizes and in all industries. These words reflect the shattering stress and disorientation that occurs when...

Process explorers: Beckman Coulter's strategy is to reinvent.(Beckman Coulter Inc.)(Company overview)
August 1, 2008... WHAT RUNS BRIGHT RED WHEN IT'S OXYGENATED AND accounts for 7 percent of human body weight? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Life force, according to the late project engineer and pioneer of the diagnostic industry Joseph Coulter, co-founder with...

Behavior tests Six Sigma.
August 1, 2008... Nearly 60 percent of all corporate Six Sigma initiatives fail to yield desired results, according to Praveen Gupta, a noted author on methodology and master Six Sigma black belt who has been involved with Six Sigma since its inception in the...

Chasing the light: real-time approaches to brilliant execution.
August 1, 2008... CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS IN custom fabrication operations are typically constrained by limited design information. Usually, startup data is only 30 percent or less com plete, including the bill of materi als, detailed drawings and schedul ing....

Pipe dreams.(SOLUTIONS IN PRACTICE)(R.W. Lyall and Company Inc.)(Company overview)
August 1, 2008... Like a mountain climber disappointed when his trek goes flat, R.W. Lyall&Co. Inc. has done its best to avoid plateaus. Since 1997, the California-based maker of piping distribution products for the natural gas and propane industries has been...

Research.(briefs)
August 1, 2008... In order to increase product sales in economic times that have been labeled as "bad to habitually worse" by Business Week, consumers must be given options. This month we highlight two articles that describe scheduling and logistics methods that...

Answers to your technical questions.(Ask the Expert)
August 1, 2008... High marks for customer service Q: I am looking for information on how companies handle customer returns. What companies can I benchmark on how this is accomplished? A: Customer returns are a big part of the supply chain and reverse...

Emerging technologies: innovative tools of the trade.
August 1, 2008... Labels stick Demand for radio-frequency identification devices (RFID) has soared since applications in retail sales, product manufacturing, shipping and other aspects of asset management have materialized. In many of these applications,...

Scenes from Vancouver: IIE annual conference and expo 2008 represented 32 countries.(KEEPING PACE WITH IIE)(Conference notes)
August 1, 2008... IIE'S staff gathers after steering attendees through a chocolate frenzy at the dessert reception. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Royal Unmounted Police comedic duo captured John Lebak of Wells Fargo for their pre-show act. ...

The day we strive for.(Work Perfect)(Interview)(Company overview)
August 1, 2008... UPS is the world's largest package delivery company and a global leader in supply chain services. UPS is in more than 200 countries and territories and has approximately 425,000 employees globally. We also have the ninth largest airline in the...