Industrial Engineers

Industrial engineering (IE) is about choices. Other engineering disciplines apply skills to very specific areas. IE gives you the opportunity to work in a variety of businesses. The most distinctive aspect of industrial engineering is the flexibility that it offers. As companies adopt management philosophies of continuous productivity and quality improvement to survive in the increasingly competitive world market, the need for industrial engineers is growing because industrial engineers are the only engineering professional strained as productivity and quality improvement specialists.

Industrial engineering is a versatile and diverse discipline concerned with the design, analysis, and optimization of systems at both the process and enterprise level. But even that broad‐based statement doesn’t do justice to the range of problem‐solving skills that an industrial engineering education will provide. It’s a way of thinking, examining, and analyzing.

Industrial engineers figure out ways to do things better. They engineer processes and systems that improve quality and productivity. IE’s make significant contributions to their employers by saving money while making the workplace better for fellow workers. It’s a way of finding the best solution to a situation.

Here are a few examples:

• As a management engineer in a hospital, an IE may help doctors and nurses make the best use of their time in treating patients.

• As an ergonomist in a television manufacturing plant, an IE may change the tools workers use to assemble televisions to reduce the risk of repetitive stress injuries.

Today, more and more businesses hire IE’s in areas like sales and marketing, finance, information systems, and personnel. Other industries employing IE’s are hospitals, airlines, banks, railroads, and social services. They work to eliminate waste of time, money, materials, energy, and other commodities. Most important of

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