PERSONAL COMPUTING - THE PROFESSIONAL EDGE

N. Arthur Zimmerman, Indust r ia l Engineer

ILC Dover, Freder ica, Delaware

ABSTRACT

This paper presents the w r i t e r ' s experience in personal computing wi th the Apple Macintosh and how personal computing at the o f f i ce has saved immense time and improved the qua l i t y of work. This paper w i l l deal p r imar i l y wi th word processing, spreadsheets, pro jec t scheduling, drawing and chart ing wi th current software ava i lab le fo r the Macintosh.

KEYWORDS

Macintosh; word processing; spreadsheets; pro jec t scheduling; drawings; charts.

INTRODUCTION

This paper is presented wi th the experience of one indus t r ia l engineer having bought a personal computer in mid-1984 and the many benef i ts that he has derived by having the computer at his o f f i ce to ass is t him in his da i l y work. Of course, many indus t r ia l engineers are employed with organizat ions that supply desk-top computers for t he i r use whi le others must struggle through the i r work wi thout the use of a computer ( resu l t ing in extreme ine f f i c i ency ) . Or, there are some l i ke the w r i t e r , who have invested t he i r own money in purchasing a personal computer to make themselves more productive and professional .

WORD PROCESSING

Pr imar i ly used fo r i n t e r o f f i c e memo's or repor ts , word processing is a great t ime-saver fo r the indiv idual that can formulate a memo out l ine in his head and then s i t down at the computer and type the memo or report in much the same time (or less, depending on typing s k i l l s ) that i t would take him to wr i te a memo by hand for typing by a secretary or typing pool. A de f i n i t e plus in time saving is that the memo is easy to ed i t and wi th normal grammar s k i l l s , w i l l be ready for d i s t r i b u t i o n immediately. This a c t i v i t y precludes the operation of sending the handwritten memo to the t y p i s t , proofreading, and, on occasion, returning i t fo r correct ion of typing errors and then d i s t r i b u t i n g i t a day or two la te r .

For i n t e r o f f i c e memorandums, i t is desirable to have the memo format stored on your disk so that you w i l l not have to waste time composing the format each time you prepare a memo. Figure 1 depicts the format fo r the memo with the heading, to , from, and subject formatted and stored. The heading is centered on the page by moving the pointer to the th i rd box from the l e f t on the top ru le r and c l i ck ing the mouse. The tex t is even on each margin by c l i ck ing the fa r r i gh t box on the lower ru le r .

Fig. 1. Memo let terhead saved on disk.

516

ZII~EI~LN: Personal Computing - the Professional Edge 517

Figure 2 shows the beginning of a memo on the Mac as shown on the screen. Word processing is very similar to using a typewriter except errors are corrected easier and a spelling program wi l l scan the document for any possible misspelled or questionable words.

XYZ CORPORATION INTEROFFICE CORRESPONDENCE

15 February 1986

TO: K . A . 5m|th FROM: N A Ztmmerman SUBJECT: Manpower Loading - Project ~ 1546

The estimateP manpower reqolremeats for this project Is as fol lows (production staodard at 32 .4 units per day, 3 shifts per day arid 5 days per week):

~ [~R ~_A Tj~G 0 R Y OPRS./UHJlT_

#3 F a b r i c a t o r 4 2 #B A s s e m b l e r 5 7 #C I nspec to r 1 2

Fig. 2. Memo with letterhead format.

SPREADSHEETS

Other than word processing, the indust r ia l engineer w i l l f ind that the spreadsheet wi l l be equally important in dai ly work. Any data that requires columns of tabulations and mathematical calcula- tions w i l l be better accomodated with the use of a spreadsheet. Figure 3 shows the spreadsheet as i t is displayed on the screen before any data is recorded. The darkened area is called a cell and i t is ident i f ied as RlCl (Row 1, Column I ) . Now we can arrange the width of the columns to meet the needs of the data. Once the format is designed, i t can be saved for other similar projects.

1 z

4 5

?

B

IO I I 12

14

I I m U l m

Fig. 3. Spreadsheet window.

Figure 4 shows the l e f t side of a b i l l of material.used for costing material on a new project.

I DESCRIPTION PART eC}. UNI OUAN~NPL "~ USAGE Z MEAS. 3 WlOOet, Alum. Cast 42-69?4 [A . 1 O I

Gasket, 4" Cork 87-274G EA. 4 S 4.2 Gasket, G" Rubber 87-2844 EA, 2 5 2. I 5crev, Cap,Hex 1.5" :83-4487 EA. 12 5 l~.6

"/ Wosher, F1ot,Round, .2RI ID 84-37BB EA. i2 5 IZ.B ~ P(~!Y. BP~ . . . . . . . 91-3847 EA. I 3 1,03

5hipp!ng Cont olner, Fiber 80-3755 EA, I 4 1,04 tOO Green Tope 2" 84-2413 ROLL O. I 4 0.104 II 0 IZ o

13

Fig. 4. Left side of B i l l of Material.

Figure 5 shows the r ight side of the same spreadsheet. To calculate the cells in Col. 6, we entered the formulas =RC[-2]*(RC[-I]/IO0+I) which is the same as saying that Col. 6 = Col. 4 times

518 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 8TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON COMPUTERS AND INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING

(Col. 5 + 100+1). The formula for the cells in Col. 8 is simply =RC[-2]*RC[-I] or Col. 8 = Col. 6 times Col. 7. The formula entered into the cell to derive the total of Col. 8 is =SUM(R[-11]C: R[-2]C) which means the total = sum of Row 3 through Row 12 of the same column. Once the formula has been set in one cel l , i t is easily copied to other cells. The electronic spreadsheet combines the attributes of a columnar pad and a calculator plus a typewriter.

, f s ] 8 ! c t . i , I '° r . , I OUAN~NPL 7. USAGE COS COSfl ~L

Z MEAS, UNIT i I T i 0 I 12.40 12.40 : ,

4 5 4 .2 Z.33 9.79 I 5 2 5 2.1 2.46 5.17 : d

12 5 12.6 0.05 0 .63 ,p

, _ ,z o o.oz ° . , 8 .... 8 i 3 1.03 4.32 4.45

9 1 4 I . " 4 0.'18 0 .50 II . . . .

1 8 0.1 4 0.104 6.90 0.72 i I : o o . o o ,,

,z : . . . . 0 o . o o ,,

i . . 3

. . . . . 33.90 "

I ~ i . . . . . ~ " ' ' ~ ~ ~ i ~ ! ~ i ~ M {

Fig. 5. Right side of Bi l l of Material.

CHARTS

On many occasions, the industrial engineer must show data in graph or chart form to better i l l us - trate the meaning of the data. Let us examine the yearly earnings of XYZ Corp. for a period from 1973 through 1985 in graphical form. We merely begin with a series of dates and corresponding earnings for those years. We name the X axis "Year" and the Y axis "Earnings". We te l l the com- puter to start with 1973 and the remaining years are included with each earnings entry. Figure 6 shows the earnings data on the r ight side of the screen. We now te l l the computer to calculate the trend l ine for the 13 years of data. The trend data is shown on the r ight in Fig. 6.

Fig. 6. Earnings series and calculated trend.

Figure 7 shows the data in graphical form. For this i l lus t ra t ion we have used a l ine chart.

n Y z

............. ; ............. i . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . - ..............

:F 197 197 197 197 197 197 197 198 198 198 1~1198 198

3 4 5 6 ? 8 9 O I 2 3 4 YIIwR

Fig. 7. Earnings and Trend curves

"$- X~7 Ek~NING$ ($1,000,O(X))

o" Trel~J of Xy Z E A J ~ ($1,000,000) I

ZII~EI~IAN: P e r s o n a l C o m p u t i n g - t h e P r o f e s s i o n a l Edae 519

The computer program can provide approximately f ive versions fo the following charts: Line, bar, pie, column, scatter or combinations. This program can also calculate the mean, median, standard deviation, correlation coeff icient, and other s tat is t ics for the data.

PROJECT SCHEDULING

Project scheduling and analysis is made easy with the Macintosh. All projects begin as Schedule Charts. With the use of the mouse, we wi l l draw blocks representing tasks. We wi l l place al l the tasks in sequential order on the screen and connect the tasks with lines that show their depend- encies. The program allows us to calculate data associated with each task. Figure 8 is a sim- p l i s t i c schedule chart depicting eight tasks with starting time (upper l e f t corner), event time (upper r ight corner), cost of labor (lower l e f t corner) and cost of materials (lower r ight corner). You wi l l note that the computer automatically calculated the cr i t i ca l path which is noted by the darker tasK boxes and the darker l ines. Once the schedule chart has been established, the com- puter has already compiled data for a Resource Timeline, Task Cost Entry, Resource Cost Entry, Cash Flow Table and Project Table. •Figure 9 is the Task Timeline.

1/Z o:00 0,26

I /2 0:22 0.16 ~ ? 4 56

1/2 0:00 0 2 0:00 0.36 :32 0.20

~ 5 ~42 ~ ~sv . I

240 942

Fig. 8. Schedule Chart.

1/20:00 I/20:~3 1/2 I~0

~ $T ART PROJECT 1546

i [ I r,R,~*S

1/2 I :~0 1/22:00

Fig. 9. Task Timeline.

The real value of this software is in the design and scheduling of a lengthy, complex project that may encompass a year or more. As milestones are met or not met on time, the schedule can be alterea to ref lect the impact on the remainder of the project. This is a very valuable tool in the hands of an industrial engineer involved in project engineering and planning.

DRAWINGS

Many industrial engineers are involved in plant layout, off ice layout, workplace layout or f ix ture design at one time or another. The Macintosh has a program which w i l l a11ow the engineer to make drawings to scale. This program is not as sophisticated as a CAD/CAM System, but is excellent for sketches required to accompany reports and doesn't require extensive board work. An example of an office layout is shown in Fig. 10 and Fig.11. With the use of the mouse and the many drawing tools available in the program, we have outlined an off ice measuring 40 feet by 60 feet to a scale of 1/16" = 1 foot. Next, we draw tables, desks, chairs, f i l e cabinets and a conference table to scale. Once we have drawn the i n i t i a l pieces of furniture, the program allows us to duplicate the items and even rotate them in other directions. With the mouse, we can duplicate and "drag" the pieces of furniture into place. This feature wi l l allow us to experiment with the best use of the f ac i l i t y .

520 PROCEEDIHGS OF THE 8TH ANR~AL CORFEEE~CE OR COMPb'TERS AND INDUSTRIAL ERGINEERING

0

I XYZ OFF

h , 1, i , ' f , , , . I . , i ,21 . ,J i J . , ,.,~1, ~, I . ,J ,41 , . I . , . I , , ,~]., { ~ I , . I . ,6]., ~]{i ' i

p-

B

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Fig. 10. Preliminary office layout.

Figure 11 is a completed arrangement drawn to scale and completed in a matter of minutes. f i x t u r e s and too ls are eas i l y drawn on the Mac wi th t h i s program.

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XYZ OFF II

ii ~

~ ~ ~ cj ~ [ ] _ : o O l ; . IJ

Fig. 11. Completed office layout.

SUMMARY

The personal computer has come of age with many software packages tha t can be very e f f ec t i ve fo r the i ndus t r i a l engineer. A f te r a l l , the main task of an i ndus t r i a l engineer is to design work for e f f i c i e n t u t i l i z a t i o n of time and motion. How be t te r can he serve his employer and himself than by designing his own work fo r e f f i c i e n t u t i l i z a t i o n of his own t ime. This paper has presented only a few of the software packages tha t are ava i l ab le at th i s t ime, but those mentioned here have been found to be most e f f e c t i v e fo r the i ndus t r i a l engineer of today.

Apple Macintosh is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc.