EngSpotlight Interview: Industrial Engineering

I think it's about the design of systems and processes, and it can be applied very broadly. We can talk about healthcare systems or operation systems, in general, and manufacturing systems. Anytime you have something that you're trying to get done, you have industrial engineering.

In the next 10 years, we're gonna see a lot of development in robotics, material sciences and the things we can do with materials; to be lighter and stronger. We're going to see a lot of Internet of Things developments where devices learn to communicate directly with each other and respond appropriately. There's going to be a lot of data analysis or "big data."  So all of these high-tech developments are going to be going on. I think it's a question of whether we're able to develop them in a way that's actually good for people or whether to create systems that continue to be damaging to the environment or damaging to employees. And that's the challenge over the next 10 years and beyond.

I think the environmental challenges are the big ones. We're seeing just the very beginnings of what is going to be a very, very serious crisis, globally. That's one piece. I think the other piece is the well-beings and safety of employees, and we have one-in-five employees, so 20% of employees in Canada are suffering some kind of injury or illness because of work, and that is an incredibly huge draw on the economy, but it's under-recognized and it's caused by the design of the work. So it's a serious problem that affects a lot of people.

Well, anywhere you have an engineering design, you have ergonomics or human factors. To me, the words are interchangeable. Whatever engineering design you have, somebody has to build it, somebody has to install it, somebody has to maintain it, somebody has to use it, and somebody has to dispose of it after its life. So people are involved all the way through, right? But if we don't take account of those people, then the systems will underperform. You're gonna have human system errors, you're gonna have quality problems, you'll have injuries, the systems just won't work the way you'd hoped. And so applying human factors in the design process to make sure that each stage of the lifecycle is appropriate for the people in that stage and that they're able to do the job in a good way is essential to having an effective and efficient system.

Anytime you have a system that's pushing people too hard, where they're fatigued, that's when you run into trouble, right? That when you're tired, you're not able to perform at the quality level that you might need, you're more likely to make errors and that driving your employees into these fatigue states, are going to lead to particularly inefficient systems with lots of quality errors, lots of waste materials, and lots of garbage from stuff that needs to be thrown out. So those are the things you need to watch out for. Whether I can point to the given system and say that's a good system and that's not a bad system is a lot more difficult because a lot of things go into the system. So there's the physical design, the materials, the technology, the equipment, the layout, the work process, all of that stuff comes together to make the system, and so all of those things need to be coordinated in a good way if you're going to wind up with a good system, and that's the challenge of Industrial Engineering right there.

The Human Factors Engineering Lab is involved in modeling and simulation work. We create new tools to help engineers identify human factors problems in their systems to improve quality, improve injury risks, and understand what's good and bad about processes. We help engineers understand the appropriate approach to dealing with human factors and their development work. These are the research my students might create according to the needs of our partner. So we're using conventional engineering approaches, but we're humanizing them. We're trying to make sure that we focus on the human and that the human aspects are appropriately considered at the right time, rather than after the injury or after the recall.

Attending your undergraduate education but thinking more about the material and less about the grades and trying to understand why you're learning these things. Also, developing your communication skills and your ability to think about other people and listen to other people in different roles and different positions in the system is a huge, huge skill. That's critical in terms of understanding the engineering problem. And then there's the technical skills and understanding of how the technical design affects the people. And that requires both empathy and sometimes it requires methods, simulation models, and simulation tools, these are all super valuable. But technical skills and communication skills and people skills are some of the most important pieces for professional engineers.

My advice for first-year students? Get engaged in your societies. Start participating in elements that go beyond the class. And then as far as the classroom, you know, develop your study habits. Treat it like a job, you know. Have your time off, but during the day or during the work period, do your work and professionalize yourself as a student, and that'll make your life a lot easier. So you're not always thinking that you have to do your homework. You do your work during the day, you take your time in the evening, maybe there are a few hours here and there but you know, working and recovering and having a life are all part of the game. And so the more you can start working on that balance now, the better you'll be all the way through your career.