According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 80 percent of the workforce is employed in the service sector. Penn State and the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers have collaborated to create a new award that celebrates outstanding innovation in service system engineering.
Penn State partners with IISE to create new service engineering award
9/17/2018
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Service Enterprise Engineering Advisory Board within the Harold and Inge Marcus Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering has partnered with the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE) to develop an international award that celebrates outstanding innovation in service systems engineering.
The IISE Outstanding Service Systems Innovation Award is designed to recognize organizations for the development of innovative techniques that improve the performance of service industries. There are two award categories: industry and academia.
“We believe that recognizing significant innovation in service systems design will stimulate the application of these innovations broadly in the service industries, inspire organizations generally to improve their service processes and, over time, result in continuous improvement in the quality and productivity of the service sector,” said Chuck Schneider, chair of the SEE Advisory Board and the leading proponent of the Penn State Service Enterprise Engineering Initiative (SEE 360).
SEE 360 supports its advisory board’s goals to enhance the fundamental knowledge of industrial engineering students by increasing their awareness of the tremendous opportunities available in the service sector, and by giving them access to the tools and collaborative resources they need to apply what they learn in the classroom to real service-related challenges.
“Our students are getting to work with a variety of authentic service industry contexts in their courses and as a part of their research. These range from modeling and design of service operations such as snow removal, landscaping, stadium concession stands and the Berkey Creamery,” said Vittal Prabhu, professor and Director of SEE 360. “We have worked with industry partners to include real-world problems in electric utilities, call centers, hospitals and supply chain distribution.”
Recipients of the new IISE award must show the innovative and effective implementation of industrial and systems engineering principles and practices on real applications in service institutions.
The inaugural Outstanding Innovation in Service Systems Engineering Award will be presented to recipients at the 2019 IISE Annual Conference and Expo in Orlando, Florida, May 18-21, 2019.
For more information about the award or to nominate an organization or academic unit, visit the IISE website.
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Chuck Schneider, a Penn State mechanical engineering alumnus, has spearheaded the Service Enterprise Engineering Initiative at Penn State.
