A Doctor for the Patient, a Lawyer for the Defense, an Astronaut for Space, and for Everything Else: An Industrial Engineer
Excerpted from the article written by our Department Chair Assoc. Prof. Dr. İbrahim Akgün for the September 2015 issue of Eğitimde Rehberlik (Guidance in Education) magazine.
The phrase "A doctor for the patient, a lawyer for the defense, an astronaut for space – and for everything else: an industrial engineer" might sound overly ambitious at first glance, yet it actually underrepresents the real scope of what industrial engineers do. Not only can industrial engineers work across nearly every sector, but they can also support doctors, lawyers, and astronauts in performing their jobs more efficiently. In fact, many industrial engineers are employed in hospitals, courthouses, and aerospace institutions such as NASA.
Within such institutions, industrial engineers can design processes and develop policies that enhance both service quality and organizational efficiency. They can also create decision-support systems that help doctors, lawyers, and astronauts make better decisions. For instance, in the healthcare sector, industrial engineers can analyze the risks of epidemics and establish control mechanisms, as well as engage in planning service and bed capacities (e.g., the number and location of hospitals, the number of doctors/nurses, beds, operating rooms, etc.), and manage the supply, production, and inventory of medical resources such as drugs, serums, and blood. These tasks can be carried out for a single local hospital or for national and international institutions alike.
Similarly, industrial engineers can develop techniques that assist in determining the optimal timing for organ transplants or in enhancing the interpretation of X-ray films. Taking this even further, they can create mathematical models to determine the angle and intensity of radiation that maximizes treatment efficiency on cancerous tissues while minimizing damage to healthy organs. In robotic or minimally invasive surgeries, they can design models to identify the shortest path to the targeted organ without harming surrounding tissues.
Although the word "can" is used throughout this explanation, all of the examples mentioned regarding the healthcare sector are already being implemented by industrial engineers or by professionals with similar educational backgrounds under different titles (see [1]-[3]). Similar – and sometimes unconventional – examples can be found in many other sectors as well.
It’s important, however, to clarify a potential misunderstanding: we are not claiming that "industrial engineers can do every job." Likewise, we are not saying to doctors, lawyers, or any other specialized professionals, "We know your job better than you do." Of course, it is the doctor who performs the surgery and interprets the X-rays. Yet a skilled industrial engineer can assist in improving the quality of that surgery or enhancing the interpretation of that X-ray by developing effective systems and methods. In doing so, they would also benefit from the expertise of the doctor or the engineers who developed the medical devices.
Referances
[1] Brandeau, M.L., Sainfont, F., Pierskalla W.P. Operations Research and Healthcare: A Handbook of Methods and Applications, Kluwer Academic Publishers, New York, 2005.
[2] Alves, C.J.S., Pardalos, P.M., Vicente, L.N. Optimization in Medicine, Springer, 2008.
[3] Yih, Y. Handbook of Healthcare Delivery Systems, CRC Press, 2011.