Productivity

Industrial Engineering has traditionally concentrated on reducing direct labor costs. When industrial engineering came into existence, direct labor was typically a major cost of doing business in manufacturing, and indirect and overhead cost were often minimal. Today it is just the opposite;it is uncommon today for direct labor costs to represent 5 precent of manufactured cost and for indirect and for overhead costs to represent 50 to 80 percent of manufactured cost. Industrial Engineering emphasis and approaches have been slow in adjusting to this change in cost ratios.
Lehrer, ahead of this time, foresaw the need for a concentration of effort in productivity improvement, a concept called "continuous improvement" today. Much of the attention given today to productivity and quality improvement is consistent with his message of a quarter-century ago.
One of few recent industrial engineering text that address the important issue of successful implementation. The client change process they proposes identifies an important requirement of successful practise in industrial engineering-that a practitioner must approach a client in a way that will successfully change the client's behavior (industrial engineering is in the behavior modification business). Industrial engineering to date has been remiss in generally ignoring this requirement of successful pratice. More attention needs to be given to such aspects if our goal is to enable future industrial engineers to maximizes their acomplishments.
In the future industrial engineering becomes increasingly practiced in work team and management consensus environments. Industrial Engineers will need to be trained to both lead and function within team efforts of the future.
Block makes an excellent case for the need for all practicing industrial engineers tipe acquire three sets of required skill: technical, interpersonal, and consulting. All practicing industrial engineers are consultants. They are almost always trying to convince someone to do something; they basically make recommendations for a living. They need to learn how to do so effectively.