Process Industries Division

What are the Process Industries?

The process industries are those industries where the primary production processes are either continuous, or occur on a batch of materials that is indistinguishable. For example, a food processing company making sauce may make the sauce in a continuous, uninterrupted flow from receipt of ingredients through packaging. Or batches may be produced depending on the cook kettle sizes but immediately combined and re-routed. In either case, there is no concept of a unit of sauce while it is being processed. Examples of the process industries include food, beverages, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, petroleum, ceramics, base metals, coal, plastics, rubber, textiles, tobacco, wood and wood products, paper and paper products, etc.

For more on the role of industrial engineering in process industries, read " Making Cereal Not Cars," a primer on process industries. This article was published in the December 2008 issue of Industrial Engineer magazine and is available only to IISE members. If you are not a member, join IISE for access to this article as well as additional member-only benefits.

What is the Process Industries Division?

Applying industrial engineering tools in the process industries can vary greatly from applying these same tools in discrete parts manufacturing. The Process Industries Division is a forum for the exchange of ideas in theory and practice of industrial engineering techniques applied to process industries; facilitating greater interactions among industry and academic professionals by organizing.

Call for Nomination for the Process Industries Division Board of Directors

The Process Industries Division is currently soliciting nominations for President-Electand six board members - Treasurer, Webinar Chair, Newsletter Chair, Social Media Chair, Student Activities Chair (Student Rep), and Competition Chair. Board members will serve a two-year term on the PID Board and the President-Elect a one-year term. All nominees must be current, regular members of the Process Industries Division. New members are welcome. Self-nomination is highly encouraged. Students are only eligible for the Student Activities Chair position (see description below).
Please take a few minutes to consider submitting your name or that of a colleague. To submit a nomination form, complete the attached nomination form and send to Victoria Clark by June 1.
Contact W. Grace Guo, PID President, if you have questions about the positions and responsibilities.

Invitation to Nominate Board Member - Director of Student Activities

In our effort to support an interactive community, we are now seeking one or two student members to fill the position of Director of Student Activities on the Process Industries Division Board of Directors. The selected student would be invited to participate and contribute to our monthly Board meetings and will have the opportunity to lead outreach and collaboration efforts with both our student and our professional members. The basic responsibilities will include attending the once monthly Board Meeting, and developing an event program targeting at least one student-focused activity per quarter.

This position will be a non-voting member, and the term will last for 1 year, transitioning in April. All students at the Freshman level and above are welcome to apply, however the position is geared toward enrolled students, so if you are graduating before the completion of 1 year, please consider joining the PID as a young professional member instead. There is no travel requirement, as our membership is based throughout the nation and even internationally, and we connect through the phone and web. Many of the members attend the Annual IIE Conference in person, and it is a great experience, but not a requirement to hold the position.

Archived webinars

Did you miss a webinar? View previously held webinars here.

PID Spotlight in the Upcoming IISE Annual Conference 2017

IISE Annual Conference 2017 is approaching. Among many exciting activities and attractive presentations on Process Industries, we would like to highlight the PID Town Hall Meeting and Panel Discussion: Career Development in the Process Industryfor your consideration. The Town Hall Meeting and Panel Session will be held jointly on Monday, May 22, 2:00 PM - 3:20 PM, in Room 317. This is a great opportunity for you to get to know the Process Industry, to track the current status of the PID, to learn career opportunities in the Process Industry, and to meet colleagues in similar industries and disciplines. All are welcome.
The PID is sponsoring the Production Planning & Scheduling Track for IISE Annual Conference 2017. Joel Haight and W. Grace Guo serve as the Track Chairs. The Track received 33 abstracts and 16 papers. These presentations cover a broad spectrum of topics and applications. They are arranged into 8 sessions:

Sunday 8:00 a.m. - 9:20 a.m.:Production Planning & Scheduling in Manufacturing 1
Sunday 3-30 p.m.-4:50 p.m.: Flow Shop Scheduling
Sunday 5:00 p.m.-6:20 p.m.: Resource Planning
Monday 2:00 p.m.-3:20 p.m.: Production Planning & Scheduling in Manufacturing 2
Monday 3:30 p.m.-4:50 p.m.: Batch and Lot Sizing in Production Planning & Scheduling
Monday 5:00 p.m.-6:20 p.m.: Production Scheduling 1
Tuesday 2:00 p.m.-3:20 p.m.: Production Scheduling 2
Tuesday 3:30 p.m.-4:50 p.m.: Production Planning Models

We would also like to highlight the below presentations for your consideration. These presentations are either from PID members or on PI topics. We hope you find these presentations of interest and of value.

Abstract # 2266, "A Constraint Programming Model for Ice Cream Processing", by Ezra Wari, Lamar University, Session : Production Planning & Scheduling in Manufacturing 1, Sunday 8:00a.m. - 9:20a.m., Room 308.

Abstract # 2579, "Modeling and Simulation Techniques to Improve the Hiring Process", by Nosaiba Dar Mousa, State University of New York at Binghamton. Session: Modeling for Decision Analysis, Sunday 11:00 AM - 12:20 PM, Room 404.

PID Spotlight in IISE Northeast Regional Conference

The 2017 IISE Northeast Regional Conference was held in Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), Troy, NY, March 24-26, 2017. The first-place winner of the Technical Paper Competition went to a Rutgers student team for their project: Managing Traffic Flow for the Union Pacific Railroad. The project was supervised by Rutgers professor and current PID president Dr. W. Grace Guo. Anna Olendar, PID Secretary and Treasurer served as an invited judge for the Technical Paper Competition. Joseph Eisner, PID Director of Student Activities, attended the conference with the Northeastern University's IISE student chapter and advertised PID activities during the conference.

Newsletters

May 2017
August 2016
April 2015

PID Personnel News

If you have an award, publication, promotion, etc., share the news with your colleagues in PID. Email to Anna Oleander.