Industrial engineers may have various titles, such as plant engineer,
systems engineer, project engineer, chief operating engineer or manufacturing
engineer. Whatever the title, industrial engineers are responsible for the
maintenance and efficiency of industrial sites and services.
Industrial engineers work as designers, planners and maintainers of various
machines and systems. Industrial engineers find ways to use resources, including
people, more efficiently. The multi-billion-dollar health-care industry is
a large and growing area of employment for industrial engineers.
There are industrial engineers all over the world. They are employed in
every sector of industry, from agriculture to aerospace and telecommunications
to utilities. They also work for government and educational institutions.
Craig Stevens is an industrial engineer who has worked for more than 100
companies as an engineering consultant. He currently works as a management
engineer/project manager in Nashville for HCA Healthcare, the largest hospital
company in the world.
"I am helping to develop a continuous process improvement program for practices/clinics,"
he says. "That means that I'll work with the managers of the practices to
help them implement efficiencies and effectiveness of their operations...
such as how can we get patient wait times down, and how we might raise the
room utilization, and how we might improve the flow of the patients, doctors,
information and so on. The goal is to minimize wasted time and optimize staff
and the use of materials."
Industrial engineers may be self-employed as consultants. Others are employed
by consulting firms. (This is how Stevens spent most of his career.) This
makes many industrial engineers independent professionals who work under contract
for one or more firms.
However, most engineers are direct employees who work in teams at various
organizations. In larger organizations, industrial engineers tend to be more
specialized and may tackle challenges as part of a team. At smaller companies,
an industrial engineer might be the only engineer and typically has a wider
range of duties.
An industrial engineer at a manufacturing company continually patrols the
plant and solves problems with mechanical systems, operations and people.
Many industrial engineers often assume operations or production management
roles.
Industrial engineers have a lower profile than many other types of engineers.
The public tends to be in the dark about what they do.
"There are a lot of misconceptions about industrial engineering, actually,
mostly because many people don't know what it entails," says Elena Joshi.
She's a senior instructor and the undergraduate program coordinator of industrial
engineering at Pennsylvania State University. "It's not as familiar as the
more traditional branches of engineering such as civil, mechanical, electrical,
etc."
Industrial engineer Kazuo Takeda agrees. "Few people know what IE is,"
he says. Takeda is a manager of industrial engineering at a certain magical
place you might have heard of -- Disneyland Resort in California.
"If they do find out about IE, they often think we do 'time studies' only,"
says Takeda. "Time studies are a tool that we use, but our real skill is in
understanding problems, coming up with options, and then developing options
and recommendations to solve them.
"Another misunderstanding about IE is that few who graduate as an IE will
stay with the 'IE' as a title," Takeda says. "The most popular title for an
IE is 'boss,' which is an attribute of the IE's ability to understand the
business and come up with recommendations that gain attention of executive
leadership. Past and current chief executives from UPS, Apple, Walmart, Taco
Bell, etc. are industrial engineers by education but have moved well beyond
the formal IE duties. Yet they still perform IE skills every day."
While their duties vary, there are some tasks common to industrial engineers.
All engineers are expected to use logic to identify problems and create solutions.
Then they must communicate their ideas to other people who will help implement
the solution.
"Industrial engineering is all about taking processes apart and making
them better," says Takeda.
"Early in my career, I started as a quality engineer, which utilizes many
of the IE skills," says Takeda. "I then became involved with logistics at
a small animation studio, coordinating various pieces of animation production
from Amsterdam to Burbank to Tokyo and back again. All of this was around
IE. I formally became [involved] in IE in 1989 when I joined United Parcel
Service (UPS) and then joined Disneyland Resort in 1998. What I love about
IE is that our projects are always different and we get to help others by
our actions."
Industrial engineers typically work some variation of the five-day workweek.
In some cases, plant engineers in supervisory positions work shifts. They
may also be on call to assist with major breakdowns. Occasionally, fieldwork
or deadlines call for extra hours.
People with physical challenges should be able to find their niche in this
profession. The profession relies mainly on logical yet creative thinking.
It should be noted that students and employed engineers are required to type
large numbers of reports. Physical impairments of the fingers may pose a challenge.