Richard Muther is a consultant who developed many basic techniques used in plant layout, material handling, and other aspects of industrial engineering

Industrial engineering

Industrial engineering is a branch of engineering dealing with the optimization of complex processes or systems. It is concerned with the development, improvement, implementation and evaluation of integrated systems of people, money, knowledge, information, equipment, energy, materials, analysis...

.

Early life and education

Born 1913 in Newton, Massachusetts

Newton, Massachusetts

Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States bordered to the east by Boston. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the population of Newton was 85,146, making it the eleventh largest city in the state.-Villages:...

, he earned his B.S. and M.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...

. He later received an honorary doctorate ScD(hc) from Lund University

Lund University

Lund University , located in the city of Lund in the province of Scania, Sweden, is one of northern Europe's most prestigious universities and one of Scandinavia's largest institutions for education and research, frequently ranked among the world's top 100 universities...

 in Sweden and is a registered Professional Engineer

Professional Engineer

Regulation of the engineering profession is established by various jurisdictions of the world to protect the safety, well-being and other interests of the general public, and to define the licensure process through which an engineer becomes authorized to provide professional services to the...

.

Contributions to engineering

He was the original developer of relationship chart (REL-CHART) and its companion space-relationship diagram. This tool is the basis for many other techniques which are used to optimize the proximity of related functions and minimize unnecessary transportation in industrial facilities. He also created the Mag Count method of measuring the difficulty of handling (transporting) any solid material prior to knowing how it will be moved. He developed the industry-standard color code used to classify industrial space and the related type-of-work symbols. Corresponding black-and-white hatch patterns based on the heraldic tincture code are also part of his methodology. He is considered the "Father of Systematic Planning". He is currently writing revolutionary book on planning virtuall anything with Shekar Natarajan

Shekar Natarajan

Shekar Natarajan , born 23 July 1979 in Secunderabad, India currently serves as the North American Director of Supply Planning for Anheuser Busch, makers of Budweiser. Formerly he played key role of Director of Supply Chain for the Pepsi Beverages Company, PepsiCo division U.S.A...

Awards and recognition

• Gilbreth Medal (outstanding contributions to Industrial Engineering)
• Materials Handling Award (SAM)
• Engineering Citation Award (SME)
• Honor Award (IMMS)
• Reed-Apple Award (MHIA)
• Donald Francis Award (for outstanding contributions to international material handling.)

Books published

• Systematic Layout Planning (1961; 1973; 1987)
  
• Systematic Handling Analysis (1969)
  
• Systematic Planning of Industrial Facilities (1979; 1980; 1999)
  
• Practical Plant Layout (1956)
  
• Production Line Technique (1944)
• Planning By Design (2010)