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 and synthesis, as well as the mathematical, physical and social sciences together with the principles and methods of engineering design to specify, predict, and evaluate the results to be obtained from such systems or processes. Its underlying concepts overlap considerably with certain business-oriented disciplines such as operations management, but the engineering side tends to emphasize extensive mathematical proficiency and usage of quantitative methods.

Depending on the sub-speciality(ies) involved, industrial engineering may also be known as operations management, management science, operations research, systems engineering, or manufacturing engineering, usually depending on the viewpoint or motives of the user. Recruiters or educational establishments use the names to differentiate themselves from others. In health care, industrial engineers are more commonly known as health management engineers or health systems engineers.

Overview

While the term originally applied to manufacturing, the use of "industrial" in "industrial engineering" can be somewhat misleading, since it has grown to encompass any methodical or quantitative approach to optimizing how a process, system, or organization operates. Some engineering universities and educational agencies around the world have changed the term "industrial" to the broader term "production", leading to the typical extensions noted above. In fact, the primary U.S. professional organization for Industrial Engineers, the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE) has been considering changing its name to something broader (such as the Institute of Industrial & Systems Engineers), although the latest vote among membership deemed this unnecessary for the time being.

The various topics of concern to industrial engineers include management science, financial engineering, engineering management, supply chain management, process engineering, operations research, systems engineering, ergonomics, cost and value engineering, quality engineering, facilities planning, and the engineering design process. Traditionally, a major aspect of industrial engineering was planning the layouts of factories and designing assembly lines and other manufacturing paradigms. And now, in so-called lean manufacturing systems, industrial engineers work to eliminate wastes of time, money, materials, energy, and other resources.

Examples of where industrial engineering might be used include designing an assembly workstation, strategizing for various operational logistics, consulting as an efficiency expert, developing a new financial algorithm or loan system for a bank, streamlining operation and emergency room location or usage in a hospital, planning complex distribution schemes for materials or products (referred to as Supply Chain Management), and shortening lines (or queues) at a bank, hospital, or a theme park.

Industrial engineers typically use computer simulation (especially discrete event simulation), along with extensive mathematical tools and modeling and computational methods for system analysis, evaluation, and optimization.

History

See also: List of industrial engineers

Efforts to apply science to the design of processes and of production systems were made by many people in the 18th and 19th centuries. They took some time to evolve and to be synthesized into disciplines that we would label with names such as industrial engineering, production engineering, or systems engineering. For example, precursors to industrial engineering included some aspects of military science; the quest to develop manufacturing using interchangeable parts; the development of the armory system of manufacturing; the work of Henri Fayol and colleagues (which grew into a larger movement called Fayolism); and the work of Frederick Winslow Taylor and colleagues (which grew into a larger movement called scientific management). In the late 19th century, such efforts began to inform consultancy and higher education. The idea of consulting with experts about process engineering naturally evolved into the idea of teaching the concepts as curriculum.

Industrial engineering courses were taught by multiple universities in Europe at the end of the 19th century, including in Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and Spain.^[1] In the United States, the first department of industrial and manufacturing engineering was established in 1909 at the Pennsylvania State University.

The first doctoral degree in industrial engineering was awarded in the 1930s by Cornell University.

University programs

Many universities have BS, MS, M.Tech and PhD programs available. US News and World Report's article on "America's Best Colleges 2010" lists schools offering Undergraduate engineering specialities in Industrial or Manufacturing.^[2] The Georgia Institute of Technology has been ranked as having the best Industrial Engineering program in the United States consecutively for the last twenty years according to this survey.

Undergraduate curriculum

In the United States, the usual undergraduate degree earned is the Bachelor of Science or B.S. in Industrial Engineering (BSIE). Like most undergraduate engineering programs, the typical curriculum includes a broad math and science foundation spanning chemistry, physics, engineering design, calculus, differential equations, statistics, materials science, engineering mechanics, computer science, circuits and electronics, and often additional specialized courses in areas such as management, systems theory, ergonomics/safety, stochastics, advanced mathematics and computation, politics and economics. Some Universities require International credits to complete the BS degree.^{[clarification needed]}

Postgraduate curriculum

The usual postgraduate degree earned is the Master of Science in Industrial Engineering, Production Engineering, Industrial Engineering & Management, Manufacturing Engineering & Management or Industrial Engineering & Operations Research. The typical MS curriculum includes:

Operations research & Optimization techniques Engineering economics Supply chain management & Logistics Systems Simulation & Stochastic Processes System Dynamics & Policy Planning System Analysis & Techniques Manufacturing systems/Manufacturing engineering            Human factors engineering & Ergonomics Production planning and control Management Sciences

Computer aided manufacturing Facilities design & Work space design Quality Engineering Reliability Engineering & Life Testing Statistical process control or Quality control Time and motion study Operations management Corporate planning Productivity improvement Materials management

Salaries and workforce statistics

The total number of engineers employed in the U.S. in 2006 was roughly 1.5 million. Of these, 201,000 were industrial engineers (13.3%), the third most popular engineering specialty. The average starting salaries being $55,067 with a bachelor's degree, $64,759 with a master's degree, and $77,364 with a doctorate degree. This places industrial engineering at 7th of 15 among engineering bachelors degrees, 3rd of 10 among masters degrees, and 2nd of 7 among doctorate degrees in average annual salary.^[3] The median annual income of industrial engineers in the U.S. workforce is $68,620.

See also

Related topics List of production topics Methods engineering Nutrient systems Overall Equipment Effectiveness            Production engineering Quality assurance Reverse engineering Sales process engineering Statistical process control Value engineering

Associations American Society for Engineering Education American Society for Quality INFORMS Indian Institution of Industrial Engineering Institute of Industrial Engineers Institution of Electrical Engineers Washington Accord

References

Notes

1. ^ http://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=62202
2. ^ "America's Best Colleges 2009: Industrial / Manufacturing". U.S. News & World Report. USNews.com. 2008. http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/college/spec-doct-industrial. Retrieved 2008-12-17. 
3. ^ U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Engineering - http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos027.htm#earnings - Accessed 14 January 2009

Further reading

• Badiru, A. (Ed.) (2005). Handbook of industrial and systems engineering. CRC Press. ISBN 0849327199
• Blanchard, B. and Fabrycky, W. (2005). Systems Engineering and Analysis (4th Edition). Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0131869779
• Salvendy, G. (Ed.) (2001). Handbook of industrial engineering: Technology and operations management. Wiley-Interscience. ISBN 0471330574
• Turner, W. et al. (1992). Introduction to industrial and systems engineering (Third edition). Prentice Hall. ISBN 0134817893.