PERSPECTIVES
Life without an ISE
I worked in multiple companies
where no one had an industrial or systems
engineering job title. In general,
the industrial engineering moniker is
becoming rare in the United
States as domestic manufacturing
levels slide. We had no ISE,
but I was expected to lead productivity
improvement efforts
in spite of my job title. That
worked for me.
Performance metrics are vital to business
The selection of performance metrics
challenges many organizations because
there are no documented standards or
guidelines. They typically require resources
and must add sufficient value to
justify the effort. Metrics should provide
management with insights to decide
when to act and what steps to take.
Generalists in a specialized world
During quarantine, a book club was
launched to overcome isolation by connecting
with alumni in the Department
of Systems & Industrial Engineering at
the University of Arizona. This gave
alumni and the advisory board the opportunity
to read a book and discuss over
Zoom every few weeks. We divided a
book into four subsections to “chunk”
the topics into manageable pieces and
give our Zoom discussions focus.
Engineering good business decisions
We all like to make money to do more
things and expand our opportunities.
Engineers, especially engineering
students, sometimes forget that businesses
employ engineers to help them
create value and make money. As the
IISE Body of Knowledge emphasizes in
Chapter 3, Engineering Economic Analysis,
engineering economics focuses on helping
engineers make better decisions for
themselves and their companies.