What do Industrial Engineers do exactly. I am thinking about a major in Industrial Eng. rather than Civil.?

Question

My buddy who is a mechanical engineer says that IE's are "Imaginary" Engineers because any engineer can do what they do. He says that he knows Civil and Mechanical Engineers who do Industrial Engineers work but none the other way around because they are not as good. So he gives me crap all the time and tells me not to do it. I want somebody to tell me the reality of it. What jobs are there out there?

Answer 1

Any job in engineering is what you make of it. Industrial engineering focuses on plant layout and flow, and ergonomics fo work. In high-volume, repetitive motion-type work, industrial engineers earn their keep by providing due-diligence for the company to mitigate injuries and lawsuits due to processes and company policies that create hazards.

Industrial engineering is not things like equipment and process design, per se.

Your friends give you grief about IE because it is perceived that some of the courses are 'lighter weight" - not so much physical science and more "soft science" like organizational psychology and industrial hygiene.

Electrical and mechanical engineering are still the most versatile and portable of the engineering disciplines. Industrial locks you into big companies, or having to start your own company to serve large employers as clients.

Answer 2

When your buddy learns what an Imaginary Engineer really does and doesn't do he will change his opinion.

First thing... your major, especially as an engineering =student= is not what you "are" and is more like a weatherman's guess of what you will become.

As a mangagement/IT consultant with a Indusctial Enginerring degree, I would have to say that it depends on whether you end up with a job description that says "Industrial Engineer" at the top. The earlier answers did a reasonable job of describing that job...

I would like to offer you some of the other job titles that become available to you once you get that degree that are actually less likely to occur starting off as Civil Engineer...

Network Planner - Responsible for optimizing land, air and sea routes for international package delivery companies
IT Project Manager- Responsible for ontime and onbudget delivery of any size applications for any size company
Business Strategiest - Using the MBA you got later in your 20s, identify new lines of business for big OR small companies and select the best ones based on anticipated returns
Patent Attourney - Using the law degree you got from an excellent school given your engineering background, protect the innovations of engineers of all sort.
CEO - Become master of the universe becuase you understand how companies work, how they make money and how to talk to people without drooling.

Answer 3

Your friend is absolutely right! However I am also a mechanical engineer so I may be a little biased...

Industrial engineering may best be described as technical HR. IEs study, model and plan production processes and the people who operate them.

They ARE engineers and thus have a background in mathematics and science. So they approach production analytically and methodically , which HR and administrative people are notoriously poor at doing. Manufacturing engineering is very similar but has more of a focus on the mechanical side of production. For example, IEs do time studies on assembly operations and find ways to refine and improve them. They study material flow through a manufacturing plant, from the receiving doors to the finished product. They design assembly procedures and work stations for products that other engineers designed. They do ergonomic studies on work spaces to help prevent repetitive strain injuries.

There is overlap in all engineering disciplines, but there is room for all of them in large companies. Smaller companies don't tend to go for industrial engineers as they are not always as flexible as mechanical or manufacturing engineers.

If you enjoy working with and for people, then industrial engineering could be for you. You will be a punching bag for union boys though :)

Personally, I would go for civil engineering as it seems like a lot of fun. Buildings and bridges are just big widgets...

Good Luck!

Answer 4

I think I would agree with your friend even though he doesnt put it in the nicest terms. The industrial program at my school deals more with the management and business side of a factory. From what I hear they dont do much "real" engineering work, they are in charge of making sure the process is smooth. They do take a lot of real engineering classes but their design work is all on the layouts of machines and not anything to do with how they function or are made. I would say stay with Civil because its the best field to be in (i'm a CE as well). I also agree that many engineers can do their work, but you can say that about a lot of engineering fields.

Answer 5

Look up "operations research" in conjunction with industrial engineering. It does not seem like a BS career at all. Generally use models, mathematical or otherwise, to deal with problems of efficiency and productivity in a respective industry such as telecommunications, airtravel, etc. I suppose the difference between industrial and other types of engineering is that the former deals with a less concrete target of analysis--the way a firm operates rather than bridges, electrical circuits, etc.