Making Things Work
Methods of engineering manufacturing systems can make a difference

The National Academy of Engineering/Science located in Washington, D. C., has rated manufacturing as one of the three important subjects necessary for America’s economic growth and national security; the other two being science and technology. Manufacturing is the discipline that adds value as it transforms raw materials into finished products for consumption.

Manufacturing has been viewed in the past in a narrow sense, meaning those activities that comprised creation of parts which were subsequently added to a basic product structure to achieve some end function; it was a kind of “make-by-hand” way of doing manufacturing. These days, however, manufacturing is taken to include software and its serviceability. This means manufacturing must be viewed in a much wider perspective than just the technological viewpoint; it also must be seen to include management, economics, social sciences, philosophy, and the like. The study of manufacturing must include both the hard and soft technologies.

Three kinds of flow support a manufacturing operation. (1) There is a flow of materials; the flow of raw material into product – technical production. (2) There is a flow of information – planning and control of production. (3) There is the flow of cost, which is economic production.

Efficient and effective manufacturing systems are those that have optimized these three flows. Such a unified and integrated manufacturing system study is called Manufacturing Systems Engineering. This study is generally thought of as having six aspects:

• Manufacturing Systems Design
• Optimization Strategies
• Manufacturing Systems Control
• Management Information Systems
• Economics of Manufacturing
• Value Flow

I am pleased to note that my former employer, International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), deserves a great deal of credit for its contribution of a total of $50,000,000 in the early 1980s to five universities for their work in developing viable Manufacturing Systems Engineering curricula. A number of universities, including the University of Kentucky, now offer Masters degrees in Manufacturing Systems Engineering (MSE).

Dr. Arlie Hall is an adjunct professor for the Center for Robotics and Manufacturing at the University of Kentucky's College of Engineering.
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