Production engineering is a field of engineering that deals with design and planning of the complete manufacturing system. With the advent of complex productions systems and methods the field has become highly specialized and sophisticated. It is an interdisciplinary field which requires combination of professionals trained in industrial engineering, manufacturing engineering and management.

What is the role of production engineering in manufacturing?

Production engineering aides in developing the production facility, which consists of different operations in a sequence that helps in manufacturing a product.  Different machines, tools and equipments are used in the production process. The use of machines, tools and equipments will help in achieving huge quantity output as well as improvement in quality.   Another important aspect of production engineering is continuous improvement and continuous effort to remove inefficiencies in the production system.

The industrial revolution

The industrial revolution was as a result of the invention of steam engine. The invention of steam engine resulted in use of machines that in turn resulted in mass production. Before the industrial revolution, products were tailor made. The disadvantage with such a method was that the productivity was low, i.e. the quantity of products manufactured was very low. So with industrial revolution machines replaced the role men in the production process. Major developments in the world are as a result of industrial revolution.

Industrial revolution and production engineering

Production engineering, even though did not formally exist during the industrial revolution as a specialized engineering discipline, has contributed to the industrial revolution. All the machines, equipments and tools owe its existence to industrial revolution. All the developments that we see around us have resulted from industrial revolution which in turn owes it to the production engineering.

Production engineering today

Today we have larger and powerful machines which are properly arranged by the production engineers to facilitate production process. Major advancements in quantity and quality have evolved after the industrial engineering as a result of the effort put in by the production engineers and other scientists. Now production engineers are in the process improving quality of products by bringing about complex changes and modifications in the production process. So production engineers have been trying to bring about quality in our lives by offering quality products from the time of industrial revolution. Quality of the products is not compromised with the effort to increase the quantity.

This explains the role of production engineering in industrial revolution