Alternate Title(s) | Manufacturing Engineer, Process Engineer |
Minimum Education Requirements | Bachelor's degree |
Salary | See Bureau of Labor Statistics for more information |
Job Skills | - Creativity. Industrial engineers use creativity and ingenuity to design new production processes in many kinds of settings in order to reduce the use of material resources, time, or labor while accomplishing the same goal. - Critical-thinking skills. Industrial engineers create new systems to solve problems related to waste and inefficiency. Solving these problems requires logic and reasoning to identify strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to the problems. - Listening skills. These engineers often operate in teams, but they also must solicit feedback from customers, vendors, and production staff. They must listen to customers and clients in order to fully grasp ideas and problems the first time. - Math skills. Industrial engineers use the principles of calculus, trigonometry, and other advanced topics in mathematics for analysis, design, and troubleshooting in their work. - Problem-solving skills. In designing facilities for manufacturing and processes for providing services, these engineers deal with several issues at once, from workers’ safety to quality assurance. - Speaking skills. Industrial engineers sometimes have to explain their instructions to production staff or technicians before they can make written instructions available. Being able to explain concepts clearly and quickly is crucial to preventing costly mistakes and loss of time. - Writing skills. Industrial engineers must prepare documentation for other engineers or scientists, or for future reference. The documentation must be coherent and explain their thinking clearly so that the others can understand the information. |
Job Duties | Industrial engineers typically do the following: - Review production schedules, engineering specifications, process flows, and other information to understand methods that are applied and activities that take place in manufacturing and services - Figure out how to manufacture parts or products, or deliver services, with maximum efficiency - Develop management control systems to make financial planning and cost analysis more efficient - Enact quality control procedures to resolve production problems or minimize costs - Design control systems to coordinate activities and production planning in order to ensure that products meet quality standards - Confer with clients about product specifications, vendors about purchases, management personnel about manufacturing capabilities, and staff about the status of projects |
Job Profile | Industrial engineers find ways to eliminate wastefulness in production processes. They devise efficient systems that integrate workers, machines, materials, information, and energy to make a product or provide a service. |
The information presented within this occupational profile was synthesized from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Outlook Handbook, 2016-17 Edition and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s Handbook of Occupational Groups & Families.