What is industrial engineering

Industrial engineering is a very attractive field of study considering that it offers the best of both engineering and business. Industrial engineering is all about design, analysis, and control of operations of production, service, and systems. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics, the job market for this field is poised to grow by 10 percent between 2021 and 2031.

Earlier, an industrial engineer would oversee a manufacturing plant and be involved with the operating efficiency of the workers and machines. However, in today’s world, industrial engineers are concerned about productivity and the technical problems of production management and control. Their responsibilities cover the designing of unit operations to controlling production and service systems.

Their role is to integrate the physical, financial, economic, and human components of such systems to attain specific goals. They also must focus on tasks like production planning and control, quality control, inventory, equipment, warehouse, and materials management, plant layout and workstation design.

What does an industrial engineer do?

An industrial engineer works to improve processes or designs things that are more efficient and reduce wastage of money, time, resources, man power and energy even as they follow safety standards and regulations. Industrial engineers use their knowledge of mathematics, physics and social sciences to analyse, design, predict and evaluate the results and roadblocks of processes and devices.

For instance, an industrial engineer could be responsible for ensuring that your mobile phone fits into your pocket. Or for it to have processing power while not overheating. There are various things that industrial engineers offer the world. If a product is not working well, the industrial engineers are fully responsible for it.

Since the systems that industrial engineers work with are so complex and large, they need to have knowledge and skills in a variety of disciplines. In addition, industrial engineers must have the ability to work well with people, have good interpersonal communication and be good at problem solving. They also use their knowledge and skills to improve systematic processes using statistical analysis, work on design, planning, quality control, operations management, and computer simulation.

The work of an industrial engineer may involve designing new equipment and writing the specifications for equipment bought from an outside vendor to ensure that it meets those requirements. They may be required to repurpose existing equipment or facilities, design new processes or tools and procedures. For this, they may be required to use computer aided design systems to design equipment or facilities and computer modelling to simulate processes and supply chains to improve efficiencies and reduce costs.

Where do industrial engineers work?

Industrial engineers work in a range of environments. They could be in offices or in various other settings that they are tasked with improving. This could include watching how a process works in a factory or examining workflows in a hospital. They will then take the data and examine it using a computer and solve the problems.

Since industrial engineers are very skilled, they can work in both managerial and technical positions. Their employment settings could include consulting, engineering, research and development, service industries, logistics, manufacturing, and trade.

Reasons to study industrial engineering

You could do a Bachelor’s or a Master’s degree in industrial engineering. The main advantages are:

•   You will be a part of a dynamic field: since technology is evolving, you will have to keep up with it and learn how to bring about innovation.
•   There is no such thing as a bad idea in industrial engineering. In your undergrad study, you will constantly be encouraged to come up with solutions and different angles of approach.
•   It is a flexible area of study. You could choose to pursue a more technical or a more management-oriented path, customizing your approach.
•   Look and you will see the work of industrial engineers all around you. Your cup, your laptop, your scarf, your phone, everything has had someone plan their lifecycle.

Career Path of industrial engineering graduates

Industrial engineering is one of the most sought-after specializations today. It offers a wide range of skills and an opportunity to work in both technical and managerial positions which makes it a popular choice. Prospective careers could be in:

•   Service industry
•   Logistics providers
•   Manufacturing
•   Consulting and engineering services
•   Research and development firms
•   Wholesale trade

With the right education, you will be able to organize tasks like:

•   Deciding the location of a production plant so that the costs of transporting the finished products to customers is minimal
•   Distribution of products worldwide in a cost-effective manner
•   Determining if changing a hospital’s information system would improve the quality of care in the hospital?

Summary

While traditionally industrial engineering was limited to planning layouts of assembly lines and improving worker productivity, it has now expanded to eliminating waste of time, money, materials, energy, and other resources. Industrial engineers today use computer simulations and design to map and analyse systems and processes for optimization. In addition, machine learning and data science is being used to improve processes and procedures. As industrial engineering continues to develop, industrial engineers will continue to be in demand in a variety of industries.

People Also Ask

1. What do industrial engineers do?

 Industrial engineers work on determining ways to eliminate waste in production processes. 

2. What are some examples of tasks in industrial engineering?

Tasks in industrial engineering include production planning and control, quality control, inventory, equipment, warehouse and material management.

3. What are 3 daily duties of an industrial engineer?

The daily duties of an industrial engineer are evaluating the present manufacturing practices and picking ones that need to be optimised, managing production schedules for productivity and incorporating quality control for waste reduction.