ABSTRACT
Contents Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 20
1. Engineering and Business Go Together, Always .......................................................... 20 2. Industrial Engineering Is Done Inside a Complex System, That Is, an Organization ....21 3. Every Organization Is a Profit-Pursuing Entity (Whether Private, Not-for-Profit,
or Government) ............................................................................................................21 4. Three Most Important Goals for an Industrial Engineer Are Business Value,
Business Value, and Business Value ..............................................................................21 5. Two Kinds of Work Are Always Going On in a Successful Business ............................21 6. Industrial Engineering Is Always Done in an Intense, Competitive Environment,
Both Inside and Outside the Host Organization ......................................................... 22 7. Industrial Engineers Will Always Live and Work in a Political Environment .............. 22 8. Industrial Engineers Will Always Work in Organizations That Have Layers of
Employees and Managers ............................................................................................ 22 9. Successful IE Assignment Must Make a Contribution to the Organization’s
Competitive Advantage ............................................................................................... 23 10. By Definition, a Healthy Organization Is a System ...................................................... 23 11. No Amount of Engineering Talent and Skill Can Make Up for a Lack of
Knowledge about the Business ..................................................................................... 23 12. Change Management Is a Formula Made Up of the Required Elements of an
Organization as a System ............................................................................................. 24 13. Introduction of “New” Always Has Two Parts ............................................................. 24 14. Industrial Engineering Will Always Have a Teamwork Dimension as a Critical
Factor of Success .......................................................................................................... 24 15. Industrial Engineers Must Speak the Language of Operations, not the Other Way
Around .........................................................................................................................25
Introduction Over the years I have attended many executive team meetings that were convened to select employees for a special team or task force that would focus on an important organizational problem or opportunity. A typical conversation to select an industrial engineer (IE) for such a task force might go something like this:
