引用
王贤 的 工业工程专业英语翻译（3）
Real IE Value
工业工程的真正价值
Industrial engineers are great at solving problems. Ironically enough, there is still on
e age-old problem they unable to solve-identity. And the problem is not getting any to solve. In fact,“ identity” is just on e of several challenges currently facing the IE profession. 工业工程师非常善于解决问题。可是具有讽刺性的却是他们仍有一个长期性的问题得不到解决----一致性。而且这个问题解决起来一直很困难。事实上，“一致性”恰好是目前工业工程领域所面临的众多挑战性问题之一。
Today’s competitive global economy and tighter corporate budgets are forcing IEs to deal with issues that were barely mentioned a decade ago. Companies are flattening corporate structures; IE departments are being eliminated or renamed; and universities and colleges are under even greater pressure to provide industry with graduates who are better trained to handle a much wider variety of job responsibilities.
今天激烈的世界竞争和紧张的公司预算都迫使工业工程师们去解决被人们忽视很久的问题。公司开始重新组合团队结构；工业工程部被逐渐被取消或者重新命名；而且大学和学院也承担着向工业界提供被更好的培训而掌握了更广泛工作能力的毕业生的压力。
On the other hand, today’s IE has at his or her disposal more technology and tools than the IE of 30 years ago could have ever imagined. New technologies have improved accuracy and speed and generally have increased the IE’s ability to cover a more diverse set of interests.
另一方面，现在的工业工程师可以使用许多他们30年前的同行想都想不到的技术和工具。新技术已经提高了精确度和速度并逐渐提高了工业工程师们解决更多样问题的能力。
In addition, the IE now has a greater opportunity to concentrate on any on
e of a broad variety of areas that many companies now recognize as individual departments-including simulation, operations research, ergonomics, material handling and logistics. 值得一提的是，工业工程现在有更多的机会去集中于现在许多企业已经视为独立的学科的众多领域中的一个-----包括防真学、运筹学、人因学、物料搬运和物流学。
The name game
命名问题
What problems could possibly throw a shadow on such a bright array of opportunities? For starters, as new opportunities have developed for the IE, new questions have formed about what types of jobs the industrial engineer is qualified to perform.
什么问题可能会在如此明亮的机会阵列上投下阴影呢？对于初学者来说，随着工业工程新的机遇的产生，诸如工业工程师到底能胜任什么样的工作问题也随之产生。
At on
e time, it was easier to define what an IE did .” Industrial engineering was simple in those days when we dealt with methods, work standards and work simplification,” says Carlos Cherubin, director of engineering for The Limited Co. “But there has to be some way to get past the old industrial engineering definition.” 曾经，定义工业工程是很容易的。“工业工程那时候在解决问题，制订工作标准和工作简明化方面很简单”有限公司的经理卡罗.彻罗宾如是说。“但是现在需要放弃那些落后的工业工程定义了。”
Even today, in many companies, IEs are still performing type of work that makes up what is now considered classical IE.” “The big change is that the commercialization of a lot of these areas have turned them into ‘niche thrusts,’” says John Powers, director of the management service department at Eastman Kodak Co. While IEs have always been very adaptable to these “thrusts” as a skill set, he says ,they are now competing for the headlines.
甚至现在，在许多公司，工业工程仍然在从事那些现在看来是经典工业工程的传统的工作。“埃斯曼.柯达公司的人力资源部经理约翰帕娃说：“最大的变化就是工业工程领域的商业化使它们成为具有竞争性的舒适职业。”而且，工业工程师已经适应了这种竞争技能。他们现在正在争取这份工作。
Says Jerry Zollenberg, director of IE for United Parcel Service, “If a person loses slight of the total job and stars looking at the individual pieces, it comes out a little hairy.” For example, Zollenberg says that he has an operations research(OR) group of 40 to 50 individual who are working on the cutting edge of computer technology. At on
e time these people were designated as IEs. But Zollenberg says that even through they are not called IEs, the job they are doing is certainly IE-oriented and could be IE, depending on how you set up the organization. 联合包装服务公司的工业工程经理杰瑞说：“如果一个人不能对整项工作做全面把握而只是将注意力放在个别的方面，那么结果就不会令人满意。”例如，诺龙博格博士说他公司有一个由40到50个人组成的专门从事计算机尖端技术的研究小组，这些人曾被称做工业工程师，但是，即使他们没被予以这种头衔，他们所做的还是工业工程的工作可以被称做工业工程，这取决于你如何组织这个团队。
Like it or not, the trend today is specialization, and companies are following suit. Tough economic times are forcing many companies to redefine corporate structures, with a primary goal of flatting their organization in an attempt to cut costs and speed the decision-making process. In the case of the IE department, that trend has moved departmental names from the generic “IE” to special functions or areas that are being performed. Former IE departments have been decentralized or renamed and are now described using such terms as Quality Improvement Engineering, Management Service or Engineering Service, just to name a few.
不管是否真的这样，专业化是目前的趋势就，而且企业也在向这个方向发展。许多企业在这个经济时代的要求下都在重组公司结构，以期能够是组织有效能，可以节约开支并加快决策的进度。而在工业工程部门，专业化的趋势是工业工程不在是普通的工业工程而是具有专业的作用或者是个正在改善的行业。从前的工业工程部已经被分解或者重新命名。现在他们已经部分成为质量改善工程，质量服务或者工程服务，仅是名字多一点。
“What I see is companies getting away from the IE name and trying to have names that are more descriptive of the broader set of skills,” says Powers.
帕娃说：“我所看到的就是企业都在减少使用工业工程这个名字而在尝试使用些更新的描述这些技能的名字。”
For many, including Rebecca Ray, IE manager at Glaxo Inc., it is a step in the right direction. Her department will soon carry the title Performance Improvement Engineering.” IE is probably the on
ly engineering profession that insists on wearing its degree on its departmental door,” she says. “we have focused too much on maintaining our degree, instead of identifying our function within our company.” 许多人，包括格莱斯公司的工业工程经理瑞贝卡瑞都认为，这是正确方向上的一步。而且她的部门也要命名为绩效改善工程了。她还说：“工业工程可能是工程专业仅有的坚持要求把自己的地位建立在本部门之上的专业”。“我们已经过多的注重维护我们的地位而忽略了我们对公司所起的作用。”
Dr. Vinod Sahney, corporate vice president at Henry Ford health Syste engineering department,” he says, “I have never seen a mechanical engineering department. “On
e of our biggest difficulties is we equate industrial engineering department, but they are hired and get a wide-range of jobs.” 亨利福得保健设备公司的副主席文纳德.沙尼博士也同意她的观点.他说:”我从未发现有机械工程部,我们最大的困难就是平等看待工业工程部门,但机械工程专业的人却有很多就业机会且就业范围广泛.”
Tony Vieth, IE manager at Boeing Georgia Inc., believes that the individual person, depending on how they are trained, can bring the rights skills to the right job and they do not need to be in a department called industrial engineering. He also thinks IEs have gotten hung up on what over the years. On the other hand, the decentralized type of environment appears more threatening to others. “If we assume that decentralized will continue to the point of transferring IE responsibilities to others, as seen in the Volvo organization, we will see a profound impact upon the profession, namely unemployment,” predicts Donald Barnes of Barnes Management Training Services.
佐治亚的波音公司的工业工程经理托尼.万斯认为一个人的工作决定于他所学习的技能使他所学有所用而不是取决于他在哪个部门工作.而且他认为工业工程师已经为这个问题困扰了许多年.而巴勒斯管理培训服务公司的唐纳德.巴勒斯却持有相反意见.他说:”如果这种分解继续的话,工业工程的职责就会改变.就象我们在沃而沃公司看到的一样,我们就会到这种影响将会造成这个行业的失业.
But, a centralized IE department does not guarantee employment for the industrial engineer. Many large companies have “IE” departments where on
ly a handful of industrial engineers can be found. An example is Boeing. Boeing has some very large IE departments, but often less than two or three people within the department have IE degrees. According to Vieth, it is because some of the functions within the department are so diverse. 但是,对于工业工程部的整合也并不会给工业工程师带来工作.许多大企业的工业工程部里仅有少量的工业工程师.拿波音公司做个例子,波音公司有一些大的工业工程部,但是其中只有2个或三个人有工业工程学位.通过万斯来看,那是因为部门里的某些函数太多样了.
Problems associated with renaming IE departments to describe their particular function may have more to do with appearance than with the actual job being performed. While IEs actually perform many of the specialized jobs, little credit is given to IE principles used in the approach. In fact, it often turns out that many of the individual functions and skills used by IEs are viewed by management as industrial engineering. As a result, individuals who can master on
e of those skills are mistakenly referred to by management as “industrial engineers.” 将工业工程部重新命名以明确描述其具体职能,其间所出现的问题与其说与实际完成的工作有关倒不如说与问题的表象有关.工业工程师们在完成许多专业性工作的过程中的工作原则极少得到承认.实际上,工业工程师们的个体作用和技能通常被管理学认为是工业工程学.结果,拥有这些技能中的某一项的人被错误的认为是”工业工程师”
Yet, those who understand the real value of industrial engineering still realize that the degreed IE brings to the job a unique way of thinking.
然而,那些懂得工业工程的真正价值的人依然意识到工业工程这个专业给了这份工作一个与众不同的思考途径.
“There are things you can teach non-degreed people that are basic repetitive tasks,” says Vieth. “But what you can’t teach is how to take what you see, translate it and recognize there is a problem, and then come up with a solution to that problem.”
万斯说:”你可以教一个没有专业基础的人一些基本重要的工作,但是你却不能教他们如何了解和转化看到的问题并找出方法去解决这个问题.
Erin Wallace, director of IE at Walt Disney World Co., would not hire anyone who was not a degreed IE. “I insist on it,” she says. “When you’ve got a group of people who are distinctly IEs, they carry with them what we like to refer to as distinct competencies. Those distinct competencies for an IE at Walt Disney World include their ability to do quantitative analysis. You need an IE degree to be able to do that type of work.”
任职于华特.迪斯尼世界公司的工业工程部经理爱瑞.沃仑斯从部雇用非工业工程专业的人.她说:”我坚持这样做是因为如果你雇用了一批专业的工业工程人士,那么他们具备我们需要的独特的能力.在华特.迪斯尼,这种独特的能力包括他们做质量分析的能力.你需要一个工业工程的毕业生从事这种工作.”
Wallace says that when someone hires IE technology-type majors, they do not get some of the rudimentary problem solving skills acquired from taking engineering courses.
沃仑斯说当雇用工业工程技术类型的专业人员时,他们就不需要通过参加工业工程课程来获得解决基本技术问题所要的技能了.
Curriculum
课程
Since there is a favorable consensus about the technical qualification of degreed IEs, universities and colleges must be doing all industry believes is necessary to prepare today’s IE students. Appearances may be deceiving.
既然对于工业工程师必须具有技术素质已经成为共识,那么大学和学院必须使工业界相信提供现代的工业工程毕业生是很必要的.表面现象通常是不可信的.
In fact, even though ABET accredits many IE and IET programs in the United States, there remains much variance and flexibility among each of the programs. Evidence of the fact can be found in a recent Australian study undertaken by the Industrial Engineering/Management (IE/M) group of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering Swinburne Institute of Technology (SIT).
事实上,尽管工业工程与技术鉴定委员会鉴定了美国的许多工业工程与工业工程技术项目,但这些项目之间仍然存在很大的区别和灵活性.事实的根据可以从最近澳大利亚机械和制造工业学校的工业工程管理小组的研究中得到证实.该学校隶属于机械和制造工程技术小组.
The school initiated a set of promotional activities to rejuvenate the industrial engineering name and status. On
e of the school’s goals was to help convince managers and government to reconsider the role of industrial engineering. 学校开始行动起来改变工业工程学的名字和地位.学校的目标之一就是帮助管理人员和政府重新评估工业工程学的价值.
In preparation for the events, the IE / M group surveyed more than 150 U.S. universities with accredited IE programs at the undergraduate and graduate level. Of those universities that answered <37 were randomly drawn for analysis.
在研究的准备过程中,工业工程管理小组检查了150多所在本科阶段有资格教授工程课程的学校并在其中随机抽出37所来进行分析.
The main purpose was to analyze the quantity and quality of the IE subjects. According to Shayan and Hamadani at SIT, the most imp
ortant point is that coverage of IE is not yet standardized. 这样的主要目的是分析工业工程课程的数量和质量.对于SIT的沙扬和哈姆丹尼来说,最重要的一点是工业工程的范围没有标准限制.
Other steps
其他阶段
Two key projects currently working toward helping academia improve the overall IE curriculum include the Southeastern University and College Coalition for Engineering Education (SUCCEED) sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NFS), and IIE’s joint effort between the Council on Industrial Engineering (CIE ) and the Council of Industrial Engineering Academic Department Heads (CIEADH).
当前两个主要的项目目的在于全面提高由美国自然科学基金委员会负责的,包括东南大学和学院工程教育联合会以及由工业工程理事会和工业工程学术部门组成的工业工程师学会的学术水平.
SUCCEED, which is aimed at all engineering disciplines, is an engineering education coalition established by NSF in March 1992. The coalition has proposed a new curriculum model, CURRICULUM 2 1, as a mechanism to focus its efforts on specific goals such as restructuring the engineering curriculum and improving the quality and quantity of graduates.
在1992年3月由美国自然科学基金委员会资助的东南大学和学院工程联合会,旨在提高工程类本科教育的水平.这个联合会开创了一个新的学科模式,课程2 1,目标主要集中在诸如调整课程和提高毕业生的数量和质量方面.
The second project, between CIE and CIEADH, has been on
going since the Fall of 1990. Specifically, CIE (corporate-level directors whose span of control includes IE functions) meets with CIEADH (98 academic department heads from universities and colleges) at scheduled times during the year to better define what industry needs from academia. IIE acts as a facilitator between the two groups to help inform academia. The ultimate goal of these meetings is the development of a clearly defined set of output characteristics that will help academia design an improved undergraduate IE curriculum. 第二个项目开始于1990年秋.由工业工程理事会和工业工程系统理事会进行.工业工程理事会(负责公司工业工程事业的公司领导)还特别的与工业工程系统理事会(大学和学院的98位学科代表)进行了例行会晤.目的是更好的限定工业在学术方面的需要范围.工业工程学会从中协助这两个组织通知学术界.这些会议的最终结果是产生了一系列有特色的概念,从而帮助学术界设计先进的本科工业工程课程.
This is not to say that these organizations are attempting to standardize the IE curriculum, rather, they are trying to provide basic guidelines. The question of whether the IE curriculum, should be standardized throughout every university is not an issue. Leaders in industry and academia readily agree that there is no possible way for every curriculum at every college to be identical.
这并不是说这些组织试图标准化工业工程的课程,而是说他们正努力提供一些基本的准则.主要的并不是工业工程课程是否应该在所有的大学里统一标准,而是工业界和学术界的领导人已开始认同不可能在每个学校开设一样的课程.
“I don’t think you can require every IE curriculum to be cookie cutter of each other,” says Glaxo’s Ray.
克拉克.瑞说:”我不认为工业工程课程能象饼干一样被分来分去.”
What appears to be a problem is the perceived gap between what types of students academia is providing compared with the types of students industry seeks. Most industry leaders acknowledge that the majority of universities and colleges should provide, and do provide, students who are technically competent .To expect that IE students be highly knowledgeable about every possible aspect of industrial engineering upon graduation may be unrealistic, says Zollenberg. Students are required to take a broad range of IE course to help them understand the principles of IE and provide a solid academic foundation. A graduate student can then go on to specialize in a particular area if he or she desire to do so.
出现的问题是所提供的专业学生类型和工业界所需要人才之间的理解误差.大多数工业界领导人都承认大中专院校提供的学生还是具有技术能力的.佐仑.贝格说,希望工业工程专业的学生通晓工业工程的各个方面是不现实的.学生只需要学习在校期间工程的科目,足以帮他们了解工业工程的准则和固定的基础学术知识就可以了.这样的毕业生就能按自己的设想在特定的领域使自己的知识专业化
Zollenberg insists that it is impossible to learn everything they need to know about the jobs they will encounter. “I’m not sure anybody coming out is going to learn all of the required skills in four years of school. I don’t think it’s fair to the universities and I don’t I don’t think it’s fair to the kids,” he says.
佐仑.贝格认为期望让学生在学校学到将来在工作中遇到的所有问题拿几乎使不可能的.他说:”我不确定任何人可以在4年学生生涯中学到所需要的所有技能.我想这样对学校和孩子都是不公平的.
Expectations
期望值
What industry leaders to expect, however, are students who have the ability to operate in the environment in which they are placed. These areas where there appears to be a deficiency include interpersonal skills, knowledge of computers, nontechnical/business skills, quality management skills, and an appreciation for the plant floor. Depending upon what industry the new graduate is placed, the need for certain skills will vary.
工业领导人所期望的使学生有能力在他们所处的环境中进行操作.这些有缺陷的领域包括交际能力,计算机知识,商业技能,质量管理技能和尊重高层领导人员.对于不同岗位的毕业生有不同的要求,所以对于技能的要求也是不同的.
Wallace, who works for a service-oriented company (Walt Disney World), thinks today’s students are well-trained in most areas, with the exception of computer shills. She says she still sees a lot of students who came out of school without very good computer skills. “Nowadays, that should be a prerequisite.”
工作于服务性公司的瓦拉斯认为如今的学生在许多领域都接受了很好的培养.他们具有所需的计算机技能,她说她仍然看到许多毕业生不具备很好的计算机技能,”今天,这个技能是必要的.”
In the manufacturing sector, Jack Broadway, director of corporate IE for Reynolds Metals, believes today’s students are probably better educated than in the past, but they have some misconception about the types of jobs they will perform. “A lot of (students) coming out today want to sit behind a computer and they think that is their job. Well, a computer is just another tool. It’s just something you use to do something else,” he says. He suggests that on-the job training while in school may be on
e of the best ways to prepare students. 在瑞纳德金属公司从事制造性工业工程的杰克.布朗德利认为现在的学生比过去的学生教育的好,但是他们对于将从事的工作却有一些错误的概念.他说:”许多学生认为坐在电脑前就是他们的工作.可是,电脑只是一个工具,这个工具只是协助你去工作.然后你还是要做其它或者继续你的工作.”他认为学校的在职教育是一个很好的教育学生的方法.
On healthcare side, Sahney (Henry Ford Health Systems) thinks that in general terms, schools are providing properly trained students, but they often are not given the opportunity to become well-rounded in other areas. Because what he says is the profession’s “roots of accreditation,” the curriculum is too tightly controlled. He does not think individual institutions have enough variety. In other words, he says, the electives are very limited by the time all of the required courses are finished. This problem is often exhibit as a lack of writing and presentation skills in many of the new graduates.
萨尼从全面教育方面考虑认为学校在学习期间给了学生适当的教育,却没有给学生在其它领域接受全面教育的机会.学校认为专业课才是工作资格的根本.所以课程安排被严格的控制着.而不认为人的学问是多样化的.或换句话说,他们认为在所有所需要的课程结束后,竞争就会减小,这样做的结果就是许多毕业生明显缺少写作和自我表达的能力.
Most IEs eventually must sell their ideas and plans to management, which often requires above-average communication skills. For many IE graduates, this is a tough challenge. Russell Cartmill, IE director at The Coca-Cola Co., says he is frequently confronted with hiring recent graduates who lack basic communication skills. He says Coca-Cola ends up having to teach people things on
ce they get in the areas of public speaking and report writing, “some of the basic things that you really need to have in industry in order to make a good presentation.” 其它许多工业工程师都使用多门交流技巧,要推销自己的想法和计划给管理部门.可这对于工业工程的毕业生来说是个很大的挑战.在可口可乐公司工作的工业工程经理如瑟.卡特米说,他经常碰到新录用的缺少交流技巧的毕业生,可口可乐公司只有在职员学会公共演讲和起草报告的时候才停止教育他们.他说在工业界你真正需要的一些基本的东西就是怎样去很好的展示自己.
On
e way schools are combating this problem, which is also a problem with students in other engineering disciplines, is semester-long undergraduate and graduate-level courses directed at familiarizing engineering students from all disciplines with the non-technical aspects of engineering. These courses focus on topics such as financial management, project management, business planning and business development. 学校解决这个其它工程学也存在的问题的方法就是在学习中设置一些非技术方面的学科,但这些学科集中在商务管理,工程管理,经济计划和经济发展.
Other schools have even gone as far as offering graduate degrees that are a combination of an IE degree and business degree in an attempt to target students seeking manufacturing engineering jobs.
个别学校还甚至同时授予工业工程学位和经济学位以期使学生找到制造工程方面的工作.
But Vieth is not the business route is the best path for the industrial engineering curriculum to follow. “I think if we lose track of the technical knowledge, we’re just going to look like a high-priced business graduate,” he says.
但是,万斯却不认为工业工程课程跟随商业路线是最好的途径.他说:’我认为如果我们没有学到技术知识,最多我们看起来是一个有用的经济人才.”
Another option IE departments at universities and colleges might consider is specializing in a particular function of IE (i.e. operations research, material handling, ergonomics, human factors, etc.), and market their program accordingly. For example, says Cherubin, if a college student wants to be an IE and has a particular interest in material handling, that student should be able to choose certain schools whose charter is very specific. In addition to helping the student, he says, it provides an imp
ortant service to a potential employer. “Don’t put students out in the work environment and, at that point, let them start defining their career,” says Cherubin. 另一个工业工程专业要考虑的是使工业工程的作用专业化(例如,运筹学,物料搬运,人因学,人力因素等)并且让他们的作用市场化.例如,象彻如宾所说的,如果一个学生对物料搬运有兴趣并想成为工业工程师,他就需要选择一个非常专业的学校去学习.这样对于学生的就业就有很大的帮助.并且他说:”不要让学生远离工作环境,而是让他们以开始就决定自己的职业.”
Vieth has similar views. “Maybe the IEs that our universities train today should be trained to be part of a specific department,” he says.
万斯有相似的观点,他说:”或许大学造就的工业工程师们就应该训练成为专业部门的一份子.”
Ray thinks that the problem might not be what is taught, but the way it is taught. IE classes and departments at universities are structured in a way that teaches students to work alone, she says.
瑞认为问题也许不是教授什么学科而是用什么方法去教,她说:”大学里的工业工程课程应该教学生独自去作业.”
Students model themselves after the people they admire, Ray states. “While student are in college, they are looking at their professors. If they see their professors operating autonomously--- on their own island --- and not interrelating across other disciplines, the IE is going to come out of that program thinking they don’t need anybody’s help to solve a problem, “ she says.
瑞强调说:”学生总是模仿他们所崇拜的人,在大学里,如果学生看到他们的教授在他们的领域独立操作而不涉及其它学科,这些学生就会觉得他们不需要别人的帮助就能解决问题.”
She says it takes her up to 18 months to put a newly hired graduate through “boot camp” to make them realize that they have to work as a member of a team to facilitate the flow of information within her organization.
她说她用了18个月的时间去培训新雇用的毕业生,使他们了解到在她的组织中每个人都是团队中的一份子,这样才有助于信息的畅通无阻.
Future directions
未来方向
With all of these challenges facing the IE profession, there may be some who doubt the IEs’ future. But if the individual IE will assume the role as a change implementer --- not a change follower --- broad opportunities are on the horizon.
工业工程行业所面临的这些挑战会使一些人担心工业工程师的前途,然而,如果每个工业工程师都承担起变化的实施者而不是变化的追随者的角色,则广泛的机会就会出现.
Some see a renewed interest in traditional IE functions, specifically, cost estimation and analysis. E. Rranklin Livingston, senior industrial engineer at Weber USA Inc. , a manufacturer of carburetors and fuel injectors cites a recent request from General Motor’s vice president of world-wide purchasing, J. Ignacio Lopez de Amortua, as proof. “he is expecting drastic cost reductions from suppliers over the next five years, “ says Livingston.
有人发现传统的工业工程中的价值也在更新,但是需要分析和评估.美国沃博公司的高级工程师E.富兰克林.莱温斯顿作为一个汽化器和加油器的制造师应用通用汽车世界收购公司副总裁J.纳西欧.罗伯茨的话说:”他希望未来的5年中将大幅度削减购买所需的资金.”
Livingston points out that Chrysler and Ford will probably follow suit and make similar demands on their suppliers. If that is true, Livingston foresees in the next 10 years that probably more emphasis will be placed on conventional industrial engineering. “but I don’t think it will ever go back to the way it was 25 years ago, “ Livingston says.
利温斯顿指出格瑞斯勒和伏特也将这样做。并对供应商提出相同的要求。如果真是这样的话，利温斯顿预言在未来的10年有可能重点放在如何使工业工程更便利上。他说：“我不认为它会象25年前那样实施。
Others see the IE heading in the direction of large processes and systems. Process thinking has become widespread in recent years, due largely to the quality movement. Industrial engineers seeking to expand their opportunities and improve the quality of operations are now looking at the entire process, rather than just a particular task or business function.]
有些人认为工业工程在系统和程序中起领头的作用。由于质量运做使程序化思想在这几年传播迅猛。在质量运做中寻求更广机遇和进步的工业工程师们现在关注所有的程序，而不仅仅是一个特别的工作或商业作用。
Two areas that may be of special imp
ortance to IEs in the coming years include information technology (IT) and business process redesign. As IT continues to evolve, technological advancements will have a big impact on how companies look at business processes of the next decade. Working together, IT and BPR has the potential to create a new type of industrial engineering, changing the way the discipline is practiced and the skills necessary to practice it. 信息技术和业务流程再造这两个领域未来对工业工程师们特别重要。随着信息技术的发展，先进的技术将影响企业在下个世纪的商业进程。信息技术和业务流程再造的联合操作有创造一个新型的工业工程的潜力。它将改变实用的准则和实际操作的技能。
This whole area of business process re-engineering offers a great opportunity that many IEs have been unwilling to explore. As a result, managers have been reluctant to look to the IE to carry the banner, powers says. “ if we’ve got a problem, it’s of our own doing and our own unwillingness to take the lead in a lot of these major improvement activities,” he states.
商业过程的重新商业化提供了大量的机会，但是许多工业工程师却不愿意去研究。结果，管理人员一直不愿意去采取方法去制止。帕沃说：“如果我们遇到了问题，这些问题也是由于我们自己的所作所为和不愿意在一些重大的改进活动中承担领导角色所造成的。”
On area where IEs have not been so reluctant to get involved is the systems integration arena. If the systems integration function continues to develop at its current rate, this particular role --- that of systems integrator --- will most likely get so sophisticated that it will requite someone with technical knowledge who can look at the bigger picture. “ this is a function for which industrial engineers are uniquely trained,” says Thonmas Hodgson, with the design and manufacturing division at NSF.
有一个领域工业工程师们没有拒绝参与，那就是联合设备领域。如果联合机器继续以它目前的效率发展的话，那么这个特殊的角色将可能回报那些有技术和知识又看好它的人。NSF的设计制造部门的托马斯.霍其逊说：“这就是工业工程师的特别作用。”
As a result, many of the traditional IE functions could be handled by IE technology individuals, while degreed IEs would serve in the consultant role. In this scenario, IEs could have the responsibility of training others, who would then apply it.
结果，工业工程的技术人员可掌握传统工业工程，而工业工程师将从事咨询工作，更不用说工业工程师可以培养那些需要这样技术的人了。
However, many of those opportunities in systems integration are already opening up and if IEs do not step up to the current challenge of systems integration, others may step in and take that function from the IE, says Hodgson.
然而，霍其逊说：“联合设备刚刚打开市场，如果工业工程师不能解决联合带来的挑战，那么别的人将介入并且将缩小工业工程的用途。
“we need to grow in our understanding of the other engineering disciplines so as to better do our job. We need to grow in our capability to make use of the rapidly improving computational capabilities that are available, “ he says.
他说：“我们需要增加对其它工程学科的了解，这样才能更好的做好我们的工作，我们还要增强运用现有的高速发展的计算机的能力。”
More challenges
更多挑战
Whatever the future holds, the biggest threat to IE may be what people do not know about the profession. In an economy where every company is cutting costs and looking for ways to trim excess “fat,” on
e might think CEOs and managers would be snatching up every available IE. Instead, many corporate executives and human resource managers are turning to other disciplines to fill jobs ideally suited for IEs. “it’s really quite silly, since IEs are the people who save you money,: says Wallace. 不管前景如何，对于工业工程最大的威胁就是人们不了解这个行业。目前经济要求每个企业都节约开支并寻找方法减负的情况下，总裁和经理们要努力掌握使用的工业工程知识。但是，许多执行总裁和人力资源经理却在学习适合工业工程师的相关学科。瓦伦斯说：“既然工业工程师事能节约开销的人，那么这样做就很愚蠢。”
Why is this happening? Because IEs need to do a better job of showing management all of their abilities and talents. While TOM and business process reengineering may pose big challenges, the IE’s broad, fundamental background has provided them with the training and education found in no other profession. Sadly, the specialized tasks that companies are asking individuals from other disciplines to perform are tasks that IEs have always been trained to perform! It is time for IEs to market those abilities accordingly.
为什么会发生这样的事情呢？因为工业工程师需要做一份好的工作以此来向管理部门显示他们的能力和才华。然而，TOM和商业流程再造提出巨大的挑战时，工业工程部却不具备相关的专业知识。让人难过的是企业要求人员解决的专业工作正是工业工程师所学的。现在是让工业工程师推销自己的时候了。
“we have not done a good job of demonstrating and selling ourselves in a way that we truly get recognized for what our mission and our capabilities and our supposed demonstrative performance really is .” says powers.
帕沃说：“我们在展现和推销自我方面做的很不好，其实只有用这种方法我们才能真正认识到自己的任务、能力和我所想展示的自己真正的作用。”
IEs must take the proactive approach and position themselves as leaders of changes occurring in all sectors of industry. In fact, IEs must create the changes. Says Zollenberg, “I think we have to step up to the front and take a leadership role, rather than just sit back and wait for somebody to ask us to do a study.”
工业工程师们必须采取主动并把自己作为所有工业变化的领导者，事实上也就是实施者。周仑.贝格说：“我认为我们有必要作为领导人走在前列，而不是静坐等着别人来要求我们去工作。”
And what about the identity problem? Rudy Herrmann, president of rotary lift, sums it up well when he says, “the ‘name game’ goes away if we can learn how to be effective functional professionals, and be respected and understand all of our contributions.”
那么，关于一致性的问题呢？亨瑞曼电梯公司的主席亨瑞曼很好的总结说：“如果我们知道如何有效的发挥专业作用，并且尊重和明白我们的贡献，那么命名的游戏就会结束。“
The key is “we.” If every industrial engineer, in industry and academia, will work together to tackle these challenges and make other companies and individuals aware of the IE’s many talents, the age-old identity problem just might be on the brink of fading away.
关键就是“我们”。如果每个工业界和学术界的工业工程师都联合起来迎接挑战，并且让别的企业和个人了解到工业工程师的许多才能，那么长期困扰我们的一致性的问题将会不攻自破。
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