Learn and talk about Methods engineering, Engineering disciplines, Engineering statistics, Operations research

Not to be confused with Method engineering in the field of information systems.

Methods engineering is a subspecialty of Industrial engineering concerned with human integration in industrial production processes.^[1]

1 Overview
2 Methods engineering topics
3 See also
4 References

Overview [edit]

Alternatively it can be described as the design of the productive process in which a person is involved. The task of the Methods engineer is to decide where humans will be utilized in the process of converting raw materials to finished products and how workers can most effectively perform their assigned tasks.^[1]^[2] The terms operation analysis, work design and simplification, and methods engineering and corporate re-engineering are frequently used interchangeably.^[3]

Lowering costs and increasing reliability and productivity are the objectives of methods engineering. These objectives are met in a five step sequence as follows: Project selection, data acquisition and presentation, data analysis, development of an ideal method based on the data analysis and, finally, presentation and implementation of the method.^[3]

Methods engineering topics [edit]

Project selection [edit]

Methods engineers typically work on projects involving new product design, products with a high cost of production to profit ratio, and products associated with having poor quality issues. Different methods of project selection include the Pareto analysis, fish diagrams, Gantt charts, PERT charts, and job/work site analysis guides.

Data acquisition and presentation [edit]

Data that needs to be collected are specification sheets for the product, design drawings, quantity and delivery requirements, and projections as to how the product will perform or has performed in the market. The Gang process chart can assist in the analysis of the man to machine interaction and it can aid in establishing the optimum number of workers and machines subject to the financial constraints of the operation. A flow diagram is frequently employed to represent the manufacturing process associated with the product.

Data analysis [edit]

Data analysis enables the methods engineer to make decisions about several things, including: purpose of the operation, part design characteristics, specifications and tolerances of parts, materials, manufacturing process design, setup and tooling, working conditions, material handling, plant layout, and workplace design.^[3] Knowing the specifics (who, what, when, where, why, and how) of product manufacturing assists in the development of an optimum manufacturing method.

Ideal method development [edit]

Equations of synchronous and random servicing as well as line balancing are used to determine the ideal worker to machine ratio for the process or product chosen. Synchronous servicing is defined as the process where a machine is assigned to more than one operator, and the assigned operators and machine are occupied during the whole operating cycle. Random servicing of a facility, as the name indicates, is defined as a servicing process with a random time of occurrence and need of servicing variables. Line balancing equations determine the ideal number of workers needed on a production line to enable it to work at capacity.

Presentation and methods implementation [edit]

The industrial process or operation can be optimized using a variety of available methods. Each method design has its advantages and disadvantages. The best overall method is chosen using selection criteria and concepts involving value engineering, cost-benefit analysis, crossover charts, and economic analysis. The outcome of the selection process is then presented to the company for implementation at the plant. This last step involves "selling the idea" to the company brass, a skill the methods engineer must develop in addition to the normal engineering qualifications.

References [edit]

^ ^a ^b Methods Engineering Reference book
^ Work Design & Measurement, IE Terminology, 2000 Revised Edition
^ ^a ^b ^c Freivalds, Andris and Benjamin Niebel. Methods, Standards, and Work Design. Eleventh Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill. 2003

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2008)

Technology

Fields

Agriculture	Agricultural engineering Aquaculture Fisheries science Food chemistry Food engineering Food microbiology Food technology GURT ICT in agriculture Nutrition

Biomedical	Bioinformatics Biological engineering Biomechatronics Biomedical engineering Biotechnology Cheminformatics Genetic engineering Healthcare science Medical research Medical technology Nanomedicine Neuroscience Neurotechnology Pharmacology Reproductive technology Tissue engineering

Buildings and Construction	Acoustical engineering Architectural engineering Building services engineering Civil engineering Construction engineering Domestic technology Facade engineering Fire protection engineering Safety engineering Sanitary engineering Structural engineering

Educational	Educational software Digital technologies in education ICT in education Impact Multimedia learning Virtual campus Virtual education

Energy	Nuclear engineering Nuclear technology Petroleum engineering Soft energy technology

Environmental	Clean technology Clean coal technology Ecological design Ecological engineering Ecotechnology Environmental engineering Environmental engineering science Green building Green nanotechnology Landscape engineering Renewable energy Sustainable design Sustainable engineering

Industrial	Automation Business informatics Engineering management Enterprise engineering Financial engineering Industrial biotechnology Industrial engineering Metallurgy Mining engineering Productivity improving technologies Research and development

IT and communications	Artificial intelligence Broadcast engineering Computer engineering Computer science Information technology Music technology Ontology engineering RF engineering Software engineering Telecommunications engineering Visual technology

Military	Army engineering maintenance Electronic warfare Military communications Military engineering Stealth technology

Transport	Aerospace engineering Automotive engineering Naval architecture Space technology Traffic engineering Transport engineering

Other applied sciences	Cryogenics Electro-optics Electronics Engineering geology Engineering physics Hydraulics Materials science Microtechnology Nanotechnology

Other engineering fields	Audio Biochemical Ceramic Chemical Polymer Control Electrical Electronic Entertainment Geotechnical Hydraulic Mechanical Mechatronics Optical Protein Quantum Robotics Animatronics Systems

Components

History

Theories and
concepts

Other

Book
Category
Commons
Portal
Wikiquotes

Statistics

Descriptive statistics

Continuous data

Location	Mean (Arithmetic, Geometric, Harmonic) Median Mode

Dispersion	Range Standard deviation Coefficient of variation Percentile Interquartile range

Shape	Variance Skewness Kurtosis Moments L-moments

Count data

Index of dispersion

Summary tables

Dependence

Statistical graphics

Data collection

Designing studies	Effect size Standard error Statistical power Sample size determination

Survey methodology	Sampling Stratified sampling Opinion poll Questionnaire

Controlled experiment	Design of experiments Randomized experiment Random assignment Replication Blocking Factorial experiment Optimal design

Uncontrolled studies	Natural experiment Quasi-experiment Observational study

Statistical inference

Statistical theory	Sampling distribution Order statistics Sufficiency Completeness Exponential family Permutation test (Randomization test) Empirical distribution Bootstrap U statistic Efficiency Asymptotics Robustness

Frequentist inference	Unbiased estimator (Mean unbiased minimum variance, Median unbiased) Biased estimators (Maximum likelihood, Method of moments, Minimum distance, Density estimation) Confidence interval Testing hypotheses Power Parametric tests (Likelihood-ratio, Wald, Score)

Specific tests	Z (normal) Student's t-test F Chi-squared Signed-rank (1-sample, 2-sample, 1-way anova) Shapiro–Wilk Kolmogorov–Smirnov

Bayesian inference	Bayesian probability Prior Posterior Credible interval Bayes factor Bayesian estimator Maximum posterior estimator

Correlation and regression analysis

Correlation	Pearson product–moment correlation Partial correlation Confounding variable Coefficient of determination

Regression analysis	Errors and residuals Regression model validation Mixed effects models Simultaneous equations models

Linear regression	Simple linear regression Ordinary least squares General linear model Bayesian regression

Non-standard predictors	Nonlinear regression Nonparametric Semiparametric Isotonic Robust

Generalized linear model	Exponential families Logistic (Bernoulli) Binomial Poisson

Partition of variance	Analysis of variance (ANOVA) Analysis of covariance Multivariate ANOVA Degrees of freedom

Categorical, multivariate, time-series, or survival analysis

Categorical data

Multivariate statistics

Time series analysis

General	Decomposition Trend Stationarity Seasonal adjustment

Time domain	ACF PACF XCF ARMA model ARIMA model Vector autoregression

Frequency domain	Spectral density estimation

Survival analysis

Applications

Biostatistics	Bioinformatics Clinical trials & studies Epidemiology Medical statistics

Engineering statistics	Chemometrics Methods engineering Probabilistic design Process & Quality control Reliability System identification

Social statistics	Actuarial science Census Crime statistics Demography Econometrics National accounts Official statistics Population Psychometrics

Spatial statistics	Cartography Environmental statistics Geographic information system Geostatistics Kriging

Original courtesy of Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methods_engineering — Please support Wikipedia.
A portion of the proceeds from advertising on Digplanet goes to supporting Wikipedia.

Methods engineering

Contents