Manufacturing & Design Division

About the IISE Manufacturing and Design Division

IISE is the world's largest professional society dedicated solely to the support of the industrial engineering profession and individuals involved with improving quality and productivity. Of the 15 IISE divisions and societies, the Manufacturing and Design (M&D) division is the one that provides leadership for education, training, applications, and research and development in the focus area of manufacturing and design engineering. The mission of the M&D division is to promote the advancement of manufacturing and design technologies and technical expertise while contributing to the body of knowledge and providing professional development opportunities for our student and professional membership.

The division provides a common platform for discussion, education, and dissemination of contemporary issues in the field of manufacturing and design. With this purpose in mind, the division: 1) encourages the development and dissemination of technical knowledge; 2) provides a forum for technical networking; 3) serves as the voice of the technical field; and 4) supports IISE's mission in providing value to members and promoting the discipline. If you are not currently a member, consider joining IISE and becoming a member of our thriving community!

Why Manufacturing and Design?

It is well established that manufacturing and design problems cannot be addressed independent of each other. Product engineering needs to assess the impact of design decisions on manufacturing. Advanced manufacturing must consider both product and process innovations that address the needs of the customer and provide manufacturers with a competitive edge. The relentless pressure to innovate, improve product quality, reduce costs, and increase productivity is driving the community to pursue advanced design and manufacturing technologies. Members are shaping the future of manufacturing and design by actively engaging in research and development and outreach efforts in digital design and manufacturing, advanced materials and processing technologies, advanced sensing and control, and smart automation among others.

Find the M&D Division Board here.

Research Spotlight

Harnessing Molecular Machines at the Macro-Scaleby
Dr. M. Ravi Shankar
Professor of Industrial Engineering
University of Pittsburgh

The natural world excels at utilizing hierarchies ranging from the molecular, macromolecular-scales through to the micro and macrostructural scales to elicit emergent responses critical for sustaining life. Particularly impressive is the ability to harness myofilamental molecular engines in animal muscles to seamlessly assimilate controlled responses. Emulating such structural hierarchies in active matter to harness molecular-scale organization to power active responses has become possible via breakthroughs in molecular switches, self-assembly mediated processing and their incorporation in actuators. As a result, new opportunities emerge for utilizing ambient energy source, including light, heat and chemical potential to direct actuation and manipulation. Fundamentally new classes of soft robotic platforms become possible, which have few parallels in the classical approaches for manipulating and actuating mechanical systems.

Student Committee

From Puerto Rico to Spain and Singapore: My Experience Studying Abroad
By Giovanni Cruz Gratacós
First-Year MBA Student at the Yale School of Management
University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez alumnus (Industrial Engineering, 2013)

When I first arrived at Madrid's Barajas airport in February of 2012, I had no idea what to expect. I had never been away from home for this long, and certainly not this far away from home. I was scared. However, I was also excited. As a kid, I always dreamed of traveling. Growing up in a low-income community in Puerto Rico, I never thought this dream would come true. But it did! Thanks to a scholarship from the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship program, I was now about 4,000 miles from home.

Once in Spain, I committed to stepping out of my comfort zone as much as possible. First, I made an effort to engage with students outside of the group from the University of Puerto Rico. As an introvert, talking to strangers has never been my strength. However, by intentionally "forcing" myself to engage with those outside of my group of friends, I ended up learning and engaging with incredible people from completely different backgrounds. Second, I decided to use it as an opportunity to explore other areas of interest I had not been able to explore at that point. In Spain, I chose to take classes exclusively in the Education and Psychology departments. This not only exposed me to topics and concepts I had not yet explored but exposed me to a group of people with experiences and interest different from those of my classmates back in engineering school.

These commitments allowed me to make the most out of my experience in Spain. In fact, I had such an amazing experience abroad that I recently applied (and got accepted) to spend a semester abroad at the National University of Singapore next spring (in 2020). During my time in Singapore, I expect to learn more about Singaporean culture, as well as gain a better understanding of how business is conducted there, given their rapid growth and expansion as an economy.

You can probably tell I'm completely bought into the idea of studying abroad. Read more here.

Design and Manufacturing Engineering - A New Knowledge Area in the IE Body of Knowledge

By Harry Pierson
Assistant Professor of Industrial Engineering
University of Arkanasas

and Steven Slover
Process Engineering Manager
Lincoln Electric Company

In January, the revised IISE Book of Knowledge (BoK) was released with a new chapter on Design and Manufacturing Engineering. The new chapter is a welcome addition and has several potential benefits for the Manufacturing and Design (M&D) Division. The BoK initiative started in 2014 as an effort to define the profession by enumerating and defining essential IE knowledge areas. The first BoK was published in 2017, and the current version consists of thirteen knowledge areas. Each knowledge area contains a high-level summary followed by a hierarchical list of topic areas and specific subjects.

Just as the BoK attempts to define the IE profession, the Design and Manufacturing chapter can serve to define the M&D Division. This can be considerably useful in recruiting potential members to the M&D division by helping them understand how the division aligns with their professional interests. It can also be used to help engineers in professional practice understand the division, potentially increasing industry membership and engagement.

For academia, the Design and Manufacturing BoK chapter represents a taxonomy of manufacturing-related IE concepts, with many potential applications. It may serve as a basis for course, module, or even curriculum development. It could also be used as a basis for describing an existing curriculum in a standard format, thereby simplifying communication and comparison between curricula. This might be useful for benchmarking across programs and accreditation, especially if it is augmented with class time spent on each topic. Further, it can also help with recruiting students into the field by providing a framework for communicating the essentials of IE, design, and manufacturing to first-year engineering students, high school students, and parents. See more here.

Societies and Divisions Awards

IISE's societies and divisions offer awards to recognize accomplishments by their members. Click here to view the below listed award information.

Policies and Procedure for Society/Division Awards and Competitions

Sponsorship Letter of Commitment

Societies and Division Awards

M&D Webinars:

Click here to view all upcoming IISE Webinars

Click here to view all archived IISE Webinars

Archived Newsletters

Fall 2021 M&D Newsletter
Spring 2020 M&D Newsletter
Summer 2019 M&D Newsletter
Fall 2019 M&D Newsletter
January 2019 M&D Newsletter