Tips to prepare for Industrial Engineering interview questions by Pritish Kumar Halder:-

1. What is plant organization?

Organization can be termed as distributing functions of a business to a qualified personnel to get the best output. Organization should be built around functions rather than individuals. In the past and to a large extent today, the majority of progressive concerns are organized on a line-and-staff basis. There are two types of organization:

A line organization comprises those individuals, groups, and supervising employees concerned directly with the productive operation of the business. The paths of authority are clearly defined, as each individual has but one superior from whom he or she obtains orders and instructions.
A staff organization involves personnel, departments, or activities that assist the line supervisor in any advisory, service, coordination, or control capacity. It should be noted that a staff position is a full-time job and is essentially the work of a specialist.

2. What points should be kept in mind to build an effective organization?

The following principles should be kept in mind to build an effective organization:

  • Clear separation of the various functions of the business should be established to avoid overlap or conflict in the accomplishment of tasks or in the issuance or reception of orders.
  • Each managerial position should have a definite location within the organization, with a written job specification.
  • There should be a clear distinction between line and staff operation and control.
  • A clear understanding of the authority under each position should prevail.
  • The selection of all personnel should be based on unbiased techniques.
  • A recognized line of authority should prevail from the top of the organization to the bottom, with an equally clear line of responsibility from the bottom to the top.

3. Which two groups of management manage the control organization and what are their responsibilities?

The two group of management control the organization is the responsibility of two groups of management:

  1. Administrative management: It has the responsibility for determining policy and coordinating sales, finance, production, and distribution.
  2. Production management: It has the responsibility for executing the policies established by the administration.

4. What is process analysis?

Process analysis is a procedure for studying all productive and nonproductive operations for the purpose of optimizing cost, quality, throughput time, and production output. These four criteria are not mutually exclusive and they are not necessarily negatively correlated. High quality with few if any rejects can result in high production output with low throughput time and cost. All four of these criteria need to be addressed in a facility is going to be a world competitor producing a quality product. In applying process analysis to an existing plant producing a product line, the procedure is first to acquire all information related to the volume of the work that will be directed to the process under study, namely, the expected volume of business, the chance of repeat business, the life of the job, the chance for design changes, and the labour content of the job. This will determine the time and effort to be devoted toward improving the existing process or planning a new process.

5. What are the requirements of a good organization?

The requirements of a good organization are mentioned below:

  • responsibilities should be clearly defined and coupled with corresponding authority;
  • a change in responsibility be made only after a definite understanding exists to that effect by all persons concerned;
  • Definite orders to an employee should be from one source
  • orders not be given to subordinates over the head of another executive;
  • Any criticism made should be made privately and for the betterment of the employee
  • promotions, wage changes, and disciplinary action always be approved by the executive immediately superior to the one directly responsible;

6. What is process planning? Mention different types of processes.

Process planning consists of selecting the best process, which can be used in the most advantageous way, selecting the specific tricks, fixtures, etc. to be used, and specifying the locating points of the special tools and the speeds, feeds, and depths of cut to be employed. The two different types of processes are mentioned below:

Basic Processes The first processes used in the sequence leads to the finished design.
Secondary Processes: operations that are required to transform the general form created by the basic process to product specifications.

7. What is a plant layout?

For a good process to work smoothly, a proper layout is required. The main purpose of a plant layout should be low handling cost and low throughput time. There are two types of plant layout:

  • Product or straight-line layouts: In this, minimization of flow from one operation to the next for any product class as machinery is located.
  • Process, or functional, arrangements: It is the grouping of similar facilities.

8. What are the major disadvantages of product grouping?

The major disadvantages of product grouping are:

  • Employee discontent can easily be picked as a broad variety of occupations are represented in a small area.
  • The problem of finding competent supervisors is increased due to the variety of facilities and jobs to be supervised.
  • The initial investment is more as duplicate service lines such as air, water, gas, oil, and power lines are required.

9. What is total quality control? Mention the technical standards.

The main objective of total quality control is to provide defect free products in 100 percent of the time to meet the complete needs of the customer. It involves all the members in an organization who can affect the quality of the output – a product or service. ISO 9000 is a world standard for quality, it is a quality assurance management system, which is divided into four divisions on the basis of its technical standards:

ISO 9001 covers procedures from purchasing to service of the sold product.
ISO 9002 targets towards standards related to processes and the assignment of subcontractors.
ISO 9003 It is applied to final inspection and test.
ISO 9004 It is applied to quality management systems.

10. What are the problems involved with queuing theory?

Matching of servers, which is provided to randomly arriving customers or services, which takes a random amount of time, are the problems involved with Queuing theory. It is also known as the waiting-line theory. A typical type of problem involved is, that people (or customers or parts) arrive at a server (or machine) and wait in line (in a queue) until service is rendered. There may be one or more servers.

11. What is a profit-sharing plan?

It is a form of incentive in which each participating worker receives a periodic bonus in addition to a regular pay only when the company earns a profit. A minimum profit is usually set aside for a return on invested capital, and beyond this amount, a percentage of profits goes into a pool to be shared by the employees. To protect the workers against adverse developments outside their control, some plans give the workers a bonus whenever the actual payroll dollars are less than the normal amount expected for a given volume of production.

12. What is the purpose of cost accounting?

The purposes of cost accounting require classifications of costs so that they are recognized:

  • by the nature of the item (a natural classification)
  • in their relation to the product
  • with respect to the accounting period to which they apply
  • in their tendency to vary with volume or activity
  • in their relation to departments
  • for control and analysis
  • for planning and decision-making. 1

13. What are the various methods for calculating the cost?

There are two methods for calculating the cost:

  1. Job-Order Cost Method: This method is used when orders are placed in the factory for specific jobs or lots of product, which can be identified through all manufacturing processes, a job cost system is appropriate.
  2. Process Cost Method: This product is used when production proceeds in a continuous flow, when units of product are not separately identifiable, and when there are no specific jobs or lots of product, a process cost system is appropriate.

14. What is the purpose of departmental classification?

Departmental classification is required for:

  • the segregation of different processes of production
  • securing the smoothest possible flow of production
  • establishing lines of responsibility for control over production and costs

15. What are the three managerial functions? Explain.

To achieve the objective three managerial functions should be kept in mind:

  1. Planning and setting objectives: It is a basic function of the management process. Without planning, there is no need to organize or control. However, planning must precede doing, and the budget is the most important planning tool of an enterprise.
  2. Organizing: It is essentially the establishment of the framework within which the required activities are to be performed, together with a list of who should perform them. The creation of an organization requires the establishment of organizational or functional units generally known as departments, divisions, sections, floors, branches, etc.
    Controlling: is the process or procedure by which management ensures operative performance, which corresponds with plans.

Reference: https://engineeringinterviewquestions.com/industrial-engineering-interview-questions-and-answers/