The focus at that time was almost exclusively on factory floor work, but occasionally the ideas were also applied to clerical work. In the meantime, the IE profession has grown into many diverse fields, manufacturing, service, healthcare, etc. Today the core that unites all industrial engineering sub-fields remains the use of scientific method for problem solving and to make processes, service or manufacturing, more efficient and effective. However, the applications have with the advent of the computer spread to all lines of work and in particular to service functions and knowledge work, fields that account for an increasing portion of our modern economy. However, few seem to have seriously considered the challenge of what to do with the data once collected.
Data analysis facilitates the conversion process.
A few Industrial Engineering Departments in the US have already begun training their graduates in data collection and analysis disguised as Quality Engineering. To briefly revisit the history, due to the serious competitive problems in the auto and electronics industries in the early 1980s, the field of Quality Control, from the 1930s recognized as an Industrial Engineering discipline, became revitalized. The name was gradually changed to Quality Improvement, the focus was shifted, and emphasis put more on teaching methods for discovering new ways to do work better. However, the methods promoted under the umbrella of Quality are much more important for society than implied by the term Quality. Shoppers in a modern supermarket are often provided with a card that entitles them to certain discounts on selected products.