ABSTRACT
The discipline of Industrial Engineering grew out of the need to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the first man-made, complex system:the manufacturing factory.Although the roots of Industrial Engineering are closely tied to manufacturing industry, manufacturing, as an area of research within Industrial Engineering, began to fall out of favor in the latter half of the 20thcentury.In recent years, US economists have argued that manufacturing is a vital part of the US economy, providing jobs for 70% of engineers and resulting in more than 60% of research and development patents.As a result, the federal government has invested heavily in manufacturing research and into the use of new manufacturing technologies to advance technology innovation within industry. Over the past 20 years, researchers at Oregon State University have refined the practice of manufacturing process design, helping spinout companies to advance microchannel process technology into the marketplace.This chapter describes the role of manufacturing process design learned in the context of technology commercialization.
