History
It is difficult to say when industrial engineering began. Certainly in the age of Ogg there were production problems associated with making arrows, which have their parallel today. If the individual in a toy factory today most concerned with how to make arrows is an industrial engineer, does that mean that when Ogg was deciding how to make arrows he was doing industrial engineering? The basic "what, how, where and when" of production analysis has been a questioning approach for centuries.
Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, in 1776, was one of the first works promoting "specialization of labor" to improve productivity. He observed in pin making that division of the task into four separate operations increased output by a factor almost five. Whereas one worker performing all the operations produced 1000 pins per day, ten workers employed on four more specialized tasks could produce 48000 pins per day. The concept of designing a process of efficiently use the work force had arrived.
Around 1800 Matthes Boulton and James Watt Jr., sons of prominent steam engine developers, attempted organizational improvements in their Soho, England foundry that were well ahead of their time. Their efforts were pioneering prototypes for industrial engineering techniques to follow. At about this time, an increasing number of mechanical improvements, such as Arkwright's spinning jenny, were making a considerable influence on productivity. The industrial revolution of this period was freeing humans and beasts as sources of power in industry. The development of water and steam power and other mechanical devices is the usual primary connotation given to the term "industrial revolution".
In 1832 Charles Babbage, a self-made mathematician, again suggested division of labor for improved productivity in his book On the Economy of Machinery and Manufacturers. In fact, his "difference engine", the prototype of the modern mechanical calculator, was conceived after he heard about French attempts to produce handbook tables by dividing the calculation task into small steps requiring simple operations. Later, his "analytical engine", was a mechanical prototype of our modern computers. His analytical engine was never completed; the British government abandoned the project after he had spent 17.000 in development. Babbage, somewhat reminiscent of Leonardo da Vinci, was a tireless researcher who had little patience in completing what he had already conceived. Babbage was also aware of the need for improved organization in industry; he toured a number of plants in England and the Continent in the hope of improving his knowledge of the "mechanical art".
After the American Revolution, there was a considerable demand in the United States for muskets, and independence made it possible to produce manufactured goods. Eli Whitney found backers to support the concept of manufacturing interchangeable parts in producing muskets. However, his backers became quite impatient when, after a considerable time had elapsed and much money had been spent, they learned he was still making tools to make parts. Eventually, however, his efforts did produce cheap, interchangeable parts in large quantities. The concept, which is readily accepted today, of producing an expensive set of dies to produce a million parts cheaply, was simply not understood at the time. Whitney's invention of the cotton gin typifies many highly significant mechanical improvements of the day, but there is little question that his concept of "tooling-up" for interchangeable parts was the major innovation of this period.
Around the turn of this century, Henry Ford, on observing carcasses on a moving conveyor in a slaughterhouse, got the idea for progressive assembly of automobiles by use of conveyors. Conveyors have become so much a part of our industrial heritage today that it becomes necessary in an industrial engineering course dealing with materials handling to offer a job lot problem for which the use of conveyors is a poor choice of approach. This shock seems necessary to convince students that conveyors help most of the time but not all of the time. There is little question that the mass production of Fords gave considerable impetus to the mass production concept in the United States.
1n 1886 Henry Towne of the Yale and Towne Company, in "The Engineer as Economist", a paper in the Transaction of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, stressed the need for engineers to be concerned with the profitability effects of their decisions. Until this time engineers were primarily battling the elements, and cost were assumed to be a necessary and relatively uncontrollable price for winning the battle against nature. Another member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), much impressed by the concepts offered by Towne, was Frederick W. Taylor. Taylor is often referred to today as the "father of industrial engineering". Based on the accomplishments he made, in light of the times in which they were made, the title seems most appropriate. Whereas the industrial revolution brought new sources of power that made widespread industrialization possible, Taylor offered the concept that it was an engineering responsibility to design, measure, plan and schedule work.
Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, in 1776, was one of the first works promoting "specialization of labor" to improve productivity. He observed in pin making that division of the task into four separate operations increased output by a factor almost five. Whereas one worker performing all the operations produced 1000 pins per day, ten workers employed on four more specialized tasks could produce 48000 pins per day. The concept of designing a process of efficiently use the work force had arrived.
Around 1800 Matthes Boulton and James Watt Jr., sons of prominent steam engine developers, attempted organizational improvements in their Soho, England foundry that were well ahead of their time. Their efforts were pioneering prototypes for industrial engineering techniques to follow. At about this time, an increasing number of mechanical improvements, such as Arkwright's spinning jenny, were making a considerable influence on productivity. The industrial revolution of this period was freeing humans and beasts as sources of power in industry. The development of water and steam power and other mechanical devices is the usual primary connotation given to the term "industrial revolution".
In 1832 Charles Babbage, a self-made mathematician, again suggested division of labor for improved productivity in his book On the Economy of Machinery and Manufacturers. In fact, his "difference engine", the prototype of the modern mechanical calculator, was conceived after he heard about French attempts to produce handbook tables by dividing the calculation task into small steps requiring simple operations. Later, his "analytical engine", was a mechanical prototype of our modern computers. His analytical engine was never completed; the British government abandoned the project after he had spent 17.000 in development. Babbage, somewhat reminiscent of Leonardo da Vinci, was a tireless researcher who had little patience in completing what he had already conceived. Babbage was also aware of the need for improved organization in industry; he toured a number of plants in England and the Continent in the hope of improving his knowledge of the "mechanical art".
After the American Revolution, there was a considerable demand in the United States for muskets, and independence made it possible to produce manufactured goods. Eli Whitney found backers to support the concept of manufacturing interchangeable parts in producing muskets. However, his backers became quite impatient when, after a considerable time had elapsed and much money had been spent, they learned he was still making tools to make parts. Eventually, however, his efforts did produce cheap, interchangeable parts in large quantities. The concept, which is readily accepted today, of producing an expensive set of dies to produce a million parts cheaply, was simply not understood at the time. Whitney's invention of the cotton gin typifies many highly significant mechanical improvements of the day, but there is little question that his concept of "tooling-up" for interchangeable parts was the major innovation of this period.
Around the turn of this century, Henry Ford, on observing carcasses on a moving conveyor in a slaughterhouse, got the idea for progressive assembly of automobiles by use of conveyors. Conveyors have become so much a part of our industrial heritage today that it becomes necessary in an industrial engineering course dealing with materials handling to offer a job lot problem for which the use of conveyors is a poor choice of approach. This shock seems necessary to convince students that conveyors help most of the time but not all of the time. There is little question that the mass production of Fords gave considerable impetus to the mass production concept in the United States.
1n 1886 Henry Towne of the Yale and Towne Company, in "The Engineer as Economist", a paper in the Transaction of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, stressed the need for engineers to be concerned with the profitability effects of their decisions. Until this time engineers were primarily battling the elements, and cost were assumed to be a necessary and relatively uncontrollable price for winning the battle against nature. Another member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), much impressed by the concepts offered by Towne, was Frederick W. Taylor. Taylor is often referred to today as the "father of industrial engineering". Based on the accomplishments he made, in light of the times in which they were made, the title seems most appropriate. Whereas the industrial revolution brought new sources of power that made widespread industrialization possible, Taylor offered the concept that it was an engineering responsibility to design, measure, plan and schedule work.