- Research Article
- 10.2991/jiemi.2014.1.1.4
On the Objectives of Industrial Engineering from the Perspectives of the Energy Efficiency
- Jan 01, 2014
- Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management Innovation
- Chen Zhou
The focus of Industrial engineering has always been efficiency. While industrial engineering has contributed significantly to the improvement of productivity and quality of life, the objective function in the models used in industrial engineering normally measures of efficiency of products or processes. However, the efficiencies of products or services are normally indirect measures of quality of life. Therefore, this paper will illustrate some discrepancies between what we measure and what we need in some aspects of energy efficiency. In manufacturing, transportation, and services, energy efficiency has improved tremendously using the current measures in food processing, in fuel efficiency of cars and trucks, or in heating and air conditioning. However, the total energy consumption per capita in developed countries remains high. The improvement in products and processes may not be reflected in serving human needs. For example, while car fuel efficiency has improved many times in the last 100 years, commuting times become longer and longer. Commuting time is directly related to our livelihood in modern cities, as measured in some basic elements of Maslow's hierarchy of human needs. This paper intends to draw attention to the measure or objective function in optimizations through the perspectives of energy efficiency. We first gather information on improvements in energy efficiency in cars, food supply chains, and heating and air conditioning systems in commonly accepted measures. We will then contrast them with the improvements in satisfying human needs. The evidence reveals interesting food for thought for industrial engineering and for engineering and science in general. In addition, we developed an energy efficiency measure for commuting that is directly linked to our needs, demonstrated its usage with some examples, and provided ideas for future research. We hope our measure on energy efficiency in commuting would lead to new measures or objectives for industrial engineers in product design, manufacturing, transportation, process design, and city planning.
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