How Industrial Engineers Look at Supply Chain Management

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Graduating as an Industrial & Management Systems Engineer or what is often called Industrial Engineer (IE) has made me grateful yet enthused about the opportunity to utilize IE tools to streamline supply chain operations. This is said because I am passionately engaged in making my career path built around supply chain management industry.

The foundation of Industrial Engineering came from the person who developed The Principles of Scientific Management that is based on equations rather than intuitions. This person is Frederick W. Taylor, the father of Industrial Engineers. George Bishop said in the ISE magazine, "A core pillar of this approach was to understand human capabilities thoroughly and to create the optimal way of performing a given task within a given amount of time." Work Measurement is, in fact, part of this scientific approach that gauges time and motion scientifically in order to create a work environment that is based on effectiveness and efficiency.

Supply chain management (SCM) definition can be as simple as the flow of products from the supplier to the customer or as complicated as moving the right product in the right quantity at the right condition at the right time to the right customer with the right cost. Yes, it is that complicated. Anyway, the question is how IE relates to SCM. Well, Industrial Engineering focuses on continuous process improvement whereas SCM focuses on product movements. If an IE were to define SCM, it would be the second definition mentioned above as it implies effectiveness and efficiency of the processes that make the movement of the products seamlessly. Moreover, an IE working at a SCM department would use advanced IE tools including, but not limited to, Value Stream Mapping, Work Measurement and capacity analysis to optimize the supply chain processes.

In summary, the scientific management method that Taylor developed helped utilize the workforce and many resources to leverage the operational performance of any company. This scientific approach, which is an unequivocal part of the IE tools pie, can make SCM deliver products faster, cheaper and with an excellent quality to various consumers.

Sources:

ISE Magazine Volume 49, Number 3