• How can I arrange a summer practice organization?

There are two alternatives; either you apply to organizations personally or wait for the summer practice opportunities announced by the department. The second option is more risky and the capacity is usually very limited. Certain firms require the department to determine the candidates for summer practice. In that case, an announcement is made and the students are required to send their transcripts, resumes and fill out the Preference Form available under >Forms. If the student is assigned through the department, it is mandatory that the summer practice is conducted at that company.

• Which departments of the organization should I visit during my summer practice?

It is preferable for you to take an all-around trip in an organization. However, do not forget that you can still gather many observations through effective communications. You inquire about the overall operations in your practice organization although you are stationed at a particular department.

• What kind of topics will I be studying during the practice term?

Industrial engineering has a broad application area. Its main field of interest is systems run by people for the needs of others, in general. Summer practice is your first lengthy period of observing and inquiring about systems in operation. Try as much as you can, to relate things you have covered in your courses to what you experience during your practice term. Learn about the many possible ways of getting various organizational and technical functions performed. Identify the systems behind all those activities. Use your "Summer Practice Manual" to guide you through this effort.

• What sort of branches or divisions in a bank are suitable for an IE 400 practice organization?

As in many organizations banks have numerous activities in providing services to their customers. You should be more interested in the systems (for example organizational, information related, procedural, managerial) aspects in this service provision. In IE 400 Summer Practice you are required to observe and analyze a purposeful system in real life. Divisions or branches in a bank are suitable in that regard so much as they consist of integrated operation of people, financial resources, processes and information with some performance expectation, and they have ongoing decision making (for example, planning or evaluation) or development (for example, new services) as their required function.

• What is the paperwork needed to get officially registered to summer practice?

         Four steps are required:

• Add IE 300/ IE 400 course in the registration at the beginning of the semester.
• Submit the summer practice reports to Students Affair Secretary (Room IE 128) within the first two weeks of the following academic term. Also submit the soft copy of your report through the web-site (submission is available under >Forms)
• The company should send the filled out and signed evaluation form and employer survey to Student Affairs Secretary.
• Fill out the online questionnaire (will be announced)

• What constitutes a "sufficient" IE problem definition in IE 400 reports?

This is described in Appendix A of your IE 400 Summer Practice Manual. You are required to supply your own description of the components of a problem formulation and justify your points. You should be specific to your practice organization. Problem identification should be the result of some methodical analysis carried out in the system the problem is associated with. Alternative courses of action and constraining factors should be supported by problem specific facts.

• How should a student answer questions in manufacturing oriented areas if the practice is done in a service organization?

The critical issue is to see the analogies. If not exactly the same, you can identify areas of similar nature in a service organization. A budget allocation might substitute a production plan, preclassified records may stand as inventory, timetables for professionals can be counted as their schedules, from flow may replace material flow. Try to highlight the reasons you think justify such similarities in your case.

• What sort of reporting is acceptable if several students practice in the same organization?

Every practioner will have a separate report as a rule. General outlook at the firm can be common for IE 400 only. However, you should choose separate examples each for reporting on your observations.

Note that IE 400 summer practice report is composed of two parts, namely, questions and problem definition/project parts. Questions part must be different and separate for each practioner. For the problem definition/project part,

• problem definitions must be different in any case.
• project part might be the same if the project is complex. (This case is valid for at most two students.)

Students who will perform a project type IE 400 summer practice can either prepare a regular report (composed of questions and problem definition/project parts) or a project type report. Note that the students working on the same project can submit the same project type report.

• How should a student answer questions in manufacturing oriented areas if the practice is done in a service organization?

The critical issue is to see the analogies. If not exactly the same, you can identify areas of similar nature in a service organization. A budget allocation might substitute a production plan, preclassified records may stand as inventory, timetables for professionals can be counted as their schedules, form flow may replace material flow. Try to highlight the reasons you think justify such similarities in your case.

• Is there a manual available for IE 400 summer practice done in service sector?

Yes, a copy of the manual can be obtained from the photocopy office in the department..

• If I am planning to work on a project full-time at the summer practice organization, is it possible for me to present the project work, instead of performing a practice according to the guidelines and submitting its results?

IE 400 practice may involve a project type study in which students have to supply a project report as explained in "IE 400 Summer Practice Manual" instead of defining an IE problem. Minimum duration for this type of IE 400 practice is 30 workdays (6 weeks). The project may be initiated long before you started your summer practice, or may be offered specifically to you by the organization, or you deem it as a potential area worth studying there. You may also consider getting fully involved in an ongoing project during your practice and desire to report on that only in your report.

These students need to submit a two-pages project proposal. The proposal should include brief description of the company and details of the proposed project and an outline of what you will include in the report. Note that proposal should be approved (signed) by the company and be submitted to the summer practice committee by the first week of the summer practice. The committee shall evaluate the validity of your proposed work as a substitute for IE 400 summer practice. If it fulfills the requirements of the summer practice with the necessary observations you are expected to make, then you can submit a specially qualified report. The committee may ask you to add some parts from the regular content of the guidelines as well. However, in any case your report should be complete, in that you should describe all the phases of the work done including the issue, the organizational environment, the data or the facts collected, all the tools used, the outcomes of the project and its implementation.