'Industrial engineering' is a branch of
engineering that concerns the development, improvement, implementation and evaluation of integrated systems of people, money, knowledge, information, equipment, energy, material and process. Industrial engineering draws upon the principles and methods of engineering analysis and synthesis, as well as
mathematical,
physical and
social sciences together with the principles and methods of engineering analysis and
design to specify, predict and evaluate the results to be obtained from such systems. In
lean manufacturing systems, 'Industrial engineers' work to eliminate wastes of time, money, materials, energy, and other resources.
Industrial engineering is also known as
operations management, systems engineering, production engineering, manufacturing engineering or manufacturing systems engineering; a distinction that seems to depend on the viewpoint or motives of the user. Recruiters or educational establishments use the names to differentiate themselves from others. In healthcare, industrial engineers are more commonly known as management engineers,
engineering management, or even health systems engineers.
Whereas most engineering disciplines apply skills to very specific areas, industrial engineering is applied in virtually every industry. Examples of where industrial engineering might be used include shortening lines (or
queues) at a
theme park, streamlining an operating room, distributing products worldwide (also referred to as
Supply Chain Management), and manufacturing cheaper and more reliable automobiles. Industrial engineers typically use
computer simulation, especially
discrete event simulation, for system analysis and evaluation.
The name "industrial engineer" can be misleading. While the term originally applied to manufacturing, it has grown to encompass services and other industries as well. Similar fields include
Operations Research,
Management Science,
Financial Engineering,
Supply Chain,
Manufacturing Engineering,
Engineering Management,
Systems Engineering,
Ergonomics,
Process Engineering,
Value Engineering and
Quality Engineering.
There are a number of things industrial engineers do in their work to make processes more efficient, to make products more manufacturable and consistent in their quality, and to increase productivity.
Universities
US News and World Report's top schools in the United States offering doctoral degrees in industrial or manufacturing engineering specialties are
Georgia Institute of Technology,
Purdue University at West Lafayette, Indiana and
University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Michigan.
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History
Although industrial engineering courses had been taught by multiple universities in the late 1800s, the first department of industrial engineering was established in 1908 at Pennsylvania State University.
The first doctorate degree was awarded for industrial engineering in the 1930s by Cornell University.
Undergraduate curriculum
In the United States, the usual undergraduate degree earned is the Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering (BSIE). The typical BSIE curriculum includes introductory
chemistry and
physics,
mathematics through
calculus and
differential equations and also including
probability and
statistics, intermediate coursework in
mechanical engineering,
computer science, and sometimes
electrical engineering, and specialized courses such as the following:
★
Systems Simulation
★
Operations Research and/or
Optimization
★ Engineering Economy
★ Engineering Administration/Management
★
Human Factors or
Ergonomics
★ Manufacturing Engineering
★ Production Planning and Control
★ Computer Aid Manufacturing
★ Facilities Design and/or Work Space Design
★
Logistics and/or
Supply Chain Management
★
Statistical Process Control or Quality Control
See also
★
List of industrial engineers
★
List of universities with industrial engineering faculty
★
Institute of Industrial Engineers
★
Institution of Electrical Engineers, United Kingdom, embodying the defunct Institution of Production Engineers
★
System dynamics
★
Systems engineering
★
Operations research
★
Operations management
★
Quality control
★
Statistical process control
★
Value engineering
★
Reverse engineering
★
List of production topics
★
Management Consulting
★
Supply Chain
★
Nutrient systems
★
Engineering Management
★
Management Science
★
Methods engineering
★
INFORMS
Notes
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External links
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Industrial Engineering in the Occupational Outlook Handbook
★
Washington Accord
★
Turk Industrial Engineers Group (Turk-IE)
★
The Society of Modeling and Simulation International
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M S Ramaiah School of Advanced Studies
Journals
★
IIE Transactions
★
Quality Engineering
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The Engineering Economist