Fundamentals of Engineering

What’s in a name?

I recently came across an article that was titled, “The Physicist as a Quality Engineer”. The author, a physicist, describes himself as the secret engineer. I was astonished to find that he has held many job titles such as mechanical design engineer, software developer, reliability engineer and manufacturing engineer. To have someone not “trained” in the field called an engineer is a lie. 

Engineering is one of few career paths that is actually considered a profession. Like with any profession we engineers adhere to a code of ethics and regulations that we must follow. Can someone with no training in the field be expected to know all that we must stand for? The answer is no.

While some training can be gained on the job, the fundamentals are not there. The application of the title is often too liberally given out. This job title entails too many assumptions that make the undeserving holder of this title a liar. Too often do we walk into an establishment with a janitorial engineer. A janitorial engineer? What discipline does that stem off of? The basic fundamentals of my discipline are lost. 

The engineering degree is beginning to become tainted. Anyone can earn the title without the actual work for it. There should be a clearer definition of this field. We become engineers by choice not by chance. The effect that this can have on the public’s view can become detrimental to this profession. The connotation of engineering can be forever changed.

The author of this article argues that while some schools my offer a quality engineering degree it is actually unnecessary. He prefers the the on the job training. Learning how to work something and learning why it works are two different things. I do not discredit his degree in physics or doubt his ability to comprehend quality principles; but to hold a title that was not earned seems a little wrong to me.  

Much can be said for other professions. I doubt any doctor would be thrilled to be interchangeable with a medicine man from a third world country. The basis of healing may be there but the background knowledge is not. The quality of care would be lacking. Paying for a medicine man what we pay for a doctor who has gone through all the schooling would seem ridiculous.

All I ask for is the same sympathy that would be given to a doctor in this situation.

If jobs have become that cross functional we should be defining the descriptions of new ones instead of tacking on random titles. The idea of having and accreditation board for any engineering discipline is to provide the graduating students with the sufficient skills and knowledge to allow them to contribute to the public welfare. I doubt all of the work that is being given by ABET is pointless. If there is a road to becoming an engineer easier than the one I am taking, please show me the way.

The perception of our chosen career path is at stake. Is the public being deceived or is this just the product of the vague definition of engineering? How can we call our profession by a word that coming to mean nothing?

http://www.aip.org/tip/INPHFA/vol-7/iss-2/p34.pdf

Engineering in the News

        Sanford Expansion             

The building of the new Sanford Health facility is perhaps the biggest project going on in the Fargo, Moorhead area. It will be the largest health facility in North Dakota. According to the article the building will be 1.2 million square feet. The expansion will increase the capability to treat and admit patients. This construction project will benefit more than just those directly involved in the health care system. It will increase employment by increasing jobs. To efficiently such a large building requires a lot of staffing. 

This project is important to my field because of the amount of hours that will be spent on it by industrials. Industrial engineers will be working closely with doctors and nurses to establish the best way to design the floor layout of the hospital.

Floor layout in a newly constructed hospital is very important. You must take into account each individual floor or department of the facility. Floors can more or less be designed to resemble each other in order to increase the uniformity of the building. This also makes it easier for people like doctors and nurses to find things on floors they may not have worked in before. Knowing where to place supply closets or waste rooms relative to the patient’s room can become a little tricky.

Sanford has spent millions on expansion.

From an industrial point of view the hospital needs to function on a level that will allow it to maintain its operation costs down. You don’t want most of your expense costs to be because of inefficiently placed rooms. If supplies that are accessed quite frequently are place too far from the actual place of use, a waste of time is soon developed. This could lead to inadequate care given to patients or others seeking services.

 You want to be able to enhance the stay of the patient by making the jobs of nurses, doctors or those providing the service as easy as possible. The increase of work that an industrial has is amazing. Industrial engineers in a hospital do look at floor layouts but they also can deal with ergonomics and finding ways to make work sharing a little simpler.

Another place where the influence of industrial engineers is seen is in the management corporate area. Here is where critical thinking comes into play. Dealing with the money that was fund raised is very important. You don't want to spend too much in one single place that is not necessarily need. As an industrial you bring all the information gathered from talking to the employees or just analyzing the floor layouts. Industrial engineers along with the doctors, nurses and chairmen of Sanford form and integrated system of people. Communication between these people is vital, making sure everyone is on the same page and that compromises are being made will greatly decrease unwise spending.

It is always exciting to have such a huge expansion happening in a hospital. Doing this kind of job is very interesting. I love change. The opportunity to improve is so appealing. To be a part of a team that is solely interested in developing new ways to make interaction between components (workers, supply rooms or anything really) is my ideal goal.

As an industrial engineer opportunities are everywhere you chose to look. Our field is widely applicable. This article proves that where ever there is growth whether it be in the manufacturing industry or in a facility that offers services, there will always be an opportunity for an industrial engineer to contribute to its community.

http://www.mortenson.com/NewsArticle_2012_041312_MSP_SanfordHealth.aspx

Bettering the Process

“We Ought to be Better than we Are.”

These are the words of a German quality specialist; they were spoken in reference to Motorola’s product quality. At this time Motorola was one of the largest suppliers of electronics to Japan and the United States. When you’re supplying for such a large population, quality should be of great importance. In 1986 they came up with the concept of six sigma. Six sigma is just a method used to improve process outputs. It does this by first identifying and removing causes of defects/errors. It then tries to minimize the variability in manufacturing processes. Basically it is a way to use different things like quality management and statistical methods to create a special solution to a particular company’s problem.

There are five different components to fixing a process. First you have to make sure you know what you want to accomplish, identify the problem. Then start gathering information or collecting samples. From here you analyze your data. You have to recognize things that are not working properly and identify problem areas. Identifying the problem areas will outline what improvements are needed. Then only thing left is to make sure the environment where the process is being run is a controlled one. An input of random activity can cause alterations to the established desired outputs.

Six sigma means that a particular process is hovering between plus or minus six standard deviations from the mean. This means that a product being outputted by the process is 99.999998% from the mean. What makes this very appealing is that if calibrated correctly using this method a manufacturing process can be spitting out very identical parts. This increases the chances of ability to use the parts in other systems, this makes them interchangeable increasing efficiency and automation in the process.

  
 An individual system can be changed in many ways that are unique to that system.  Although industrial engineers are always looking to optimize, the techniques used have not really changed since the late 80’s. 

For example take a classroom on test day. What is the fastest way to distribute the test? The professor can hand them out to each individual as they walk in, go row by row or perhaps down the aisles. So what is the fastest way to distribute them? You can apply the concept of six sigma. We could run all three scenarios collect data, analyze and determine the process that would take less time and strain on the professor.

This method of optimization is pretty neat because like others before it, it’s applied to various situations and still produces an outcome that satisfies it. Because it is very versatile it sets the foundation for many manufacturing issues that arise. Six sigma is very straight forward and can be easily adjusted.

 Another quality production method worth comparing to six sigma is the Lean procedure. Lean principles identify the value of something relative to what the customer wants and then determines the most time effective way to get the customer to that value. These principles help you get to the actual solution that you want where Six Sigma just points out areas of improvement.

Before principles like Six Sigma production was very inefficient. The ability to make production lines interchangeable was not there. They lacked the vision of what an integrated system could do. Now what used to be single assembly lines what become automated and are able to produce high quality product.

Being able to identify the problems is very important in manufacturing but using Six Sigma alone would not be very productive. The effectiveness of identifying an issue definitely there. Huge quality improvements have been made in different companies, but a combination of different methods is required in order to better a system. 

These set of principles have allowed use to manufacture varying product using basically the same assembly line. Perfecting what we already were doing well is what Six Sigma allowed us to do.