July 2016
Presidents' Message | 
Conferences Transitions into the new term
 
Dear SEMS members, 

SEMS President, Charlene Yauch
The IISE Annual Conference and Expo took place in May at the Disneyland Resort Hotel in Anaheim, California. By all accounts, the event was a big success with a wide variety of educational sessions and facility tours, along with plenty of networking that involved ISE professionals, Goofy, Mickey and Minnie Mouse and more. 

Many thanks to Brian Smith, Paul Componation and Patrick Hester for their work on the Industrial and Systems Engineering Research Conference (ISERC) program committee and Sreekanth Ramakrishnan for his work on the Applied Solutions Conference. The wide array of engineering management topics covered included culture of continuous improvement, organizational commitment, best practices for training newly hired engineers and data analytics. 

IISE President Michael Foss announced his interest in sharing ISE success stories. He would like you to write a short story, approximately 750 words, describing an organizational problem and how ISE tools were used to solve it. Please check out the success story blog and share your story with Michael Foss.

While at the conference, an interesting thing happened one morning as I was waiting to be seated at one of the hotel restaurants for breakfast. The restaurant had just opened, and the hostess was not yet at her station. I was waiting, and there was another gentleman waiting who had been there a little bit longer than me. The restaurant next door to this one was Goofy's Kitchen. 

After we had waited a few minutes, Goofy came out of "his" restaurant and noticed us. He came over to shake our hands and then gestured about the lack of a hostess to seat us. He walked around the side of the front desk area, whistled and motioned for someone to come over. 
I found it very amusing but also a wonderful lesson in customer service. Read more.

SEMS Says | Thank you to attendees of the Engineering Management Applied Solutions Track @ the IIE Annual Conference and Expo

We hope that you had a great time attending the 2016 IIE Annual Conference and Expo in Anaheim, California, from May 21-24 at the Disneyland Resort Hotel. 
As in the past, we had a stellar program waiting for you in the Applied Solutions portion of the program. There were numerous topics from the engineering management body of knowledge in our overall program. Similar to 2015, ISERC and Applied Solutions had multiple joint sessions, where presenters from both industry and academia shared their research (applied and theoretical) with our audiences. 
This year, the Applied Solutions chairs adopted a method that was more seamless and far-reaching to the audience. Instead of grouping abstracts by division or society, we chose to design sessions by application area (such as healthcare, automotive, manufacturing and consulting to name a few). Read more.



SEMS Says | Thank you to attendees of the Engineering Management Research Track @ the IIE Annual Conference and Expo

IISE's Society for Engineering and Management Systems welcomed all our society members to the 2016 IIE Annual Conference & Expo in Anaheim, California. Presenters, society members and everyone who joined us at the conference helped make this one of our largest and most diverse tracks we have been able to present. 
This year the Industrial and Systems Engineering Research Conference (IERC) had an expanded Engineering Management track of more than 80 presentations, including an even larger group of new student presenters. Sessions covered a full range of core areas for SEMS, with presentations on project management, leadership and process improvement. A sample of presentations included "Using Simulations to Train Future Project Managers" by Thomas Korman and "Earned Critical Path Analysis" by Dinuka Gunasekara. 
Applications also were a popular area with presentations in service and process industries. These included "Application of Quality Control Techniques for Analyzing Hospital Acquired Infection Rates in New York State" by Sa'd Hamasha. Read more. 
IISE Annual Conference & Expo 2016 | Best Paper Award for the ISERC EM Track sponsored by Oregon State University College of Engineering
The Best Paper Award for the ISERC EM Track recognizes excellence in research among regular track submissions. Top three EM track papers were identified by paper review committee.   Click here to view the top three

IISE Annual Conference & Expo 2016 | SEMS Student Paper Competition sponsored by Missouri Science & Technology University and the University of Arkansas

The sixth annual SEMS Student Paper Competition recognized highly qualified undergraduate and graduate students from the IISE with diverse academic experiences.   Click here to view the top three
International perspective | Waste Identification Diagrams

The Waste Identification Diagram (WID) is a new tool designed to overcome some drawbacks of the Value Stream Map (VSM). It was developed in the Department of Production Systems at the University of Minho (Portugal). The WID tool is able to:
  1. represent all production flows and not only a particular product family flow;
  2. cope with low-volume and high-variety production;
  3. allow layout visualization;
  4. show and evaluate all types of wastes in a visual and intuitive way;
  5. provide effective visual information;
  6. provide performance information; and
  7. be a reference tool to grasp detailed current system condition information for continuous improvement.   Read more.
 
Let's read and share a book (SEMS book browse) | Sharing knowledge

Implementing Value Pricing: A Radical Business Model for Professional Firms  by Ronald J. Baker . Published by John Wiley & Sons Inc. , PRINT ISBN: 9780470584613, 36 5 pages (2011)

Business books are published daily giving the latest advice on how to implement a new fad or another. Then you come across a book that talks about business models but is backed up by academic research in pricing, marketing, service design and project management. You stand and you take notice how it is outlining a way to implement a new approach to profitable service designs. Ronald (Ron) Baker wrote Implementing Value Pricing: A Radical Business Model for Professional Firms for the service firm that is looking to improve its profitability with proper methods. The beauty of value pricing is that it has been implemented successfully in product firms. Now, Baker writes about how to approach it for the service industry. Read more. 

Our Expanding Circles of Systems Engineering Influence

Presented by IISE Industry Advisory Board - OPEN TO ALL

July 21 | 2 p.m. Eastern time
Presenter: Kevin McManus, chief excellence officer, Great Systems!
As technology continues to help make our work, and life, systems more tangible by the day, the potential roles for, and influence of, industrial and systems engineers expands as well. In just over 100, we have gone from optimizing the individual elements for specific work tasks to designing algorithms and apps that may help improve the sustainability of our planet.

The Aging Workforce and Impacts on Ergonomic Design

Presented by AEC GOErgo Conference Committee -
OPEN TO ALL
Aug. 4 | 2 p.m. Eastern time
Presenter: Blake McGowan, C.P.E., managing consultant & ergonomics engineer, Humantech
For the younger worker, the physical capabilities for job duties are well-defined and have resulted in the publication of several design standards. Unfortunately, the physical capabilities of the older worker have not been studied as extensively, and therefore design standards for older workers are harder to find. The purpose of this presentation is to summarize the most relevant physiology research and the cutting-edge ergonomic design guidelines for the aging workforce.

Find out more about IIE Webinars


IIE webinars are free*, one-hour presentations which are a benefit of your IIE membership.  They are presented by knowledgeable professionals and experienced volunteers provide deeper insight into topics and issues involving industrial engineers and industrial engineering-related disciplines.


*Webinars presented by the Society for Health Systems and the Society for Engineering and Management Systems require membership in those societies to attend.
 

The IIE Training Center is unsurpassed in meeting the educational goals of professionals in myriad industries. Our instructors are experts in essential topics including Lean and Six Sigma, concepts based on long-standing industrial engineering principles. We ensure that our students attain in-depth levels of understanding and practical knowledge of how to apply strategies t o achieve business and professional excellence.

Lend a helping hand | Call for volunteers
If you are interested in volunteering for the SEMS and its initiatives, contact Charlene Yauch , SEMS President; or Daren Maynard, Newsletter Editor.