Industrial Engineering

Chairman: Dr. Abdallah Alrashdan, Assistant Professor of Industrial Engineering
Ph: +966 11 215 7767
E: aalrshdan@alfaisal.edu

Web address: https://coe.alfaisal.edu/en/ie-home
 

General Department Information

Industrial engineering is about choices. Other engineering disciplines apply skills to very specific areas. An industrial engineering education offers the best of both worlds: an education in both engineering and management.

The most distinctive aspect of industrial engineering is the flexibility it offers. Whether it's shortening a rollercoaster line in an amusement park, streamlining an operating room in a hospital, distributing products worldwide, or manufacturing superior automobiles, these challenges share the common goal of saving money and increasing efficiencies. As companies adopt management philosophies of continuous productivity and quality improvement to survive in the increasingly competitive world market, the need for industrial engineers is growing. Why? Industrial engineers are the only engineering professionals trained specifically to be productivity and quality improvement specialists. Industrial engineers figure out how to do things better. They work to eliminate waste of time, money, materials, energy and other commodities. This is why many industrial engineers end up being promoted into management positions. Many people are misled by the term industrial engineer. It's not just about manufacturing.

It also encompasses service industries, with many industrial engineers employed in entertainment industries, shipping and logistics businesses, and health care organizations. Industrial engineers make processes better in the following ways:

  • More efficient and more profitable business practices
  • Better customer service and product quality
  • Improved efficiency
  • Increased ability to do more with less
  • Making work safer, faster, easier, and more rewarding
  • Helping companies produce more products quickly
  • Making the world safer through better designed products
  • Reducing costs associated with new technologies

Classes

IE 301: Operations Research I

The course includes deterministic operations research modelling concepts; linear programming modelling, simplex theory, duality and sensitivity analysis with economic interpretation; transportation and assignment problems; integer programming; branch and bound techniques; nonlinear optimization problems; multi-criteria decision making.

IE 302: Operations Research II

This course provides an in-depth study of stochastic models used in operations research for decision-making under uncertainty. Topics include probability theory review, decision analysis, Markov chains, Poisson processes, queueing theory, inventory models, reliability analysis, and game theory. Students will learn how to formulate, analyze, and apply stochastic models to real-world problems. The course emphasizes both theoretical foundations and practical applications, incorporating case studies and computational tools for model implementation.

IE 304: Production and Service Systems Planning I

The course teaches theory and concepts involved in model formulation for the analysis and control of production processes, including systems for planning and controlling production and service systems to achieve productivity and efficiency. The course addresses the basic issues in production planning, including aggregate production planning, master production schedule, materials requirement planning, and capacity planning. Flexible manufacturing systems, lean manufacturing, Just-in-time (JIT), and new concepts in manufacturing are addressed. Various production systems are described, including job shops, flow shop, cellular manufacturing covering scheduling and optimization.

IE 305: Production and Service Systems Planning II

The course teaches aspects of planning and design of logistics and inventory management in production and service systems. Optimization issues in supply chain management, distribution systems and routing, inventory control and warehousing, distributed networks, centralized and decentralized networks, facility location and layout, supply chain and strategic partnerships are addressed.

IE 307: Work Systems Analysis and Design

The course teaches survey of methods for assessing and improving performance of individuals and groups in organizations. Techniques include various basic industrial engineering tools, work analysis, data acquisition and application, performance evaluation and appraisal, work measurement procedures and motion study. Layout design of work environments will include material handling systems and warehousing.

IE 309: Human Factors and Ergonomics

The course teaches analysis of tools, work spaces and activities to achieve efficiency in modern work environments are introduced. The effects of vibration, noise, illumination, control display design, age and shift work on the performance of workers are discussed. Physiological and psychological capabilities and limitations in human factors, ergonomic measurement methods and analytical techniques, design of tools and the working ergonomic environment are addressed.

IE 315: Engineering Economy and Cost Analysis

The course teaches economic analysis in an engineering environment considering the time value of money. Methods for evaluation of alternatives: present worth, annual equivalent worth, rate of return, payback method and benefit-cost ratio method. Replacement analysis, depreciation, inflation and cost estimation. Sensitivity and risk analysis are also considered.

IE 330: Simulation

This course teaches simulation modelling and analysis of production and service systems, including simulation methodology, model building in a computer environment, analysing performance measures and assessment of different policies. It also teaches simulation languages, basic and advanced modules, and statistical aspects of simulation such as fitting of input and output distributions. Validation and verification of simulation models are also covered.

IE 330 L: Simulation Lab

Laboratory experiments dealing with the implementation of discrete-event simulation models using SIMIO software.

IE 401: Network Models and Project Management

The course teaches the terminology of graphs and networks, network flow problems, algorithms and solutions. Project management, defining the project, scheduling issues in projects, project duration optimization, resources planning, evaluation and progress, estimating times and costs, critical processes in the projects, applications of project-planning and software in the strategy of projects, integration of organization with projects and probability issues in project planning are addressed.

IE 406: Quality Engineering

This course focuses on quality control in industrial systems, with an emphasis on statistical process control (SPC) and process improvement methodologies. Key topics include process modeling, hypothesis testing, and SPC techniques for both long and short production runs. Students will learn about process capability analysis, capability indexes, and Six Sigma tools, including the DMAIC framework for systematic process improvement. Additional topics include acceptance sampling and the design of experiments to optimize production processes.

IE 415: Production Information Systems

The course teaches the design and analysis of production information systems, critical success factors for companies, effectiveness and efficiency through information systems usage in production and service systems, success cases in industry. Investigation of data modelling, storage, acquisition and utilization in Industrial Engineering via manual and computerized methods. Development of effective spreadsheet applications, design and implementation of relational databases via E-R modelling, relational schema, normalization, SQL (Standard Query Language), web-based database applications, interface design, the system development life cycle applied to data management applications, ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software and decision support systems are addressed.

IE 420: Reliability and Maintenance Engineering

This course provides an introduction to the life-cycle costing concept for equipment maintenance and replacement. Emphasis will be on the development of mathematical and simulation models for determining optimal maintenance and replacement policies for both capital equipment and components.

IE 421: Product Design and Development

Product Design and Development is a project-based course that covers modern tools and methods for product design and development. The cornerstone is a project in which teams of management, engineering, and industrial design students conceive, design, and prototype a physical product. 

IE 430: New Product Development

This course presents state-of-the-art Product Development techniques focusing on the interdisciplinary nature of the product design activities.

IE 435: Undergraduate Research in Industrial Engineering

Students participate in supervised research with a faculty member. Supervised research can be: 1) independent research undertaken by the student (thesis, independent study), or 2) assistance on a faculty member'92s research project. Students must find a faculty member who is willing to supervise him/her as an assistant on an existing project or as the author of an individual project. The student and the faculty supervisor will complete and sign a research contract which will be turned in to the chair of the Industrial and Mechanical Engineering Department. Drafting the contract will allow the student to develop ideas about what should be accomplished and what the faculty supervisor'92s expectations are. All academic requirements are at the discretion of the supervising faculty member. Students should agree on a plan for the semester with the faculty mentor before the research begins. The plan should include academic requirements, the basis for grading the experience, and a plan for student/professor meetings for the semester. It is the student'92s responsibility to report progress and seek guidance when needed. Students are expected to be active and reliable participants in the research experience.

IE 450: Management for Engineers

The course focuses on learning to see and understand the fundamental activities of businesses as practiced worldwide and how to manage them. Successfully performing these activities requires vision, passion, leadership, teamwork, and integrating the many functional disciplines of business.

IE 455: Cognitive Ergonomics

 This course provides basic knowledge about cognitive ergonomics and Human Computer Interaction and to provide insights about those peculiar aspects that link design to ergonomics. Special attention will be given to the “communicative” aspects of user-centered design, both in reference to usability and aesthetic pleasantness, and to the methods developed to evaluate the User Experience. 

IE 460: Industrial IoT

The course teaches basics of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). Investigation of data modeling, storage, acquisition and utilization in Industrial and service settings via computerized methods. It develops an understanding on the data generated by IIoT and how it is collected; recognizes the problems involved with gathering data and some approaches for addressing these problems; provides an overview of data storage; appreciate programming languages such as Python as time-saving tools for manipulating data, understand the process of data acquisition; analyze where to process data using Edge, Fog or Cloud; understand how, when and where to bundle and store IIoT data, appreciate the costs and benefits of live data versus stored data, learn how Python can be used to assist with analysis of large datasets, and understand some methods for cleaning, summarizing and visualizing large datasets.

IE 495: Industrial Engineering Capstone Project I

Students work in teams as professional engineering consultants on an independent engineering project under the supervision of a project advisor. The design process is emphasized, encompassing project definition, feasibility analysis, evaluation of alternative designs, and design computations. For each project, the scope of work is developed and negotiated between client and student consultants. The scope of work may also include fabrication, device testing, and field-testing. Projects are arranged by the students with approval of the instructor. Progress reports and a final written report are submitted to the student'92s project advisor. Oral presentations of reports are made before the faculty and students. A student who selects a project suggested by industry has the opportunity of working with an industry sponsor in an actual engineering experience.

IE 496: Industrial Engineering Capstone Project II

Students work in teams as professional engineering consultants on an independent engineering project under the supervision of a project advisor. The design process is emphasized, encompassing project definition, feasibility analysis, evaluation of alternative designs, and design computations. For each project, the scope of work is developed and negotiated between client and student consultants. The scope of work may also include fabrication, device testing, and field-testing. Projects are arranged by the students with approval of the instructor. Progress reports and a final written report are submitted to the student'92s project advisor. Oral presentations of reports are made before the faculty and students. A student who selects a project suggested by industry has the opportunity of working with an industry sponsor in an actual engineering experience.