Research


Work Systems

Work systems have been a focal point of industrial engineering research since it coalesced as a field at the beginning of the 20th century with the work of Frederick W. Taylor. Traditionally, this research has focused on time and motion studies and industrial psychology, with emphasis on blue collar workers in manufacturing systems. But the emergence of lean manufacturing systems has elevated the role of cross-training of workers, while the growth of the service sector has increased the importance of efficiency in white collar and professional work.

Researchers in the OPEM group have extended the queueing network framework for manufacturing systems to include flexible workers who move dynamically to where they are needed most. We have also begun developing a modeling framework for white collar and professional work, where workers have considerable discretion over their work and information flow can be as important as material flow.

Research Insights

• White-Collar verses Blue-Collar Systems: Worker's Discretion in Task Completion

Graduate Students

• Bilal Gokpinar


• Fang Liu


• Gigi Yuen

Published Papers

Working Papers