Profile: the US Army and industrial engineering.

Profile: The U.S. Army And Industrial Engineering

The accession data of new officers joining the US Army is quite interesting. Although the US Army has become increasingly more technical, the degree mix of entering officers is biased toward the non-technical. Engineering (20%) and Science (20%) in total make up less than half of the degrees the new officers bring with them. This imbalance is shown in Figure 1. The percentages are approximate and represent a historical average since 1980.

Furthermore, there is an imbalance within the engineering sector. Figure 2 is a summary by type of engineering degree (1980 through 1987). Figure 3 shows a detailed breakout by discipline of the eight years of data. It can be seen that Industrial Engineering/Operations (IE/OR) constitutes only 16% of the US Army officers with engineering degrees. Of the entire population, IE/OR represents only 3.2% of US Army officers (20% x 16%).

Nevertheless, over the past decade the US Army has been sending an increasing number of career officers to graduate school to study industrial engineering. To understand why, consider the following situation where a knowledge of IE fundamentals would have made a significant difference.

SITUATION

Date: 19 April 1987

Place: New Cumberland Army Depot, New Cumberland, Pennsylvania

The Army decided to streamline its world-wide logistical system by "beefing-up" its Eastern Distribution Center at the New Cumberland Army Depot (NCAD). The Army Material Command (AMC) further assigned the mission to NCAD for the receipt, storage and distribution of all the general supplies that are destined for Europe, the …