Introduction
On a historical footing, an industrial engineer is concerned with the production processes that a company applies to produce goods for their customers. As such, the industrial engineer was tasked with the role of minimizing the production cost while maximizing the product output of the company. However, over time environmental concerns and awareness has increased around the world. Both legislation based requirements and customer demands have titled in favor of companies that observe the green standards, that is, companies that adhere to environmental standards. Owing to this global trend, industrial engineers have had to factor in the environmental conservation and pollution prevention role. This, in the old order of things, was taken care of by an environmental engineer. However, in order for efficacy to be realized there arose the need for the industrial engineer, who intimately interacts with the processes that result in pollution, to take part in cutting the pollutants that are emitted from these processes as wastes. This is through the safe disposition or through reuse of such emissions or effluents. This article addresses the role played by industrial engineers in curbing pollution in three ways: through their technical knowhow, quality production that reduces waste and consequently pollution, and in the foray of production facility planning.
Industrial engineers bear with then crucial technical knowhow as regards how to reduce pollution. It is the role of industrial engineers to ensure that the company minimizes costs while maximizing profits. However, it should be noted that pollution prevention is no mean feat. Pollution prevention implies the application of sophisticated, which means expensive control and treatment methods (Harmon, 1995a). With knowledge on the best, affordable, and efficient methods of pollution control. Despite the high price tag that could be attached to the pollution control procedures, through the industrial engineer companies can evade the high waste treatment costs associated with waste and could realize the benefits of recycling waste products efficiently. The company is also in apposition to decrease the cost of undergoing regulatory compliance and evade the advent of legal suits (De, 2009). Such compliance also places the company in a position to compete better for new regulations. So far, this paragraph has concentrated in the legal implications and regulation based, however, the end user of the product is also at the forefront of considering the environmental friendliness of the product and the process from which it was derived (Sakamoto, 2010).
It is important to appreciate the reason for which a product is being produced, to generate revenue for the company. While focus should be laid on environmental compliance, it is important not to overlook the company’s bottom line. In light of this, it is important to adopt the Tanguchi methods and Tanguchi loss function to evaluate the importance played by Industrial Engineers in reducing pollution (Harmon, 1995a). The Tanguchi methods have proven that engineers who undertake specification followed by product and process design eventually cut down the costs of production. With high quality being the desired product, and the main factor of product development, pollution could be minimized, tasks of which the industrial engineer performs (Sakamoto, 2010). It is said that prevention is better than cure, in this case, if one focuses on minimizing wastes or its potency through improvement of production processed should take precedence to waste treatment and management. This is possible through focusing more effort on design of products and processes used in their production. This where the role of the industrial engineer in preventing pollution plays out distinctly as it is the role of the environmental engineer to manage and treat waste (Graedel & Allenby, 2010)
The facility in which production takes place is crucial in determining the extent to which pollution will or will not be prevented. As such, facility planning is a crucial in the establishment of plans; pollution prevention should take center stage in the design of a production plant. Such design attracts service of many disciplines that include civil, mechanical, electrical, and industrial engineers; consultants; architects; managers; urban planners and real estate agents. It is crucial. Focus will be laid on the industrial engineer and with regard to facility design and the facility’s location (Harmon, 1995a). Facility design takes into account how the components of a production process work together to achieve the company’s objectives. Profit making being the key objective, the industrial engineer is tasked with the role of design of core elements of the process, and supervision of the peripheral elements in order to realize a cost-efficient and productive manner. The industrial engineer in his design and supervision of other counterparts should stick by and ensure that other parties stick by pollution prevention criteria either conventional or specified by their design (Jogdand, 2010). A facility planner who handles the overall flow of the project in order to ensure that the plant is delivered both in time and within the cost, he or governs a facility design together with the industrial engineer. They do not take into consideration the intricate details of the plant. The details, which include product design, product process selection, production scheduling lay on the industrial engineer. These attributes present the foray on which the industrial engineer will engage in pollution prevention (Ferraro). Considering product design, it is pertinent that a value analysis criterion is deployed to gauge the product function versus its cost. It is the role of the industrial engineer to choose the key materials and or method of their product in such a way as to cut costs as well as wastes. This could play a crucial role in the reduction of pollution (Harmon, 1995b). Process selection is the other task that the industrial engineer can use to reduce pollution. This is through evaluation of which process is the best with respect to cost, efficiency, reliability, and maintainability alongside the reduction in pollution. The industrial engineer could evaluate how different process phases can be redesigned to minimize waste and pollution. It is also pertinent to note that the choice of a good production schedule offers the opportunity to minimize pollution (Graedel & Allenby, 2010). Through process scheduling, the industrial engineer could ensure that wastes from one process are used as inputs for the next process.
In conclusion, the industrial engineer serves a crucial role in the reduction of pollution for any company. This is because they provide the company with technical knowhow of the best, cost-effective, and efficient technologies and methodologies of curbing pollution while keeping the costs of production down. The industrial engineer also plays a crucial role in ensuring that the company sticks to quality production as they are accompanied by reduced costs of production. Lastly, industrial engineers serve to shape the production process, the product design and process scheduling procedures that could each be used to mitigate pollution. For sure, industrial engineers play a crucial role in the reduction of pollution.
References:
De, A. K. (2009). Environmental engineering. New Delhi: New Age International.
Top of Form
International Conference on Industrial & Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence & Expert Systems, & García-Pedrajas, N. (2010). Trends in applied intelligent systems: 23rd International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Other Applications of Applied Intelligent Systems, IEA/AIE 2010, Cordoba, Spain, June 1-4, 2010, proceedings. Berlin: Springer.
Ferraro, X. (n.d.). The Emerging Roles of Industrial Engineers in Preventing Pollution andCreating a Sustainable Environment. Northeastern University: a leader in global experiential learning in Boston, MA. Retrieved December 25, 2012, from http://www.northeastern.edu/nuwriting/current-issue/the-emerging-roles-of-industrial-engineers-in-preventing-pollution-andcreating-a-sustainable-environment/
Graedel, T. E., & Allenby, B. R. (2010). Industrial ecology and sustainable engineering. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Harmon, L. (1995). Pollution Prevention: A Logical Role for the Industrial Engineer. Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, 1, 1.
Harmon, L. (1995). Incorporating Pollution Prevention in Facilities Planning. Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, 1, 1.
Bottom of Form
Jogdand, S. N. (2010). Environmental biotechnology: (industrial pollution management). Mumbai [India: Himalaya Pub. House.
Sakamoto, S. (2010). Beyond world-class productivity: Industrial engineering practice and theory. London: Springer.
Shen, T. T. (1995). Industrial pollution prevention. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
