The Deming Cycle by The Dysania Concept (2022)
In a society where efficiency is key to excelling, Industrial Engineers are the masterminds of creating processes fueled by it. Industrial Engineers are responsible for optimising their resources and creating synergy as they build an efficient system to eliminate waste, integrate the team into a single strategy and make the best use of the machines, energy and materials at their disposal. As a profession officially acknowledged with its title around the Industrial Revolution, Industrial Engineers have been around for several centuries. So, to discover how to become the most efficient version of yourself, we invite you to keep reading this edition of The Mindsets, where we’ll explore the qualities, virtues and skills Industrial Engineers have that allow them to be the champions of efficiency and optimisation. As Antoine de Saint-Exupery said, “Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”
1. Project Planning
Industrial Engineers rely on their project planning skills to build the perfect system. When tasked with a goal, the first step is to analyse the situation and construct a project plan. When doing so, Industrial Engineers consider several factors, such as the team, materials and resources at their disposal, as well as any setbacks they might face and how to overcome them. Additionally, they use previously learned tools to organise the strategy they will use to achieve the goal before the deadline. Some of these include The Deming Cycle, Cause and Effect diagrams and Flow Charts, all excellent tools to be used by anyone when building a plan. Thus, when you start building an efficient strategy to tackle your goal, acknowledge the resources available, consider all the positive and negative factors affecting the situation, and use existing tools, or even new ones you might build, to begin the road towards success.
2. Communication
Industrial Engineers must communicate with their teams for maximum efficiency. Communicating your strategy is crucial to success if you work with a team or someone who is key to reaching your goal. An Industrial Engineer is highly capable of transmitting their strategy to all the team members, explaining the role and responsibilities each of them has and answering any doubts, as well as receiving feedback and taking it into account. With proper communication, Industrial Engineers can be efficient, as they must know they rely on their team members and any other involved party to accomplish their tasks. So, talk and explain your strategy to everyone involved, as well as people who aren’t, to take new ideas and a fresh perspective into account.
3. Critical Thinking
Industrial Engineers must use critical thinking to find the best path towards their goal. No plan ever built has gone as it was meant. Changes occur because of unexpected events, both positive and negative, and these will always affect the original strategy. Hence, Industrial Engineers must be able to use their critical thinking constantly to overcome these hardships and take advantage of them. They must continuously reflect and analyse their strategy to reassure themselves they are still on the path towards their goal. An Industrial Engineering idea that illustrates this is Continous Improvement, which focuses on building a system that perfects itself as time passes, eventually allowing for the pursuit of a bigger goal. Continuous Improvement can be such a powerful goal to chase in our personal lives, as we can focus on improving our yesterday’s self and, parallel to that, allowing ourselves to chase greater and more desirable goals. So, use your critical thinking constantly to evaluate your strategy, find solutions to any hardships you might face, and find areas of improvement within the original plan, as you keep building the stairs towards the top of the mountain.
Industrial Engineers are the best example of the importance of being efficient when working towards a goal. All goals require different analyses, methods and tools to be accomplished. Yet, the ability to plan a project and its strategies, communicate them to your team and rely on your critical thinking to achieve them is undisputed. Therefore, we invite you to adopt The Industrial Engineer’s Mindset into your daily life, being through your personal or work goals, as you create the perfect strategy to tackle what you are chasing.
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