Real-Life Math
Jane Gaboury is the editor of IIE Solutions, a magazine for the
members of the Institute of Industrial Engineers. She says math is very important
to a plant industrial engineer's career.
"There's plenty of math content
in their coursework," says Gaboury. "For example, to calculate
the average output of an assembly process or a production process takes good
math skills."
As an industrial engineer in the forest industry, you
should be familiar with the terminology and measurements of your field.
Imagine
you're talking to a machinery operator on the floor of your sawmill. The operator
tells you that a dozen two-by-four boards split the day before because of
rot. You have to make a report that documents the loss and the best solution
to the problem.
In the forest industry, loss is described in terms
of the total volume of board feet. One board foot is equal to the volume of
a piece of lumber that measures 1 inch in height, 12 inches in length and
12 inches in width. To begin, you'll need to calculate the loss in terms of
its volume.
The 12 lost two-by-fours were 16 feet long.
Volume
= length x height x width
Now, how many board feet were lost?
Hint
The
formula for converting from volume (inches cubed) to board feet is:
One
board foot = a piece of lumber 1 inch x 12 inches x 12 inches
One board
foot = 144 cubic inches