RealM

Have you ever heard of Industrial Engineering before? Well, I have but I am not familiar with this major. I would appreciate it if you can enlighten me with what kind of jobs exists and where do most industrial engineers work. How's the job prospect and the salary? I've heard that industrial engineering is part engineering and part business but how?

Thank you!

hookemhorns23

from wikipedia:

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.

auscguy

It is for ppl who are not smart enough to become real engineers

RealM

Are you serious about that, auscguy?

chuy

No, he's not serious. I'm not an industrial engineer but half of my internship right now is industrial. Hookem is dead on in his description that he probably pulled from wikipedia (if he wrote that he needs to start writing for guidebooks or something.)

edit: The jobs are mostly going to be where there are some sort of factory. Since factories are leaving I doubt the job outlook is that great but don't quote me on that since I'm not sure. Of course, there are other places for Industrial engineers to go than factories.

3togo

#2 is a good formal definition ... pragmatically what does that mean.

Traditionally Industrial Engineers (IEs) have had big presence in manufacturing plants and other supply chain operations like distribution centers. Typically they will use analytical techniques to study questions like how can we improve the plant floor layout or how can we staff the plant throught the week and across the shifts of the day in the most cost effective way. While the traditional background is in manufacturing these types of problems exist in all situations ... distribution centers, service operations, backoffice operations etc. IEs use analytical techniques to drive process improvements.

FYI - IEs tend to use hueristic techniques (compare scenarios the IE picks) to solve ground floor level questions. Operations Research (OR) is similar in many ways but tends to use more rigorous mathematical techniques to search for optimal solutions (the best of all possible alternatives) to more global problems ... for example, what is the schedule an airline should run of the the planes and the crews on the planes ... figuring out a really clever schedule could save millions of dollares per week/month/year.

Tons of schools have IE majors ... many have OR majors (most of these probably also have IE).

One last thought ... Operations Management is a lot like IE ... not quite as formal quantitative techniques but still pragmatic analytical approaches to improving/designing operations.

Hopefully that made sense to you all ... please ask questions if you have more.

nshah9617

Directly from BCLS engineering page.

(Engineers)

"Industrial engineers determine the most effective ways to use the basic factors of production—people, machines, materials, information, and energy—to make a product or provide a service. They are primarily concerned with increasing productivity through the management of people, methods of business organization, and technology. To maximize efficiency, industrial engineers carefully study the product requirements and design manufacturing and information systems to meet those requirements with the help of mathematical methods and models. They develop management control systems to aid in financial planning and cost analysis, and design production planning and control systems to coordinate activities and ensure product quality. They also design or improve systems for the physical distribution of goods and services and determine the most efficient plant locations. Industrial engineers develop wage and salary administration systems and job evaluation programs. Many industrial engineers move into management positions because the work is closely related to the work of managers."

"Industrial engineers are expected to have employment growth of 20 percent over the projections decade, faster than the average for all occupations. As firms look for new ways to reduce costs and raise productivity, they increasingly will turn to industrial engineers to develop more efficient processes and reduce costs, delays, and waste. This should lead to job growth for these engineers, even in manufacturing industries with slowly growing or declining employment overall. Because their work is similar to that done in management occupations, many industrial engineers leave the occupation to become managers. Many openings will be created by the need to replace industrial engineers who transfer to other occupations or leave the labor force. "

Payscale:
Industrial engineers: [Lowest 10, Lowest 25, Median, Highest 25, Highest 10]
44,790 55,060 68,620 84,850 100,980

Starting Salaries: [BS, MS, PhD]

Industrial/manufacturing
55,067 64,759 77,364

RealM

Wow, thanks for all of the posts.

So would it be strongly recommended to earn BS in IE and earn MBA after few working years? Also, where do most IE graduates go work?

gthopeful

Engineers joke that IE stands for "imaginary engineering"

RacinReaver

My mom's an IE and this explains exactly what she does (from 3togo's post above).

She also has to work with doing statistics on quality control and figuring out what sorts of levels are unacceptable (for example, is it better to have a 5% failure rate on the forming of a mold, or use a more expensive method to get a 1% failure rate?). She's also had to do a lot of safety coordination and things like that, but I think that's more because she's at a small company than anything else.

I hear here talking about Six Sigma, Lean Manufacturing, and Kaizen a lot, as they're some of the "hot ideas" in IE today. If you're interested in seeing what they're about, it might be worth flipping through those pages.

auscguy

Engineering students who can't survive in traditional engineering majors switch to IE. Same thing for engineering grad school, says that an applicant has lousy GPA, his chance is dramatically increased when applying for IE. Normally, engineering students don't think highly for IE students. It is so ridiculously easy.

mydegisunacred

U mad auscguy?

A_Balding_Loser

auscguy, what kind of comment is that? strong inferiority complex.

coolweather

IEs have to fight with managers coming from different backgrounds for jobs. A lot of times these managers use more politics than engineering. And a lot of times IEs and managers lose the fight to the corporate owners who want to outsource everything to India and other countries for cheap labor.

ken285

I definitely respect IE's, regardless of difficulty. They make good contributions to the community... it's even beginning to trickle into my industry (construction). One very large contractor/engineer adopted six sigma, and it's prominently mentioned on their website. I've also seen some articles in academic journals bridging lean manufacturing with construction.

And why would you apply for IE grad school if you had no interest in IE? Doesn't make sense.