| dc.description.abstract | Industrial Engineers (IEs) have a wide breadth of knowledge that has proven to benefit
organizations in a variety of ways. As process improvement experts with education in
engineering, quality, and business, Industrial Engineers are skilled in the implementation
of continuous improvement and lean thinking. This skillset has recently allowed IEs to
work outside their normal realm of manufacturing, and focus on areas more closely
related to service organizations.
At Company A, Industrial Engineers are employed within the manufacturing
organization, focusing on process improvements and factory design. While Company A’s
core business is manufacturing, many other facets make up the entire business. With IEs
only focusing on manufacturing, which encompasses only 23% of the enterprise’s
employees, Company A is drastically limiting the impact they can have on enterprise
process improvements. By broadening the horizons for Industrial Engineers within the
company, Company A can leverage the strengths of the IEs to help the entire enterprise
“lean” out the process inefficiencies, cut costs, and better utilize its employees.
The scope of this project includes defining the breadth of influence Industrial Engineers
can have within Company A. This includes background information which highlights the
broad capabilities of IEs in process improvement and lean implementation, as well as
supporting information on how lean thinking is applicable across the enterprise,
particularly in service organizations. It also includes the business need for using lean
thinking outside of manufacturing.
A study of how other manufacturing companies use their IEs and other employees in this
expanded capacity is performed via personal interviews. These interviews are aimed at understanding if their application of continuous improvement and lean thinking outside
of manufacturing is successful, how IEs are involved in that effort, how the organization
is structured, and how the company overcame any barriers in their implementation of lean
across the enterprise. This information is intended to help Company A structure and
deploy its own continuous improvement organization. | |
