Industrial engineering

Industrial engineering is an engineering profession that is

concerned with the optimization of complex processes, systems,
or organizations by developing, improving and implementing
integrated systems of people, money, knowledge, information and
equipment. Industrial engineering is central to manufacturing
operations.[1]

Industrial engineers use specialized knowledge and skills in the

mathematical, physical and social sciences, together with the
principles and methods of engineering analysis and design, to Industrial engineers in a factory
specify, predict, and evaluate the results obtained from systems
and processes.[2] There are several industrial engineering
principles followed in the manufacturing industry to ensure the effective flow of the systems, processes and
operations.[1]

This includes:

Lean Manufacturing
Six Sigma
Information Systems
Process Capability
Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control (DMAIC).

These principles allow the creation of new systems, processes or situations for the useful coordination of
labor, materials and machines and also improve the quality and productivity of systems, physical or
social.[3][4] Depending on the subspecialties involved, industrial engineering may also overlap with,
operations research, systems engineering, manufacturing engineering, production engineering, supply chain
engineering, management science, management engineering, financial engineering, ergonomics or human
factors engineering, safety engineering, logistics engineering or others, depending on the viewpoint or
motives of the user.

History

Origins

Industrial engineering

There is a general consensus among historians that the roots of the industrial engineering profession date
back to the Industrial Revolution. The technologies that helped mechanize traditional manual operations in
the textile industry including the flying shuttle, the spinning jenny, and perhaps most importantly the steam
engine generated economies of scale that made mass production in centralized locations attractive for the
first time. The concept of the production system had its genesis in the factories created by these
innovations.[5] It has also been suggested that perhaps Leonardo da Vinci was the first industrial engineer
because there is evidence that he applied science to the analysis of human work by examining the rate at
which a man could shovel dirt around the year 1500. Others also state that the industrial engineering
profession grew from Charles Babbage’s study of factory operations and specifically his work on the
manufacture of straight pins in 1832 . However, it has been generally argued that these early efforts, while
valuable, were merely observational and did not attempt to engineer the jobs studied or increase overall
output.[6]

Specialization of labour

Adam Smith's concepts of Division of Labour and the "Invisible

Hand" of capitalism introduced in his treatise The Wealth of
Nations motivated many of the technological innovators of the
Industrial Revolution to establish and implement factory systems.
The efforts of James Watt and Matthew Boulton led to the first
integrated machine manufacturing facility in the world, including
the application of concepts such as cost control systems to reduce
waste and increase productivity and the institution of skills training
for craftsmen.[5]
Watt's steam engine (Technical
University of Madrid)
Charles Babbage became associated with industrial engineering
because of the concepts he introduced in his book On the
Economy of Machinery and Manufacturers which he wrote as a
result of his visits to factories in England and the United States in the early 1800s. The book includes
subjects such as the time required to perform a specific task, the effects of subdividing tasks into smaller
and less detailed elements, and the advantages to be gained from repetitive tasks.[5]

Interchangeable parts

Eli Whitney and Simeon North proved the feasibility of the notion of interchangeable parts in the
manufacture of muskets and pistols for the US Government. Under this system, individual parts were mass-
produced to tolerances to enable their use in any finished product. The result was a significant reduction in
the need for skill from specialized workers, which eventually led to the industrial environment to be studied
later.[5]

Pioneers

Frederick Taylor (1856–1915) is generally credited as being the father of the industrial engineering
discipline. He earned a degree in mechanical engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology and earned
several patents from his inventions. His books, Shop Management and The Principles of Scientific
Management, which were published in the early 1900s, were the beginning of industrial engineering.[7]
Improvements in work efficiency under his methods was based on improving work methods, developing of
work standards, and reduction in time required to carry out the work. With an abiding faith in the scientific
method, Taylor did many experiments in machine shop work on machines as well as men. Taylor
developed "time study" to measure time taken for various elements of a task and then used the study
observations to reduce the time further. Time study was done for the improved method once again to
provide time standards which are accurate for planning manual tasks and also for providing incentives.[5]

The husband-and-wife team of Frank Gilbreth (1868–1924) and Lillian Gilbreth (1878–1972) was the
other cornerstone of the industrial engineering movement whose work is housed at Purdue University
School of Industrial Engineering. They categorized the elements of human motion into 18 basic elements
called therbligs. This development permitted analysts to design jobs without knowledge of the time required
to do a job. These developments were the beginning of a much broader field known as human factors or
ergonomics.[5]

In 1908, the first course on industrial engineering was offered as an elective at Pennsylvania State
University, which became a separate program in 1909 through the efforts of Hugo Diemer.[8] The first
doctoral degree in industrial engineering was awarded in 1933 by Cornell University.

In 1912, Henry Laurence Gantt developed the Gantt chart, which outlines actions the organization along
with their relationships. This chart opens later form familiar to us today by Wallace Clark.

With the development of assembly lines, the factory of Henry Ford (1913) accounted for a significant leap
forward in the field. Ford reduced the assembly time of a car from more than 700 hours to 1.5 hours. In
addition, he was a pioneer of the economy of the capitalist welfare ("welfare capitalism") and the flag of
providing financial incentives for employees to increase productivity.

In 1927, the then Technische Hochschule Berlin was the first German university to introduce the degree.[9]
The course of studies developed by Willi Prion was then still called Business and Technology and was
intended to provide descendants of industrialists with an adequate education.

Comprehensive quality management system (Total quality management or TQM) developed in the forties
was gaining momentum after World War II and was part of the recovery of Japan after the war.

The American Institute of Industrial Engineering was formed in 1948. The early work by F. W. Taylor and
the Gilbreths was documented in papers presented to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers as
interest grew from merely improving machine performance to the performance of the overall manufacturing
process, most notably starting with the presentation by Henry R. Towne (1844–1924) of his paper The
Engineer as An Economist (1886).[10]

Modern practice

From 1960 to 1975, with the development of decision support systems in supply such as material
requirements planning (MRP), one can emphasize the timing issue (inventory, production, compounding,
transportation, etc.) of industrial organization. Israeli scientist Dr. Jacob Rubinovitz installed the CMMS
program developed in IAI and Control-Data (Israel) in 1976 in South Africa and worldwide.

In the 1970s, with the penetration of Japanese management theories such as Kaizen and Kanban, Japan
realized very high levels of quality and productivity. These theories improved issues of quality, delivery
time, and flexibility. Companies in the west realized the great impact of Kaizen and started implementing
their own continuous improvement programs. W. Edwards Deming made significant contributions in the
minimization of variance starting in the 1950s and continuing to the end of his life.

In the 1990s, following the global industry globalization process, the emphasis was on supply chain
management and customer-oriented business process design. The theory of constraints, developed by Israeli
scientist Eliyahu M. Goldratt (1985), is also a significant milestone in the field.

Comparison to other engineering disciplines

Engineering is traditionally decompositional. To understand the whole of something, it is first broken down
into its parts. One masters the parts, then puts them back together to create a better understanding of how to
master the whole. The approach of industrial and systems engineering (ISE) is opposite; any one part
cannot be understood without the context of the whole system. Changes in one part of the system affect the
entire system, and the role of a single part is to better serve the whole system.

Also, industrial engineering considers the human factor and its relation to the technical aspect of the
situation and all of the other factors that influence the entire situation,[4] while other engineering disciplines
focus on the design of inanimate objects.

"Industrial Engineers integrate combinations of people, information, materials, and equipment that produce
innovative and efficient organizations. In addition to manufacturing, Industrial Engineers work and consult
in every industry, including hospitals, communications, e-commerce, entertainment, government, finance,
food, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, sports, insurance, sales, accounting, banking, travel, and
transportation."[11]

"Industrial Engineering is the branch of Engineering most closely related to human resources in that we
apply social skills to work with all types of employees, from engineers to salespeople to top management.
One of the main focuses of an Industrial Engineer is to improve the working environments of people – not
to change the worker, but to change the workplace."[11]

"All engineers, including Industrial Engineers, take mathematics through calculus and differential
equations. Industrial Engineering is different in that it is based on discrete variable math, whereas all other
engineering is based on continuous variable math. We emphasize the use of linear algebra and difference
equations, as opposed to the use of differential equations which are so prevalent in other engineering
disciplines. This emphasis becomes evident in optimization of production systems in which we are
sequencing orders, scheduling batches, determining the number of materials handling units, arranging
factory layouts, finding sequences of motions, etc. As, Industrial Engineers, we deal almost exclusively
with systems of discrete components."[11]

Etymology

Etymology

While 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. In fact, the industrial in industrial engineering means the industry
in its broadest sense.[12] People have changed the term industrial to broader terms such as industrial and
manufacturing engineering, industrial and systems engineering, industrial engineering and operations
research, industrial engineering and management.

Sub-disciplines
Industrial engineering has many sub-disciplines, the most common of which are listed below. Although
there are industrial engineers who focus exclusively on one of these sub-disciplines, many deals with a
combination of them such as supply chain and logistics, and facilities and energy management.[13][14]

Methods engineering

Facilities engineering & energy management

Financial engineering
Energy engineering

Human factors & safety engineering

Information systems engineering & management

Manufacturing engineering

Operations engineering & management

Operations research & optimization

Policy planning

Production engineering

Quality & reliability engineering

Supply chain management & logistics

Systems engineering & analysis

Systems simulation

Related disciplines
Organization development & change management

Behavioral economics

Education
Industrial engineers study the interaction of human beings with machines, materials, information,
procedures and environments in such developments and in designing a technological system.[15]

Industrial engineering degrees accredited within any member country of the Washington Accord enjoy
equal accreditation within all other signatory countries, thus allowing engineers from one country to
practice engineering professionally in any other.

Universities offer degrees at the bachelor, masters, and doctoral level.

Undergraduate curriculum
2022 U.S. News undergraduate rankings[16]
In the United States, the undergraduate degree
University Rank
earned is either a bachelor of science (B.S.) or a
bachelor of science and engineering (B.S.E.) in
industrial engineering (IE). In South Africa, the Georgia Institute of Technology 1
undergraduate degree is a bachelor of Purdue University 2
engineering (BEng). Variations of the title
University of Michigan 3
include Industrial & Operations Engineering Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State
3
(IOE), and Industrial & Systems Engineering University
(ISE or ISyE). Cornell University 5

The typical curriculum includes a broad math and Pennsylvania State University 6
science foundation spanning chemistry, physics, University of California, Berkeley 7
mechanics (i.e., statics, kinematics, and University of Wisconsin, Madison 8
dynamics), materials science, computer science,
electronics/circuits, engineering design, and the Northwestern University 9
standard range of engineering mathematics (i.e., Stanford University 10
calculus, linear algebra, differential equations,
statistics). For any engineering undergraduate program to be accredited, regardless of concentration, it must
cover a largely similar span of such foundational work – which also overlaps heavily with the content
tested on one or more engineering licensure exams in most jurisdictions.

The coursework specific to IE entails specialized courses in areas such as optimization, applied probability,
stochastic modeling, design of experiments, statistical process control, simulation, manufacturing
engineering, ergonomics/safety engineering, and engineering economics. Industrial engineering elective
courses typically cover more specialized topics in areas such as manufacturing, supply chains and logistics,
analytics and machine learning, production systems, human factors and industrial design, and service
systems.[17][18][19][20][21][22]

Certain business schools may offer programs with some overlapping relevance to IE, but the engineering
programs are distinguished by a much more intensely quantitative focus, required engineering science
electives, and the core math and science courses required of all engineering programs.

Graduate curriculum
2019 U.S. News graduate rankings[23]
The usual graduate degree earned is the master of science
University Rank
(MS), master of science and engineering (MSE) or
master of engineering (MEng) in industrial engineering
or various alternative related concentration titles. Georgia Institute of Technology 1
University of Michigan 2
Typical MS curricula may cover:
Northwestern University 3
Manufacturing Engineering University of California, Berkeley 4
Analytics and machine learning Virginia Tech 4
Computer-aided manufacturing Pennsylvania State University 6
Engineering economics Purdue University 6
Financial engineering
University of Wisconsin–Madison 6
Human factors engineering and ergonomics
Cornell University 9
(safety engineering)
Lean Six Sigma Massachusetts Institute of Technology 9
Management sciences
Materials management
Operations management
Operations research and optimization
techniques
Predetermined motion time system and
computer use for IE
 Product development
Production planning and control
Productivity improvement
Project management
Reliability engineering and life testing
Robotics
Statistical process control or quality control
Supply chain management and logistics
System dynamics and policy planning
Systems simulation and stochastic processes
Time and motion study
Facilities design and work-space design
Quality engineering
System analysis and techniques

Differences in teaching

While industrial engineering as a formal degree has been around for years, consensus on what topics should
be taught and studied differs across countries. For example, Turkey focuses on a very technical degree
while Denmark, Finland and the United Kingdom have a management focus degree, thus making it less
technical. The United States, meanwhile, focuses on case studies, group problem solving and maintains a
balance between the technical and non-technical side.[24]

Practicing engineers
Traditionally, a major aspect of industrial engineering was planning the layouts of factories and designing
assembly lines and other manufacturing paradigms. And now, in 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 flow process charting, process mapping,
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.

Modern industrial engineers typically use predetermined motion time systems, computer simulation
(especially discrete event simulation), along with extensive mathematical tools for modeling, such as
mathematical optimization and queueing theory, and computational methods for system analysis,
evaluation, and optimization. Industrial engineers also use the tools of data science and machine learning in
their work owing to the strong relatedness of these disciplines with the field and the similar technical
background required of industrial engineers (including a strong foundation in probability theory, linear
algebra, and statistics, as well as having coding skills).

See also

Related topics
Engineering economics
Engineering management – Overview of management in engineering
Enterprise engineering
Environment, health and safety – Balance of occupational safety and environmental
protection
Human factors and ergonomics – Designing systems to suit their users
Industrial and production engineering – Branch of engineering
Industrial design – Process of design
Maintenance engineering
Manufacturing engineering – Branch of engineering
Occupational safety and health – Field concerned with the safety, health and welfare of
people at work
Operations engineering – branch of engineering
Operations research – Discipline concerning the application of advanced analytical methods
Outline of production – Overview of and topical guide to production
Overall equipment effectiveness – Measure of how well a manufacturing operation is utilized
Process engineering – Study of making products from raw materials
Product design – Process of development of new products
Product engineering – Process of designing & developing devices, formualtions or systems
for sale
Production engineering – Branch of engineering
Project management – Practice of leading the work of a team to achieve goals and criteria at
a specified time
Project production management
Quality engineering – Principles and practice of product and service quality assurance and
control
Reverse engineering – Process of extracting design information from anything artificial
Safety engineering – Engineering discipline which assures that engineered systems provide
acceptable levels of safety
Sales process engineering – Systematic design of sales processes
Sociotechnical system – Organizational work design recognizes interaction between people
& technology in workplace
Statistical process control – Method of quality control
Systems engineering – Interdisciplinary field of engineering
Toyota Production System – System developed by Toyota
The Toyota Way – Set of managerial and production principles
Fordism – Ford's assembly-line mass production and consumption manufacturing system
Associations
Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers – Professional society for the support of the
industrial engineering profession
Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) – Academic
association dedicated to operations research
Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES)
American Society for Engineering Education – US professional organization for engineering
education
American Society for Quality – Knowledge-based global community of quality professionals
European Students of Industrial Engineering and Management (ESTIEM)
Indian Institution of Industrial Engineering
Washington Accord
Engineering Council of South Africa

Notes
1. Sharma, G.V.S.S.; Prasad, C.L.V.R.S.V.; Srinivasa Rao, M. (October 2, 2021). "Industrial
engineering into healthcare – A comprehensive review" (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/ful
l/10.1080/20479700.2020.1757874). International Journal of Healthcare Management. 14
(4): 1288–1302. doi:10.1080/20479700.2020.1757874 (https://doi.org/10.1080%2F2047970
0.2020.1757874). ISSN 2047-9700 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/2047-9700).
S2CID 219019630 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:219019630).
2. Salvendy, Gabriel. Handbook of Industrial Engineering. John Wiley & Sons, Inc; 3rd edition
p. 5
3. "What IEs Do" (http://www.iienet2.org/details.aspx?id=716). www.iienet2.org. Retrieved
September 24, 2015.
4. Lehrer, Robert. "The Nature of Industrial Engineering". The Journal of Industrial
Engineering. 5: 4.
5. Maynard & Zandin. Maynard's Industrial Engineering Handbook. McGraw Hill Professional
5th Edition. June 5, 2001. p. 1.4-1.6
6. "History of IE" (https://engineering.louisville.edu/academics/departments/industrial/history-of
-ie/). J.B. Speed School of Engineering - University of Louisville. Retrieved May 19, 2021.
7. All about industrial engineering (http://ingenieroindustrialpro.com/)
8. "Industrial Engineering - Definition, Explanation, History, and Programs" (http://industryengin
eering08.blogspot.com/2012/04/industrial-engineering-definition.html). April 8, 2012.
9. Geschichte und Bedeutung des Wirtschaftsingenieurwesens (https://web.archive.org/web/20
170707015915/http://www.vwi.org/hauptmenue/beruf-studium/wirtschaftsingenieurwesen/ge
schichte-und-bedeutung.html), archived from the original (http://www.vwi.org/hauptmenue/be
ruf-studium/wirtschaftsingenieurwesen/geschichte-und-bedeutung.html) on July 7, 2017,
retrieved June 22, 2020
10. Engineer as Economist (https://archive.org/stream/transactionsof07amer#page/428/mode/2u
p)
11. Savory, Paul. "DETAILS AND DESCRIPTION OF INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING" (http://digit
alcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1063&context=imsefacpub).
12. Darwish, H; van Dyk, L (2016). "The industrial engineering identity: from historic skills to
modern values, duties, and roles" (https://doi.org/10.7166%2F27-3-1638). The South African
Journal of Industrial Engineering. 27 (3): 50–63. doi:10.7166/27-3-1638 (https://doi.org/10.71
66%2F27-3-1638).
13. "What is Industrial Engineering?" (https://wonderfulengineering.com/what-is-industrial-engin
eering/). Wonderful Engineering. May 23, 2014.
14. "Industrial Engineering" (https://www.sebokwiki.org/wiki/Systems_Engineering_and_Industri
al_Engineering).
15. Rahman, Chowdury; Uddin, Syed; Iqbal, Mohammad. "Importance of Human Factors in
Industrial Engineering and Design" (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/298464170).
SEU Journal of Science and Engineering. 8 – via Research Gate.
16. "Best Undergraduate Industrial / Manufacturing Engineering Program Rankings" (https://we
b.archive.org/web/20131030205334/http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-c
olleges/rankings/engineering-doctorate-industrial-manufacturing). U.S. News & World
Report. Archived from the original (http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-coll
eges/rankings/engineering-doctorate-industrial-manufacturing) on October 30, 2013.
Retrieved March 2, 2017.
17. "ISyE Undergraduate Courses" (https://www.isye.gatech.edu/academics/bachelors/industrial
-engineering/courses). Georgia Institute of Technology. Retrieved March 2, 2017.
18. "Industrial Engineering and Operations Research (IND ENG)" (http://guide.berkeley.edu/cou
rses/ind_eng/). University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved March 2, 2017.
19. "Courses" (https://web.archive.org/web/20170303122550/http://www.engin.umich.edu/colleg
e/academics/bulletin/depts/ioe/courses). University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Archived from
the original (http://www.engin.umich.edu/college/academics/bulletin/depts/ioe/courses) on
March 3, 2017. Retrieved March 2, 2017.
20. "Courses" (http://www.mccormick.northwestern.edu/industrial/courses/). Northwestern
University. Retrieved March 2, 2017.
21. "ISE Electives" (https://web.archive.org/web/20170303044416/http://ise.illinois.edu/undergra
duate/electives.html). University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. Archived from the original
(http://ise.illinois.edu/undergraduate/electives.html) on March 3, 2017. Retrieved March 2,
2017.
22. "12130001 | Yearbooks 2022 | University of Pretoria" (https://www.up.ac.za/yearbooks/2022/
programmes/view/12130001). www.up.ac.za. Retrieved February 21, 2022.
23. "Best Industrial Engineering Programs" (https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top
-engineering-schools/industrial-engineering-rankings?int=9d0e08&int=a06908). U.S. News
& World Report. Retrieved March 2, 2017.
24. Oanca, Alexandra. "What is Industrial Engineering and Why Should I Study It?" (https://www.
bachelorsportal.com/articles/636/what-is-industrial-engineering-and-why-should-i-study-it.ht
ml).

Further reading
Badiru, A. (Ed.) (2005). Handbook of industrial and systems engineering. CRC Press.
ISBN 0-8493-2719-9.
B. S. Blanchard and Fabrycky, W. (2005). Systems Engineering and Analysis (4th Edition).
Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0-13-186977-9.
Salvendy, G. (Ed.) (2001). Handbook of industrial engineering: Technology and operations
management. Wiley-Interscience. ISBN 0-471-33057-4.
Turner, W. et al. (1992). Introduction to industrial and systems engineering (Third edition).
 Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-481789-3.
Eliyahu M. Goldratt, Jeff Cox (1984). The Goal North River Press; 2nd Rev edition (1992).
ISBN 0-88427-061-0; 20th Anniversary edition (2004) ISBN 0-88427-178-1
Miller, Doug, Towards Sustainable Labour Costing in UK Fashion Retail (February 5, 2013).
doi:10.2139/ssrn.2212100 (https://doi.org/10.2139%2Fssrn.2212100)
Malakooti, B. (2013). Operations and Production Systems with Multiple Objectives. John
Wiley & Sons.ISBN 978-1-118-58537-5
Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge (SEBoK) (https://web.archive.org/web/201906170
34551/https://www.sebokwiki.org/wiki/Guide_to_the_Systems_Engineering_Body_of_Know
ledge_(SEBoK))
Traditional Engineering (https://web.archive.org/web/20100630211206/http://infolab.stanfor
d.edu/~burback/dcg/node5.html)
Master of Engineering Administration (MEA) (http://www.ise.vt.edu/academics/extended/me
a/)
Kambhampati, Venkata Satya Surya Narayana Rao (2017). "Principles of Industrial
Engineering" IIE Annual Conference. Proceedings; Norcross (2017): 890-895.[1] (https://ww
w.proquest.com/docview/1951119980)

External links
Media related to Industrial engineering at Wikimedia Commons

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