EVOLUTION OF INDUSTRIAL

ENGINEERING
INTRODUCTION
 Born in the late nineteenth century, industrial
engineering is a dynamic profession whose growth has
been fueled by the challenges and demands of
manufacturing, government, and
service organizations throughout the twentieth century.
It is also a profession whose future depends not only on
the ability of its practitioners to react to and facilitate
operational and organizational change but, more
important, on their ability to anticipate, and therefore
lead, the change process itself.
 The historical events that led to the birth
of industrial engineering provide
significant
 insights into many of the principles that
dominated its practice and development
throughout
 the first half of the twentieth century.
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
 Even though historians of science and technology
continue to argue about when industrial
 engineering began, there is a general consensus
that the empirical roots of the profession date
 back to the Industrial Revolution, which began in
England during the mid eighteenth century.
TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS
 Flying shuttle developed by John Kay in 1733
Spinning jenny invented by James
Hargreaves
Water frame developed by Richard
Arkwright in 1769
Steam engine developed by James watt
Steam engine
 Perhaps the most important innovation, however,
was the steam engine developed by James Watt in
1765.
 By making steam practical as a power source for a
host of applications, Watt’s invention freed
manufacturers from their reliance on waterpower,
opening up far greater freedom of location and
industrial organization. It also provided cheaper
power, which led to lower production costs, lower
prices, and greatly expanded markets.
SPECIALIZATION OF LABOR
 The concepts presented by Adam Smith in his treatise
The Wealth of Nations also lie at the foundation of what
eventually became the theory and practice of industrial
engineering.
 His writings on concepts such as the division of labor and
the “invisible hand” of capitalism served to motivate
many of the technological innovators of the Industrial
Revolution to establish and implement factory systems
EXAMPLES OF THESE DEVELOPMENTS
 Implementation of management control
systems to regulate production
 The output of factory workers, and
 the well-organized factory that Watt,
together with an associate, Matthew
Boulton, built to produce steam engines
Interchangeability of Parts
 Another key development in the history of
industrial engineering was the concept of
interchangeable parts. The feasibility of the
concept as a sound industrial practice was
proven through the efforts of Eli Whitney
and Simeon North in the manufacture of
muskets and pistols for the U.S.
government.
PIONEERS OF INDUSTRIAL
ENGINEERING
 Taylor and Scientific Management
While Frederick W.Taylor did not use the term
industrial engineering in his work, his writings and talks
are generally credited as being the beginning of the
discipline.One cannot presume to be well versed in
the origins of industrial engineering without reading
Taylor’s books: Shop
Management and The Principles of Scientific
Management.
Taylor and Scientific Management
 The core of Taylor’s system consisted of breaking
down the production process into its component
parts and improving the efficiency of each.
 Paying little attention to rules of thumb and
standard practices, he honed manual tasks to
maximum efficiency by examining each
component separately and eliminating all false,
slow, and useless movements.
 Mechanical work was accelerated through the use of
jigs, fixtures, and other devices—many invented by
Taylor himself
 Improvement of work efficiency under the Taylor
system was based on the analysis and improvement of
work methods, reduction of the time required to
carry out the work, and the
development of work standards.
 With an abiding faith in the scientific method,
Taylor’s contribution to the development of “time
study” was his way of seeking the same level of
predictability and precision for manual tasks that he
had achieved with his formulas for metal cutting.
 Taylor’s interest in what today we classify as the area
of work measurement was also motivated by the
information that studies of this nature could supply
for planning activities.
To Taylor, scientific management
was a philosophy based not only on
the scientific study of work but also
on the scientific selection,
education, and development of
workers.
Frank and Lillian Gilbreth
 The other cornerstone of the early days of
industrial engineering was provided by the
husband and wife team of Frank and Lillian
Gilbreth.
 Consumed by a similar passion for efficiency,
Frank Gilbreth’s application of the scientific
method to the laying of bricks produced results
that were as revolutionary as those of Taylor’s
shoveling experiment.
 He and Lillian extended the concepts of scientific
management to the identification, analysis, and
measurement
of fundamental motions involved in performing
work.
 By applying the motion-picture camera to the
task of analyzing motions they were able to
categorize the elements of human motions into
18 basic elements or therbligs.
Other Pioneers
 In 1912, the originators and early pioneers, the first educators and
consultants, and the managers and representatives of the first
industries to adopt the concepts developed by Taylor and Gilbreth
gathered at the annual meeting of the American Society of
Mechanical Engineers
(ASME) in New York City
 The all-day session on Friday,December 6, 1912, began with a
presentationtitled “The Present State of the Art of Industrial
Management.”This report and the subsequent discussions provide
insight and understanding about the origin and relative
contributions of the individuals involved in the birth of a unique
new profession: industrial engineering.
 In addition to Taylor and Gilbreth, other pioneers present at
this meeting included Henry Towne and Henry
Gantt.Towne,who was associated with the Yale and Towne
Manufacturing Company, used ASME as the professional
society to which he presented his views on the need
for a professional group with interest in the problems of
manufacturing and management.
 This suggestion ultimately led to the creation of the
Management Division of ASME, one of the groups active
today in promoting and disseminating information about the
art and science of management, including many of the topics
and ideas industrial engineers are engaged in.
 Gantt’s ideas covered a wider range than some of his
predecessors.He was interested not only in standards and
costs but also in the proper selection and training of workers
and in the development of incentive plans to reward them.
 Although Gantt was considered by Taylor to be a true
disciple, his disagreements with Taylor on several points led
to the development of a “task work with bonus” system
instead of Taylor’s “differential piece rate” system and explicit
procedures for enabling workers to either protest or revise
standards. He was also interested in scheduling problems and
is best remembered for devising the Gantt chart: a systematic
graphical procedure for planning and scheduling activities
that is still widely used in project management.
 Hugo Diemer, who started the first continuing
curriculum in industrial engineering at Pennsylvania
State College in 1908;
 William Kent, who organized an industrial
engineering curriculum at Syracuse University in the
same year;
 Dexter Kimball, who presented an academic course
in works administration at Cornell University in
1904
 C. Bertrand Thompson, an instructor in industrial
organization at Harvard, where the teaching of
Taylor’s concepts had been implemented.
 Carl Barth,Taylor’s mathematician and developer of
special purpose slide rules for metal cutting;
 John Aldrich of the New England Butt Company,
who presented the first public statement and films
about micro motion study
 James Dodge, president of the Link-Belt Company
 Henry Kendall, who spoke of experiments in
organizing personnel functions as part of scientific
management in industry.
 Another early pioneer was Harrington
Emerson. Emerson became a champion of
efficiency independent of Taylor and summarized
his approach in his book, the Twelve Principles
of Efficiency. These principles, which somewhat
paralleled Taylor’s teachings, were derived
primarily through his work in the railroad
industry.