Industrial Engineering

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Industrial engineering involves decision-making related to the best use of people, material, equipment and energy to achieve the goals of an organization. The organization may be a manufacturing facility, hospital, bank, amusement park, airline, government office, or any other group organized to make a product or perform a service. Industrial engineers make significant contributions to their employers by saving money while improving the workplace for fellow workers.

If there is one phrase that summarizes the activities of industrial engineers, it is “the search for a better way.” Some examples are determining a better way to make workplaces more comfortable and safer by improving workstations and work procedures, a better way to perform assembly operations by using robots and machine vision systems, a better way to reduce inventory cost by using just-in-time technology, a better way to assure product quality by statistical process control techniques, a better way to improve the efficiency of the entire organization by implementing Lean-Six Sigma technologies, and so on.

Manufacturing firms and service industries hire a significant number of industrial engineers. Today, more and more businesses hire industrial engineers in areas such as computer information systems, business operations, finance, and sales and marketing. Corporations as diverse as Coca Cola, UPS, Disney, IBM, Entergy, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Intel, Microsoft, Motorola, and Boeing all employ people with industrial engineering backgrounds to help manage their business. Many industrial engineers enter the workforce as engineers but eventually move into upper level management.

The industrial engineering curriculum has been developed to prepare students for meaningful careers in this challenging and important branch of engineering. The success of the program is evidenced by the high demand for its graduates in all sectors of the economy.

Industrial Engineering Program Educational Objectives

• Our alumni, within 3 to 5 years of graduation, are employed as engineers or hold leadership positions in design, manufacturing, consulting, construction, or service industries/organizations and/or are engaged in advanced study in engineering or business schools.
• Our alumni, within 3 to 5 years of graduation, are making systems improvement decisions for their organizations.

The Industrial Engineering Program is accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, www.abet.org. Graduates of this program are encouraged to become registered professional engineers.

Programs

• Industrial Engineering (BSIE)

• Minor in Industrial Engineering

Return to: College of Engineering and Science