Was Socrates the First Industrial Engineer?

Socrates was the first industrial engineer?

About 2400 years ago a guy hung around in Athens pissing people off. He pissed so many people off, that they threatened to kill him, and as a last FU, he called them on it. And we still talk about him today.


Of course almost everyone has heard of Socrates. But what has he to do with industrial engineering?


One of the key improvement tools is called the 5 Whys. The famed orchestrator of the Toyota Production System is credited with the advancement of this tool. However, our good friend Socrates was using this tool 2400 years ago to piss off people in Athens. Just like today, when we upset people by acting like a good 5 year old and asking why, Socrates was still doing that till Athens government decided they had had enough.


So Socrates was going around using the 5 Why method to expose the fact that they really didn't understand what was going on. And today, we use the 5 Why method to do the exact same thing. To realize that we probably don't know what is going on, and to piss everyone off by trying to figure it out.

Doesn't this just look like a guy who is going to stir up some stuff, and then make you feel bad about yourself.