In the era of small-scale peasant economy and handicraft production, people rely on their own experience to manage production. At the beginning of the 20th century, industry began to enter the era of scientific management. The book Principles of Scientific Management published by American engineer F.W. Taylor is a masterpiece of this era and a classic work of industrial engineering. From about 19 10, Girbe people in America (Frank. &; . L.Gilbreth) engaged in action (method) research and workflow research, and also set 17 basic factors (thresholds) of action. Taylor and Gilbress are the most famous founders of industrial engineering.
1908 the university of Pennsylvania opened the course of industrial engineering for the first time, and later established the department of industrial engineering. 19 17, the American society of industrial engineers was founded. Since then, it is advocated that all kinds of research work to improve labor productivity, such as action research and time research, should be separated from management functions and carried out by people who know engineering technology, thus gradually forming a group of industrial engineering engineers who combine engineering technology with management.
During and after World War II, work research (including time research and method research), quality control, personnel evaluation and selection, factory layout, production planning and so on all formally became the contents of industrial engineering. With the development of manufacturing industry, J.Fish initiated the research field of engineering economic analysis. Due to the needs of the war, operational research has been greatly developed. After the war, due to the needs of economic construction and industrial production development, the combination of industrial engineering and operational research provided a more scientific method basis for industrial engineering, and the technical content of industrial engineering was greatly enriched and developed. 1948, the American Institute of Industrial Engineers was formally established. In 1950s and 1960s, many universities in the United States set up departments of industrial engineering, and by 1975, more than 50 universities had set up industrial engineering courses.
Compared with developed countries, China started late. In the early 1980s, industrial departments began to know something about industrial engineering and gradually popularized it. The first national academic conference was held in 199 1 year.
The application prospect of industrial engineering in China is very broad. In the 1980s. Entrusted by the Japanese government, an expert from Japan Energy Association, Sanshang Zhanxi, popularized and applied industrial engineering technology in China, Beijing and Dalian. He believes that many enterprises in China do not need to invest heavily in hardware. As long as they pay attention to improving management methods, personnel quality and industrial engineering, their production efficiency can be improved by 2-3 times or even 5- 10 times. Typical enterprises applying industrial engineering technology in China include Beijing Machine Tool Electric Appliance Factory, FAW Group, Angang and so on, all of which have achieved obvious economic benefits.
At present, an important task of developing industrial engineering in China is to cultivate talents. China first enrolled undergraduates majoring in industrial engineering in Tianjin University and Xi Jiaotong University in 1993. At present, more than 70 colleges and universities have industrial engineering departments or majors.
The practice of industrial engineering development and application at home and abroad shows that this comprehensive technology, which organically combines engineering and management, plays an irreplaceable role in improving the productivity of enterprises, the comprehensive efficiency and benefit of production systems, the comprehensive quality of systems, the competitiveness of enterprises in the international market under the conditions of open economy and the comprehensive innovation ability under the knowledge economy environment, as well as the high-quality and sustainable development of various production systems, management systems and socio-economic systems.
China's enterprise-based industries and industrial economic system are facing many problems and dilemmas, such as low resource utilization rate, low quality and efficiency, unreasonable product comprehensive structure, poor environmental adaptability, urgent need to strengthen international competitiveness and innovation ability, weak strategic management and internal management, disjointed technology and management, insufficient specialization, unbalanced development of products, markets and technologies, irregular and unstable relationship between enterprises and markets, and government and other enterprises. Modern industrial engineering is an effective weapon for enterprises and even the whole industrial economy to get rid of difficulties and win competitive advantages. As early as18th century, Adam Smith put forward the concept of division of labor in The Wealth of Nations published by 1776, which was an important milestone in promoting industrial production at that time. The development of industrial engineering can be roughly divided into the following four stages:
The first stage, after the industrial revolution, the productive forces developed greatly. 1799, Whitney of the United States put forward the concept of "interchangeability", which laid the foundation for rationalization, specialization, mechanization, simplification and standardization, so it can develop into mass production. From 65438 to 0832, babic of England discussed the professional division of labor, working methods, the use of machines and tools, and the economic principles of manufacturing industry in his book The Economy of Machines and Manufacturing Industry. People began to study how to improve efficiency with new ways of thinking, which gave birth to the idea of IE and laid the foundation for its birth and development.
The second stage is from the end of 19 to the first world war. Influenced by the idea that "engineers are economists", Taylor developed a concept in the field of mechanical manufacturing: method design, time measurement, production planning and control are all the responsibilities of engineers. He tried hard to practice this concept, conducted a series of experiments, and put forward the principle of labor quota and standardization, thus increasing productivity several times. Mr. and Mrs. Gilbress devoted themselves to action research and set up 17 basic action elements and workflow analysis. He created a scientific basis for the improvement of work and operation and the later scheduled time standard, and provided a way of thinking that people still use today. Henry Ford pioneered a standardized and specialized production line synchronization system (assembly line), which greatly improved the productivity in the manufacturing field. During this period, henry gantt created "plan control chart" or "Gantt chart", and Emerson put forward "bonus plan" and "twelve principles to improve personal efficiency", which made great contributions to production management and productivity improvement. IE Association and Taylor Association were founded in 19 17.
In the third stage, from the 1920s to the Second World War, the achievements of mathematics, economics, sociology and psychology at that time were widely introduced into IE activities, and the research system was investigated, analyzed and improved from the perspectives of various disciplines. From 1924 to 1932, Mayo's famous Hawthorne experiment made people realize that human behavior and function are more important to improve production efficiency, and improving workers' morale is an effective way to improve productivity. The quality control chart initiated by shewhart in 1924 makes statistics a powerful weapon in IE research. Work research, quality control, personnel evaluation and selection, factory layout, production planning and control have all become the contents of IE. With the rapid development of mechanization, Fisher advocated "engineering economy" to solve the problem of "economy" of equipment. The emergence of operational research provides decision-makers with a method to make decisions in various schemes, and industrial engineers apply it to factory management, which greatly enriches and develops the technical content of IE.
The fourth stage is after World War II. 1945, Shia published Factor Analysis. 1947, Miluze founded the technology of "value engineering" and summarized a set of methods to ensure the necessary functions of products or operations and minimize the cost. After World War II, with the further development of automation and electronization, IE has made new progress in the study of human factors. IE engineers gradually realized that people and systems must be combined for analysis and research, so "ergonomics" appeared, also known as ergonomics. Industrial engineering developed from pre-war empiricism to post-war emphasis on quantitative methods. With the achievement of applied mathematics and the birth and development of electronic computers, the research methods of industrial engineering have changed greatly. Quantitative technology has become the dominant and trend of industrial engineering research. Establish mathematical models to analyze, design and describe complex industrial production systems, especially the emergence of computer science, system science and engineering, so that IE engineers can analyze, experiment, compare and make decisions on large-scale economic and social systems, and control and innovate the operation process.