Editor's Desk

By Michael Hughes

After 50 (plus?) years, we're greedy for more

Anybody want to buy me a bunch of gold?

After all, 2018 is the 50th year of ISE magazine, and the shiny metal is the traditional gift for such an anniversary. But maybe that's not appropriate, because we're only kind of 50 years old.

You see, the American Institute of Industrial Engineers started The Journal of Industrial Engineering in 1949, one year after the inauguration of the institute itself. In 1969, that journal was retired, replaced by the journal AIIE Transactions (now IISE Transactions – and congrats on its 50th year as well).

This magazine, dubbed Industrial Engineering in January 1969, was designed to keep IEs informed about the profession's developments, thinking and trends with a more popular style of presentation – a magazine, not a journal.

IISE now publishes four additional journals (while The Engineering Economist has been around more than 60 years, IISE Transactions on Healthcare Systems Engineering, the Journal of Enterprise Transformation and IISE Transactions on Occupational Ergonomics and Human Factors are less than a decade old). Industrial Management magazine, published by IISE's Society for Engineering and Management Systems, is kicking off its 60th year. (Since I manage that publication, perhaps diamonds are also in order?)

I reckon we've done well to last so long. Hopefully we will continue, grow and keep turning the profession's improvement tools onto the problems of the age.

Which brings us to this month's cover story, "Re-engineering an IISE Chapter." Scott Sink of The Ohio State University has turned an ISE's yen for improvement to the Columbus professional chapter. Principles and strategies surrounding the stakeholder value exchange optimization model helped boost membership from about 80 members to more than 180 in a couple of years. Along the way, Columbus became a virtual chapter (call it Chapter 1), welcoming members outside its geographic region and offering improved online engagement, appropriate for this digital millennium.

So click here, check out the transformation and see what you can do back home. Replicating the Ohio renaissance across the institute's 57 professional chapters would revitalize IISE and bring the power of industrial and systems engineering to bear on larger segments of society. That's just as good as a pot of gold or a diamond or two.

Michael Hughes is managing editor of IISE. Reach him at mhughes@iise.org or (770) 349-1110.