Industrial Engineer articles from September 2005

Industrial Engineer archives from September 2005

A fitting landscape.(editor's desk)(Editorial)
September 1, 2005... In the course of my work, I have grown accustomed to receiving mail that has seemingly been derailed from its journey to its rightful recipients, such as an assortment of aluminum extruder brochures. About a year ago, I began receiving a...

Ideas and equality.(Mail)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2005... I really liked Keith Denton's Member Forum column "Stamp of Approval" in the July edition of Industrial Engineer. I am an enthusiastic young woman and I face the perception issue quite often. My ideas get implemented at the end more often than...

Changing perceptions.(Mail)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2005... As a female industrial engineer, I was dismayed to read the article, "Why Girls Bypass Science" in the July issue. Jacquelynne Eccles' sweeping generalizations do little to explore the complex issue of why women in the United States are...

Outstanding statistics.(Mail)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2005... I always find Kevin McManus' column of great value each month. The one in July ("Read between the Lines") was of particular note since, as he points out, charts and understanding process variation are critical to managing and improving any...

Process data over metrics.(Mail)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2005... More gems of insight from Michel Baudin in his "Not-so-Basic Equipment" article (May). I'd like to grab just one thread from the piece. I refer to his points about backlash effects of overall equipment effectiveness targeting. ...

Deep impact.(Mail)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2005... As board members of the Operations Research Division of IIE, we respectfully disagree with some of the commentary in Michel Baudin's "Not-So-Basic Equipment" article in the May 2005 issue of Industrial Engineer. The business focus of operations...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
September 1, 2005... IIE Transactions Award winners were cited in incorrect categories in the June issue ("Raise Your Glass," Focus). The categories and winners of each are: * Design and Manufacturing: Mardi Russell and Russell Meller * Operations...

Global work force signals change: and the U.S. has every reason to worry, says Economic Research.(Front Line)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... America's share of science and engineering graduates compared to other countries is dropping rapidly. Don't be surprised if 50 years of U.S. scientific and engineering dominance slips away with that decline, warns a new study. Written by...

Tool measures wafer thickness: Infrared laser light precisely gauges silicon wafers.(Front Line)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... In the past few years, semiconductor circuit features have shrunk to sub-100-nanometer dimensions while the size of the thin silicon wafers that these circuits are constructed on has grown from 200 millimeters to 300 millimeters. The payoff is...

Clean-water prize: Grainger Challenge is underway.(Front Line)
September 1, 2005... The Grainger Challenge Prize for Sustainability will award $1 million for a practical technology that can prevent the slow poisoning of people throughout the world as a result of arsenic-contaminated drinking water. Administered and...

Serious leadership.(QUOTE, UNQUOTE)
September 1, 2005... "Talk to U.S. business executives and they'll often comment on how many of China's leaders are engineers, people who can talk to you about numbers, long-term problem-solving, and the national interest--not a bunch of lawyers looking for a sound...

Technology most fowl: augmented reality aids poultry worker quality decisions.(Front Line)
September 1, 2005... Technology that transfers computer-generated information onto the physical world is being tested for use in poultry plants to improve communication between computers and workers. Using augmented reality (AR) technology, researchers have...

Fiscal value.(Honorary Value Engineering Achievement Awards )(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... U.S. taxpayers were saved almost $172 million in fiscal year 2004 due to value management. Five teams and individuals earned Honorary Value Engineering Achievement Awards from the Department of Defense for using value engineering within the...

Safety days.(MUST-DO EVENT)
September 1, 2005... Now in its 93rd year, the World Congress on Safety and Health at Work is the world's largest annual safety and health exhibit, offering educational sessions, technical tours, and more than 750 exhibiting companies. The opening keynote will be...

Losing our edge?(OFF THE CUFF)
September 1, 2005... Is the U.S. losing its engineering edge? If so, what should be done to address that problem? If not, then why all the hand-wringing about it in the media? "The United States has lost its edge in educating engineers. According to the...

An online day at the races.(UNCOMMON IE)(Youbet.com)
September 1, 2005... It's the first Saturday in May and you've placed your bet. With mint julep in hand, you're all set to join the crowd in singing "My Old Kentucky Home" when, suddenly, you're interrupted by an annoying beep. It's the microwave. Oh, yeah. Your...

Real-world Six Sigma.(Six Sigma for Small and Mid-Sized Organizations)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
September 1, 2005... Smaller organizations need Six Sigma as much as larger ones, but they typically don't have the financial and human resources to support a full-scale initiative. They require a different deployment model that fits their operating environment,...

Award-winning network.(MfgQuote.com )(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... An online sourcing management system, MfgQuote.com enables buyers of engineered-to-order parts to access specialized suppliers via the Internet. Representing a global network of independent suppliers, the site--at www.mfgquote.com--instantly...

Abu Dhabi IE: first curriculum in UAE.(industrial engineering)(United Arab Emirates)(Alhosn University)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... A new private university in Abu Dhabi is set to become the first in the United Arab Emirates to offer a bachelor of science degree in industrial engineering. Ziad Saghir has been hired on as vice president of Alhosn University. He joined...

Prescription security: countering counterfeiting.(controlling prescription drug counterfeiting)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Texas Instruments and 3M are teaming up to develop a system to battle prescription drug counterfeiting and boost pharmaceutical supply chain security. The companies promise the pharmaceutical market's first authenticated radio frequency...

Back to work.(performance)
September 1, 2005... NOW THAT THE SUMMER IS OVER, we can get back to work. Even though they still show up for work most days, office people take a good portion of the summer off. Just look at the difference in human behavior that exists during the summer: e-mail...

The metrics system.(management)
September 1, 2005... MANAGEMENT MEASURES BUSINESS operations using financial metrics such as sales, profit, return on assets, and return on investment, which are useful to determine an organization's performance. Around 15 years ago, three Harvard Business...

The doh! effect.(human factors engineering)
September 1, 2005... HUMAN FACTORS PRACTITIONERS suffer from a range of insecurities and real or imagined indignities. Engineers tend to think of human factors as a soft science despite more than 50 years of research and practice that has produced copious amounts...

Adaptable architecture: lean techniques are a solid foundation for industrial engineers in home manufacturing.
September 1, 2005... They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, but that expression is lost on the home manufacturing industry. Organizations and companies charged with keeping factory-built housing in demand are making moves to ensure the industry's growth...

Goodwill mapping: benevolence gets a boost from a Lean Management mainstay.(Goodwill Industries)
September 1, 2005... Goodwill Industries in Los Angeles collects and recycles clothes and household goods. Many of the organization's employees are handicapped or mentally challenged. Therefore, rather than attempting to minimize its employee base, the nonprofit...

Brewing a success: good friends, good engineering, and a master's touch make for great beer.(Interview)
September 1, 2005... Every working morning, Matt Rattner is summoned to a quality control session where as company president, he examines products for their adherence to ironclad company standards such as proper color, weight, texture, consistency, and balance....

A high quality of care: in health systems, achieving strategic results using lean Six Sigma demands strong leadership.
September 1, 2005... Executive health care leaders must have the ability to coach in the actual methods of care, observed Don Berwick, M.D., president of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, during one of his popular keynote addresses at the Institute's annual...

Research: executive summaries.(counteracting inaccuracy and method for designing tolerance charts )
September 1, 2005... The September issue of IIE Transactions (Vol.37, No.9) focuses on topics in the areas of design and manufacturing. Two of its papers are described below. The first is concerned with analyzing the effects of inaccurate inventory records on lost...

Ask the expert: answers to your technical questions.(query on quality tools)
September 1, 2005... Product complaint stats Q: I am in the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry. We have set our manufacturing goal for Six Sigma. However, our product complaint metrics are far higher than Six Sigma. Is there a common statistical standard in...

Daskin Distinguished.(PROFILE OF A WINNER)(Mark Daskin)
September 1, 2005... Mark Daskin, Ph.D., has added another accolade to an already long list of awards and achievements. The professor of industrial engineering and management sciences at Northwestern University was named the Fred C. Crane Distinguished Service...

Continuing greatness: Imhoff bequeaths scholarship to reward international contributions.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Several months before his death, John L. Imhoff, Ph. D., began work to establish a scholarship--a continuation of his support of the industrial engineering profession. During the planning process, Imhoff told IIE Corporate Operations Manager...

Going somewhere?(IN OTHER PUBLICATIONS)
September 1, 2005... Topics in the July/August issue of Industrial Management take a trip from the omnipresence of IT to capacity mapping to communicating at all levels of the organizational chart. In "Focused Journey of Change," Mark Jepperson takes a look at...

Copy clarification.(ASK IIE:)
September 1, 2005... Q: How do I get an Industrial Engineer article reprint? A: That depends on what you mean by reprint, a term that is commonly used to describe many different formats. If you want a single copy of an article for your own reference, you...

VoLT vaults in attendance.(CHAPTER CHECK-IN)
September 1, 2005... More than 50 leaders from IIE's chapters, societies, and divisions met in May at IIE's annual conference in Atlanta. The purpose of this meeting was IIE's annual Volunteer Leadership Training (VoLT). Formerly known as Communities Leadership...

Captains call: log on and make an award nomination.(FOCUS)
September 1, 2005... Every year, IIE recognizes dozens of student, academic, professional, and lifetime achievements in the field of industrial engineering with an array of awards and scholarships. The winners of these distinctions are recognized at the annual...

Elaine Chew.(KUDOS)(awards)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Elaine Chew, assistant professor in the Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering in the University of Southern California Viterbi School of Engineering, has won a 2005 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and...

South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.(KUDOS)(Jennifer A. Pazour honored)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Jennifer A. Pazour, a senior at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, was named a Tau Beta Pi Scholar. She was the only industrial engineer selected for the honor. Pazour also received the 2005 UPS Scholarship for Female Students...

Oregon State University.(KUDOS)(appointments)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Oregon State University named Sabah Randhawa provost and executive vice president. Randhawa reprises the role after serving as interim provost for nine months in 2002 and 2003, and then again from April 2004 until being appointed to the full...

Zulma Toro-Ramos.(KUDOS)(appointed)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Zulma Toro-Ramos has become the first woman to hold the post of dean of the College of Engineering at Wichita State University. The former dean of the school of engineering and applied sciences at the University of New Haven took over at...

Michael Washington.(KUDOS)(awards)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Michael Washington was elected to the Polk County, Fla., Schools Hall of Fame. Washington was named the IIE Most Outstanding Young Industrial Engineer in Business and Industry for 2005. He holds a Ph.D. in industrial engineering and works for...

Good advice: Faculty Advisors recognized.(FOCUS)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... William Moor, Ph.D., of Arizona State University was honored as the National Outstanding Faculty Advisor by the Networking Leadership Council at the 2005 IIE Annual Conference. The awards recognize the efforts of a student chapter advisor who,...

Take a load off.(Pick List)
September 1, 2005... The Quantum Pallet from PalletKraft is a customizable, lightweight corrugated pallet designed to cut freight costs by replacing the conventional wooden pallet. Made of recyclable materials, the pallet weighs 10 pounds, about 75 percent less...

Sim strategy.(SimSci-Esscor)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... The new version of SimSci-Esscor software for process facilities enables users to employ a focused strategy of data re-use across a full range of simulation applications. The updated software also features a modular sub-flowsheet capability...

Fleet control.(Pick List)
September 1, 2005... IBM's Infoprint 6500 matrix printers have the ability to manage and control a fleet of distributed printers by remote access from a single virtual operator panel. The printer's output and ribbon life status can be monitored in real time with...

Optimal version.(Pick List)(GoldSim probabilistic simulation software)(GoldSim Technology Group LLC)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... The latest version of GoldSim probabilistic simulation software incorporates new features specifically requested by users, including global optimization and advanced sensitivity analysis. Other new features in Version 9 include enhanced...

Virtual design.(5.0 software suite )(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... The Design Profit 5.0 software suite enables manufacturers to quantify and map every aspect of a product's design or redesign to improve quality and reduce cost at any stage of the design process. With this software, manufacturers can build a...

Flex frames.(Pick List)
September 1, 2005... The frame of Uvex FitLogic's safety glasses employs a cushioned, lightweight browbar that adjusts to fit faces comfortably. Soft and flexible with spring-like action, it has enough tension to fit comfortably on wide faces and securely on narrow...

Tough handlers.(Pick List)
September 1, 2005... ArmorKnit gloves are specifically designed for use in high-risk applications in the paper industry as well as other cutting applications. The ArmorKnit line is composed of a Kevlar blend. The special dot pattern ensures a better grip and eases...

Link and label.(Pick List)
September 1, 2005... FKI Logistics' Print-and-Apply Module uses bar code information to query a facility's control system for data needed to print labels. The self-contained and fully automated system was developed to streamline label printing and application in...

Learning through laughter: using humor in online courses boosts participation.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Though few college professors have pursued their chosen career because they were stellar comedians, they may do well to add some yucks to the syllabus. Psychology professors Mark Shatz and Frank LoSchiavo of Ohio University have found that...

Dilbert[R].
September 1, 2005... HEY, EVERYBODY. MEET OUR NEW INTERN, ASOK. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] I HOPE THIS ONE'S STURDIER THAN THE LAST ONE. MY STAPLE REMOVER IS BROKEN. SOMEBODY TOSS THAT INTERN TO ME! Dilbert reprinted by permission of United Feature...

Spin on the bottle.(Bols)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Liquor producer Bols is encouraging people to pour responsibly by virtue of its "ergonomic" bottle design. Flairtending--the art of flipping, tossing, and pouring that Tom Cruise made famous in the 1988 movie Cocktail--can now be practiced...

Pass the in vitro loaf.(production of in vitro meat for human consumption)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... A team of scientists working for NASA has shown us a vision of the future, and it's tasty: lab-grown meat. New tissue engineering techniques may one day lead to affordable production of in vitro meat for human consumption. The idea of...