Focus

Keeping pace with IIE in the January 2013 issue of Industrial Engineer 

Hardcore solutions in the Big Easy

SHS goes to New Orleans to celebrate 25 years of healthcare improvement
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina’s devastation, the city of New Orleans had to manage a whirlwind of medical cases with very limited resources. One of the few emergency departments remaining was led by Dr. Joseph Guarisco of Ochsner Health System. 

As chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine, Guarisco managed to keep his ED operational in the critical days after the tragedy, and in the following months, he successfully redesigned ED workflow with an innovative lean engineering adaptation.

Guarisco, who also serves as system chief of emergency services at Ochsner, has a unique perspective on drastic efficiency measures, and his lessons are just one of many reasons to attend the Healthcare Systems Process Improvement Conference in New Orleans in March.

The annual event will feature 10 topic tracks covering applied research, change management, EMR/EHR workflow, human factors, information technology, leadership and management, lean Six Sigma, patient flow, quality and more.

Guarisco will share keynoter duties with Roger Gerard, executive business partner at ThedaCare, a health system serving Northeast Wisconsin. Gerard plans to convey the great amount of impact management engineers have in improving healthcare delivery and the importance of focusing on the patient experience when providing healthcare.

“It is about lean. It is about efficiency. It is about quality rigor. It is about making sure that your processes deliver what they’re supposed to deliver. But if we do all of that and we don’t attend to the emotional and spiritual needs of the person who comes to us for care, then we have failed. That’s my message. And I offer an approach for doing that as well.”

The networking events will include a welcome reception, Dutch treat dinners, "lunch and learn" sessions on Saturday and Sunday, as well as a joint reception with the HIMSS Management Engineering/Process Improvement Group.

SHS sponsored two student competitions this year. The SHS Student Paper Competition has been going on for years, and now the conference committee has added the SHS Student Case Study Competition. The winners of both competitions will be announced at the conference.

For people wanting a sneak preview of the conference and extra training in healthcare process improvement, SHS has been hosting free webinars for several months. For access to prior presentations and recordings as well as the upcoming schedule, go to www.shsconference.org/webinars.

The Healthcare Systems Process Improvement Conference will be held March 1-4 at the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel. Visit www.shsconference.org to register and find the latest updates.

L.A. Story

Chapter reaches out to potential IEs at college fair
According to Luis Armendariz, most high school students know little to nothing about industrial engineering. Even many of the ones who become IEs glean most of their knowledge about career fields in their first or second year at college.

So Armendariz, president of the IIE Los Angeles Chapter and the Process Industries Division, joined California State Polytechnic University Pomona student James Ko and professor Kamran Abedini to spend Sept. 29 at La Puente High School in La Puente, Calif., for a college fair.

More than 500 students and parents attended the event, and Armendariz said materials provided by IIE helped the high school students get a better understanding of industrial engineering. The three L.A. chapter members even convinced several who were considering civil or architectural engineering to contemplate industrial engineering, he said.

“They were surprised to find that an industrial engineer was not just someone who works in a factory,” said Armendariz, principal engineer at Edwards Life Sciences LLC. “They thought it was just related to manufacturing, [and] they were surprised at the applications in healthcare as well.”

IIE provided a banner and slides. Armendariz combined the slides into a PowerPoint presentation and posted them on an easel at the IIE booth. The three volunteers provided information about the colleges and universities in California and throughout the United States that have industrial engineering programs.

The event was so successful that the chapter is planning to do similar events in the future, as such activities fit in with the chapter’s  strategic objective of reaching out to high school communities to recruit industrial engineering leaders for the future, Armendariz said.

“The kids loved the examples,” he said. “And the fact that you have a professor, a student and a practitioner that they can talk to, it’s kind of good to have the feedback from all the different points of view.”

Wow the high school kids

IAB YouTube video contest open to student chapters
Jan. 26 is the deadline for the Industry Advisory Board Student Chapters YouTube Video Contest.

The idea is to produce a streaming YouTube video that successfully promotes the industrial engineering profession to high school students, teachers and college counselors. The video must comply with guidelines for the fair use of copyrighted materials.

The winning video gets the $1,000 prize provided by members of the IAB. Awards will be presented during the student mixer at the IIE Annual Conference and Expo 2013, May 18-22, in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

A panel from IIE-IAB will judge the entries, and winners will be notified by February. All rights for the winning entry will be owned by IIE. Each university campus is limited to one submission, although if the school has campuses in various cities or towns, each campus may submit one entry.

Send the YouTube website address to view your online video, accompanied by two DVD copies in AVI or MP3/4 format, to IIE headquarters. The entries must be postmarked by the contest deadline and mailed to IIE, Attn: Donna Calvert, COO, 3577 Parkway Lane, Suite 200, Norcross, GA 30092. The email address is IAB_You-TubeVideo@iienet.org.

Building momentum at IIE Transactions

New editor for flagship journal targets expanded visibility and impact of IE research
Ronald G. Askin brings a wealth of experience, honors and know-how to his new post as editor-in-chief of IIE Transactions, the institute’s flagship research journal. 

A professor of industrial engineering and director of the School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering at Arizona State University, Askin has spent decades developing, teaching and applying methods for systems design and analysis, with a heavy emphasis on production and material flow systems. The IIE fellow and former editor of IIE Transactions on Design and Manufacturing has served on the IIE board of trustees, as president of the IIE Council of Fellows, and as chair of the INFORMS Manufacturing and Service Operations Society, the Council of Industrial Engineering Academic Department Heads (CIEADH) and the Association of Chairs of Operations Research Departments (ACORD).

He has published more than 120 journal and conference papers, and his honors include a Shingo prize and numerous IIE awards for papers and books.

“First, I would like to thank Susan Albin and the editorial boards of all the focused issues for the great job they have done in recent years to advance the journal and showcase the best in IE research,” Askin said. “My goal will be to build upon this momentum to expand the visibility and impact of IE research by furthering the development of its underlying science and showcasing its creative application to solve societal problems.”

Albin, a professor of industrial and systems engineering at Rutgers University, expressed delight that Askin accepted the position as editor-in-chief.“I am confident that Ron will be an outstanding editor,” she said. “He has been an active IE researcher and leader for over 30 years with broad perspective and experience in many aspects of our field. I am looking forward to increased recognition of the journal under Ron’s tenure.”

Albin added that she is proud of the growth of IIE Transactions during her four years as editor-in-chief. She said she achieved two primary goals: assembling five special issues on cutting-edge topics and improving the operations of the journal.

On the operations side, she has put in place a reporting system on performance measures. The submission rate per year has grown by 50 percent; a system for giving early feedback to authors has been established; and the percent of papers with a response time has been cut by a factor of three.

IIE Transactions is published monthly. For more information, go to www.iienet.org/publications. 

Time to fly down to Annual 2013

Early-bird rates can save conference attendees buckets of money
It’s never too early to start amassing the post-graduate education needed to remain competitive in the modern world, particularly when early-bird registration to the IIE Annual Conference and Expo 2013 is easy and inexpensive.

Registering before April 7 gets members in at the low rate of $645, as opposed to $815 later on. As always, the conference will feature sessions, speeches and pre-conference workshops that expand your mind and earn attendees continuing education units (CEUs). Exhibits, faculty colloquiums, and a plethora of opportunities to network await from May 18-22 at the Caribe Hilton in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

For more information and to register, visit www.iienet.org/annual. The website even has an easy-to-apply five-step method on how to get management approval to attend. 

A conference on two continents

Istanbul gathering will focus on 'global reach of industrial engineering'
The abstract deadline for the IIE-sponsored International Conference in Industrial Engineering is Feb. 15.

The conference, which has the theme “The Global Reach of Industrial Engineering,” is scheduled to be held June 26-28 in Istanbul, the only city built on two continents, Europe and Asia. It will be hosted by the Bilkent University Department of Industrial  Engineering.

The conference will bring together researchers and practitioners from across the world who specialize in the diverse disciplines that encompass industrial engineering. It also will offer participants an opportunity to look ahead into future trends.

For details about the conference and abstract submission, please visit the conference homepage at www.iieistanbul.org.

Advance knowledge is power

Glean career needs and show off research at upcoming university regional conferences
IIE’s 2013 university regional conferences are more than venues for up-and-comers to show off their research. They are places for students and young industrial engineers to discover what they need to do to prepare for life after graduation.

The regional events kick off this month, and competition winners can present their papers at May’s IIE Annual Conference and Expo 2013 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. While that’s always a kudos to add to resumés, the chance to network with and hear speakers from industries, along with partaking in various plant tours, are things that add extra knowledge and understanding that can set someone apart from peers.

The dates, locations and contacts for the scheduled conferences are:

Canada – Jan. 24-26
Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec
CONTACTS: Nadia Bhuiyan, bhuiyan@alcor.concordia.ca; Maria Fernanda Hernandez, iie.president@ecaconcordia.ca or mariferhrdz@gmail.com  

South Central – Feb. 7-9
University of Houston
CONTACTS: Lawrence Schulze, ljhs@uh.edu; Rasha Khalil, rkhalil@uh.edu; Anali Sanchez, asanchez27@uh.edu  

Great Lakes – Feb. 15-17
University of Michigan
CONTACTS: Mark Daskin, msdaskin@umich.edu; Sara Ali, saraali@umich.edu  

Mid-Atlantic – Feb. 22-24
West Virginia University
CONTACTS: Wafik Iskander, Wafik.Iskander@mail.wvu.edu; Jared Dunlap, jdunlap4@mix.wvu.edu  

Western – Feb. 22-24
University of Arizona
CONTACTS: Jian Liu, jianliu@email.arizona.edu or jianliu@email.arizona.edu; Elena Jenkins, emj91@email.arizona.edu  

North Central – Feb. 28 - March 2
University of Iowa
CONTACTS: Kate Lindaman, katherine-lindaman@uiowa.edu; Pavlo Krokhmal, pavlo-krokhmal@uiowa.edu  

Southeast – Feb. 28 - March 3
University of Miami
CONTACTS: Nina Miville, ndecario1@umiami.edu; Lydia Erdelt, l.erdelt@umiami.edu; Yasmine Asfour, y.asfour@umiami.edu; Noah Tilzer, n.tilzer@umiami.edu  

Central and South America – March 14-16
Universidad Libre
CONTACTS: Ever Fuentes, ever.fuentes@gmail.com; Magda Rojas Ortiz, magdam.rojaso@hotmail.es or magdam.rojaso@unilibrebog.edu.co  

Mexico – March 19-22
Universidad Autonoma de Yucatan
CONTACTS: Jesus Escalante, jesus.escalante@uady.mx; Sebastian Pina, iie.spina@gmail.com  

Northeast – March 22-24
University of Pittsburgh
CONTACTS: Bopaya Bidanda, bidanda@pitt.edu; Annie Jones, aej18@pitt.edu 

Ergonomics is more than Greek

AEC 2013 scheduled for March 18-21 in Dallas
The best practices known for combining work (“ergon” in ancient Greek) and natural law (“nomos” in ancient Greek) will be on display March 18-21 at GOErgo’s 16th annual Applied Ergonomics Conference.

For those four days, The Hilton Anatole in Dallas will be the best place in the world for ergonomics practitioners to learn from other practitioners, provide their knowledge to other participants and network with the leaders in the field.

This year’s keynote speakers are Janet Froetscher, president and CEO of the National Safety Council, and William S. Marras, Honda Professor Chair in the Department of Integrated Systems Engineering at The Ohio State University.

For more information, visit www.appliedergoconference.org. 

Simulation 'missionary' passes away

Banks served for decades in ISyE department at Georgia Tech
Jerry Banks, an IIE fellow who did “missionary work” all over the world for the simulation field, passed away on Sept. 25, 2012, according to Georgia Tech. 

Banks was professor emeritus in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering and an IIE member for more than 30 years. He was well-known for his research on verification and validation as well as simulation language comparisons.

“Jerry was a great guy and a wonderful ambassador for simulation and industrial engineering,” said Georgia Tech ISyE professor Dave Goldsman. “He was a terrific teacher who could communicate with students at all levels (and even in a couple of different languages). I always enjoyed his company, sense of humor, and positive outlook on life.”

Banks came to Georgia Tech as an assistant professor in 1965 and retired as a professor in 1999. He wrote, co-authored, edited or co-edited 13 books, one set of proceedings, several chapters in texts, and numerous technical and other papers.

“He was also deeply devoted to his family and to his faith," said ISyE professor R. Gary Parker. “He had a very subtle sense of humor, and he didn’t take himself so seriously, an affliction that we, as academics, often fall prey to.”

He is survived by his wife, four children and six grandchildren.

A capital investment

The Engineering Economist names new editor-in-chief
The new editor-in-chief of The Engineering Economist plans to enlarge the community of researchers who publish their results in the journal jointly published by IIE and the American Society for Engineering Education.

Thomas O. Boucher, a professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Rutgers University, noted that The Engineering Economist’s inclusion in the Thomson Reuters (ISI) citation index in 2011 was a milestone in the journal’s 57-year history. The senior IIE member credited his predecessors for doing an outstanding job with the quarterly publication.

Boucher, whose four-year, nonrenewable term as editor-in-chief begins Jan. 1, has numerous awards for research and writing in the field of engineering economics and has worked as an area editor for the journal since the 1990s.

“I would like The Engineering Economist to be a venue where scientists and engineers from all disciplines can communicate the economic implications of their research in many important areas, such as energy, healthcare, transportation and infrastructure, to name a few,” he said.

Boucher replaces Joseph Hartman, professor and chair of industrial engineering at the University of Florida. Hartman was thrilled at Boucher’s appointment.

“He has been involved with the engineering economy community for years and brings a wealth of expertise and experience to the journal,” Hartman said. “I am confident the journal will flourish under his leadership.”

Hartman is proud of how the journal has advanced during his nine years as editor-in-chief. Beyond the technical advances of moving from paper submissions to an electronic submission format, the journal’s mission was clarified, devoting it to problems of capital investment. The editorial board was expanded, and the aforementioned acceptance into the Social Science and Science Citation Indexes should increase submissions drastically.

For more information, visit www.iienet.org/publications. 

Kudos

Celebrating member achievements 

	Charlie Protzman, managing member of Business Improvement Group LLC, and his co authors won a 2013 Shingo Research and Professional Publication Award for their book, Leveraging Lean in Healthcare.
	Justin R. Chimka, associate professor of industrial engineering at the University of Arkansas, has been named editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Six Sigma and Competitive Advantage.
	Elizabeth A. Cudney has been appointed associate chair of graduate studies for the Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering at Missouri University of Science and Technology.
	S. Gary Teng, professor of systems engineering and engineering management and director of the Center for Lean Logistics and Engineered Systems at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, received the Bernard R. Sarchet Award from the Engineering Management Division of ASEE for lifetime achievement in engineering management education.
	Shahrukh Irani, a former associate professor at The Ohio State University, has been named director of industrial engineering research at Hoerbiger Corp. of America Inc.
	Helmut Welke has been promoted from manager, industrial engineering, for John Deere Worldwide Parts Division to manager, material flow design, for John Deere Worldwide Logistics.

SHARE YOUR ACHIEVEMENT
Let your peers know about hirings, promotions, awards, appointments and other notable accomplishments. Send Kudos items to Michael Hughes at mhughes@iienet.org.