Industrial engineering is also 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 or health systems engineers.
Where as 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, Overall Equipment Effectiveness, 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 article on "America's Best Colleges 2009" listing schools offering Undergraduate engineering specialties: Industrial / Manufacturing whose highest degree is a doctorate are Georgia Institute of Technology, University of California at Berkeley, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Purdue University at West Lafayette, Penn State, Virginia Tech and Stanford University.
History
Industrial engineering courses had been taught by multiple universities in the late 1800s along Europe, especially in very developed countries such as Germany, France and United Kingdom, but also in Spain in the Technical University of Madrid[2]. In the United States,the first department of industrial engineering was established in 1908 at the Pennsylvania State University by Alex Kaserman.
The first doctoral degree in industrial engineering was awarded in the 1930s by Cornell University.
Postgraduate curriculum
The postgraduate programmes in industrial engineering have long been held as probably the most diversified programme across industries. The usual postgraduate degree earned is the Master of Science in Industrial Engineering/Industrial Engineering & Management/Industrial Engineering & Operations Research. The typical MS in IE/IE&M/IE & OR curriculum includes :
Operations Research/Optimization Techniques
Operations Management
Supply Chain Mgmt & Logistics
Simulation & Stochastic Models
Manufacturing Systems
Engineering Economics
Corporate Planning
Human Factors Engineering/Ergonomics
Productivity Improvement
Production Planning and Control
Computer Aided Manufacturing
Material Management
Facilities Design and/or Work Space Design
Statistical process control|Statistical Process Control or Quality Control
Time and Motion Study
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, physics, economics, mathematics, statistics, properties of materials, 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
Time and Motion study
Manufacturing Engineering
Production Planning and Control
Computer Aided Manufacturing
Packaging engineering
Facilities Design and/or Work Space Design
Logistics and/or Supply Chain Management
Statistical Process Control or Quality Control
Stochastic Systems
Discrete Event Simulation
Linear Programming
Non-Linear Programming
Queuing Theory
Probability
Organizational Behavior
Statistics
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