I hired Industrial Engineers; why do I have to train them?

I hired industrial engineers; why do I have to train them?‍

That is a great question; when I started to hire young industrial engineers in the early 2000s, I asked myself this exact same question. Did I hire the wrong person? Did I hire from a bad university? Is something fundamentally wrong with our hiring process? And the more I kept hiring industrial engineers, the more I started to realize that it wasn't the hiring process that was wrong: there were issues inherent to the training that they received in university. This brought me to question my expectations as to what a recent Industrial Engineering ("IE") grad should know. After multiple conversations with what some would refer to as  "old" engineers, I believe that my conclusion relative to the training received by today's IEs doesn't adequately prepare them to tackle the topics of work measurement and engineered labor standards ("ELS").

So, what went wrong?

Let's start by looking back at the roots of industrial engineering. At the turn of the XIX century and early XX century, individuals such as Taylor, Gilbreth, Emerson, and others were focusing on efficiency. This started the era of Scientific Management and the beginning of industrial engineering. The structure of industrial engineering programs revolved around the following:

• Standards (work measurement, performance rating, indirect work, etc.)
• Methods (operation analysis, motion study, plant layout, etc.)
• Wage Programs (incentive programs, job evaluation, wage administration, etc.)
• Training (personnel testing, supervisor training, manuals, etc.)
• Product (design, tool design, estimating, etc.)
• Operations Research (optimization, mathematical model building, etc.)

At some point, quality control joined the group of basic skills that every IE should possess. While I was working on my IE degree in the early 1980s, I was taught all of these fundamentals of industrial engineering. Most of those subjects were covered in a distinct class over an entire semester; some were covered over multiple classes.

While teaching at the undergraduate level in the late 1980s, as part of an industrial engineering degree, I was teaching a full class on work measurement, as well as contributing to one third of a class on the subject of designing work stations. I was also teaching a work study class as part of a mechanical engineering degree where I covered methods engineering and work measurement.

Fast forward to today where very little of the original industrial engineering curriculum is left in most North American industrial engineering programs. Aside from operations research, most of the other topics are either completely ignored or they become short conversations buried in a general class. Many programs prefer to focus their time on teaching software solutions rather than fundamental industrial engineering skills.

At certain universities, future engineers are actually lucky if they have the chance to meet an IE over the course of their undergraduate degree. It feels like universities have forgotten that industrial engineering is actually an applied science and that there is an overwhelming advantage for students to be taught by someone that has actually applied the science. Another benefit that students miss when not exposed to practicing engineers is understanding the dynamic that exists between IEs, management, associates, and unions -- and how this dynamic has a huge impact on the success of industrial engineering initiatives.

Furthermore, many universities decided to specialize their undergraduate industrial engineering degrees to such an extent that unless you are in their specialization sector, you will not get much benefit from the IEs that you hire.

The case of work measurement

Few universities still offer a full class on work measurement even though it is a skill that is in high demand for IEs. It used to be that engineered labor standards ("ELS") were confined to the manufacturing sector; today you can find them in every economic sector. To be proficient at implementing ELS, an IE must not only master the different techniques involved in measuring work but he or she must also understand how to navigate the politics involved in implementing workforce management systems. Projects involving the implementation of engineered labor standards are the most likely type of industrial engineering work that may end up in litigation. For those reasons it is imperative that your IEs be well trained technically as well as prepared to tackle the important relationship between themselves, management, associates, and in many cases the union representing the associates.

Work measurement training benefits from live training -- in person or on-line. An experienced instructor will not only be able to provide the necessary technical training but he or she will also impart skills that will help the participants be prepared to apply their newly acquired knowledge in the "real" world. When implementing engineered labor standards there is a huge difference between practicing in a controlled environment and deploying ELS in an actual situation that may be downright hostile.

An added benefit to training your engineers -- even if they have basic work measurement knowledge -- is to ensure that as they start developing ELS, a consistent approach will be followed that will yield uniform results.

Work measurement training

Don't assume that your industrial engineers possess the necessary knowledge, as we all know assuming is the mother of all major debacles. It is more prudent to consider that young engineers have limited if any knowledge of work measurement and structure the training around that notion. The training should start with the basic knowledge around work study. How does work measurement fit in the overall process of studying and improving productivity?

Once engineers understand the overall work study process, in is then time to understand the work measurement aspect. Some of the notions that should be covered include:

• Fundamental techniques (time study, predetermined motion time systems, work sampling, standard data)
• Pace rating
• Personal and fatigue allowance calculations
• Documentation of ELS
• Auditing and maintenance of ELS

If the standards will be built using a predetermined motion time system, further training should be done on the chosen system.

You can be comfortable knowing that providing a good training path for your engineers will quickly pay for itself.

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