Glossary

Industrial engineering is a broad field compared to other engineering disciplines. The major activities of industrial engineering stem from manufacturing industries and include work methods analysis and improvement; work measurement and the establishment of standards; machine tool analysis and design; job and Workplace design; plant layout and facility design; materials handling; cost reduction; production planning and scheduling; inventory control, maintenance, and replacement; statistical quality control; scheduling; assembly-line balancing, systems, and procedures; and overall productivity improvement. Computers and information systems have necessitated additional activities and functions, including numerically controlled machine installation and programming; manufacturing systems design; computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing, design of experiments, quality engineering, and statistical process control; computer simulation, operations research, and management science methods; computer applications, software development, and information technology; human-factors engineering and ergonomics ; systems design and integration; and robotics and automation.


measurement: the act or process of measuring. for example: work measurement and the establishment of standard.


statistical:of, relating to, based on, or employing the principles of. For example: statistical quality control.

Maintenance: the upkeep of property or equipment.

Ergonomics: an applied science concerned with designing and arranging things people use so that the people and things interact most efficiently and safely. For Example: human-factors engineering and ergonomics.

Automation: the technique of making an apparatus, a process, or a system operate automatically. For example: robotics and automation.


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