HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING

Industrial engineering has developed in the past 250 years. Five different phases of industrial engineering have almost passed. These phases are:

Phase 1: Pre-Industrial Revolution Era (up to early 1800s)

Phase 2: Industrial Revolution (early 1800s to late 1800s)

Phase 3: Scientific Management Phase (1890 to 1940)

Phase 4: Operations Research and Quantitative Phase (late 1940s to early 1980s)

Phase 5: Automation and Computer Integrated Manufacturing Phase (since early 1980s)

The future trend is towards more automation, computer controlled manufacturing, information handling through computers, and integration of manufacturing systems.

Pre Industrial Revolution Era

Prior to industrial revolution in early 1800s, there was focus on hand operated manufacturing activity. India was a major player in global trade. There are evidences that India had trading relations with her neighboring countries. However, there was no focused factory concept. Mostly, handicraft, agriculture products, etc, dominated the trade. Globally, the major developments were:

1774: James Watt developed the steam engine

1776: Adam Smith wrote Wealth of Nations and advocated the concept of division of labor, skill development, specialization etc.

Industrial Revolution and Post Industrial Revolution Phase

For the first time, industrial engineering emerged as a profession during the industrial revolution. This was around year 1750. This was due to the need for technically qualified people, who were needed to plan, organize and control the manufacturing processes. After the industrial revolution, Taylor’s contribution brought the era of scientific management. This was overall improvement in the planning, scheduling and control of the industrial process. Need for supervisors was being realized.

It was then the era of Frank B. Gilberth and his wife, Dr. Lillian Gilberth. Frank Gilberth focused on identification, analysis, measurement and setting standard for the fundamental motions, which were required to accomplish a job. His contributions were helpful in designing a job, deciding the time required to perform a job and improvement in ways to perform a job. Dr. Lillian Gilberth, who was the wife of Frank, worked on human relation aspect of engineering. Her period spanned almost a century from 1878 to 1972.

A major pioneering contribution came from Henry L. Gantt. He provided the concept of planning and scheduling the activities on a graphical chart. This type of chart is still widely used and is called as Gantt Chart. This is very helpful in reviewing the progress and updating the schedule of work. Factories emerged in textile, steam engine, metal cutting and fabrication, machine tools, etc. It was realized that the factories should be managed efficiently and processes should be effective to convert raw material into the finished goods. This became the root of the inception on industrial engineering.

In early 1800s, Charles Babbage systematically observed factory operations in England and USA. He wrote his experiences in a book “On the economy of Machinery and Manufacturing”, in 1832. His observations, regarding skill, match with operations and his conceptual foundations on division of labor acted as the foundation blocks of some later developments in industrial engineering. It was around 1880 that a major contribution by Frederick W. Taylor almost changed the approach towards industrial management. His focus was on improvement in work content, specialization and division of labor. His contributions are treated as the real beginning of industrial engineering by many authors.

Major building blocks of industrial engineering emerged in the period 1920-1940. In 1924, W.A. Shewhart developed the fundamental concept of statistical quality control. During this period, fundamental approaches on inventory control, incentive plans, material handling, conceptions of organization, theory and management, plant layout, etc, evolved. Ralph M. Barnes worked at Cornell University on motion study for his doctoral work.

During 1940s, conceptual foundation for value engineering, system analysis and operations research emerged. Mathematical and statistical tools were widely used. Optimization and system became the buzz after WW 2. Simultaneously, use of computers in industrial engineering started dominating the scene. Many research journals started coming out. After the advent of computerization of manufacturing activities, automation and application of flexible manufacturing system, the scene changed considerably. Many research works started appearing which dealt with cycle time reduction, flexibility, customer focus, stock less production etc. Manufacturing system is now being viewed on a much wider spectrum, which includes vendors and customers both.

Email Based Homework Assignment Help in Historical Development of Industrial Engineering 

Transtutors is the best place to get answers to all your doubts regarding the historical development of industrial engineering and its various phases like the industrial revolution, scientific management phase, operations research & quantitative phase, automation and computer integrated manufacturing phase. You can submit your school, college or university level homework or assignment to us and we will make sure that you get the answers you need which are timely and also cost effective. Our tutors are available round the clock to help you out in any way with industrial management.

http://www.transtutors.com/homework-help/industrial-management/industrial-engineering/historical-development-of-industrial-engineering.aspx