Farrokh Sassani - Industrial Engineering Foundations: Bridging the Gap Between Engineering and Management

Industrial Engineering
Foundations

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Industrial Engineering
Foundations

Bridging the Gap between Engineering and Management

Farrokh Sassani , Ph.D.

The University of British Columbia

Mercury Learning and Information

Dulles, Virginia

Boston, Massachusetts

New Delhi

Copyright 2017 by Mercury Learning And Information LLC. All rights reserved.

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Publisher: David Pallai

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F. Sassani. Industrial Engineering Foundations.

ISBN: 978-1-942270-86-7

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2016953727

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To

the loving memory of my father,

the resilience of my mother,

and

my family, from whom I borrowed the time.

CONTENTS

Preface

As an applied science, industrial engineering embraces concepts and theories in such fields as mathematics, statistics, social sciences, psychology, economics, management and information technology. It develops tools and techniques to design, plan, operate and control service, manufacturing, and a host of engineering and non-engineering systems. Industrial engineering is concerned with the integrated systems of people, materials, machinery, and logistics, and ensures that these systems operate optimally and efficiently, saving time, energy, and capital. An industrial engineer, or an engineer equipped with the tools and techniques of industrial engineering is the professional who is responsible for all these tasks.

This book aims to expose the reader at an introductory level to the basic concepts of a range of topics in industrial engineering and to demonstrate how and why the application of such concepts are effective.

The target audience for this abridged volume encompasses all engineers. In other words, the book is written for motivated individuals from a broad range of engineering disciplines who aim for personal and professional development. They would benefit from having a foundational book on important principles and tools of industrial engineering. They would be able to apply these principles not only to initiate improvements in their place of work but also to open up a career path to management and positions with a higher level of responsibility and decision-making.

The level of coverage and the topics included in this book have been distilled from over thirty years of teaching a technical elective course in industrial engineering to non-industrial engineering students in their final year of studies. From direct and indirect feedback from the students on the usefulness of various industrial engineering methods in their work, the course content has evolved to what is now presented as a book.

In writing this book, I am most grateful to Dr. Mehrzad Tabatabian, from the British Columbia Institute of Technology, for his encouragement, sharing his book-writing experiences, and putting me in contact with a wonderful publisher, Mr. David Pallai, who supported and provided guidance throughout the effort. I am also indebted to my colleagues in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of British Columbia: Professor Peter Ostafichuk and Mr. Markus Fengler for giving me invaluable advice about writing a book, and I deeply acknowledge a special debt of gratitude to Professor Tatiana Teslenko for graciously editing and proofreading the manuscript.

This is an opportune time to thank Ms. Aleteia Greenwood, Head of UBC Woodward Library and Hospital Branch Libraries, for her advice and expert assistance in the literature search and library matters for many years. I also would like to extend my appreciation to my graduate students Morteza Taiebat, Abbas Hosseini, and Masoud Hejazi for their tolerance. Last, but not the least, I express my heartfelt gratitude to my family for their patience, encouragement, and support.

F. Sassani

November 2016