Industrial Engineering

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Program Director: Michael Greenstein

The Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering offers a program in industrial engineering at the master’s level.

Industrial engineering addresses how systems operate and is concerned with the effective and efficient delivery of quality products and services. The tools applied include analytic modeling, system simulation, queuing systems, work design, project planning, facilities design and quality management and control. Courses are available in each of these topics, many with course projects suited to the practice-oriented degree offered at Polytechnic.

Many students seek a graduate degree in industrial engineering after completing an undergraduate degree in another engineering discipline. Because industrial engineers often work on multidiscipline teams, students are encouraged to use their electives to add strength in some area related to their career interests, such as the following:

• Mechanical engineering
• Manufacturing
• Operations management
• Construction management
• Management of technology
• Electrical engineering

Graduate advisers work with students to develop a suitable program for either fulltime or part-time study, with a product or service orientation.

Opportunities exist in many diverse areas. For example, industrial engineers are called upon to:

• design quality into products and processes;
• apply the principles of total quality management (TQM);
• develop efficient work methods;
• locate facilities and design plant layouts;
• improve productivity and competitiveness;
• schedule and manage projects;
• use computers to simulate physical systems and processes; and
• apply their knowledge in manufacturing and service industries, including finance, health care, logistics and construction. Industrial engineers seek to allocate limited resources effectively. A unifying theme focusing this body of knowledge and methods into a coherent entity is the systems point of view.

Industrial engineering encompasses the search for similarity among concepts, laws and models of different disciplines; the emphasis on the adaptation, integration and exploitation of existing techniques in areas other than their fields of origin; and, above all, a unique point of view dealing with relationships rather than with components. Industrial engineers are thus in a strategic position to bring about the best integration of people, materials, machines, time and money in any endeavor.

These techniques are applied in a wide range of organizations. Industrial engineers work in banks, hospitals, government, transportation and communications, construction, social service, facilities design, manufacturing, warehousing and information processing.

Many industrial engineers move from analyzing and designing productive systems to managing those systems. While engineering and management are different fields, both require the ability to make decisions based on valid information. Industrial engineers are especially trained to obtain and evaluate such information.

Goals and Objectives

The objectives of the Master of Science in Industrial Engineering are for students to:

• develop and apply a systems point of view to the effective supply of quality products and services;
• understand how to adapt, integrate and exploit existing technologies in manufacturing and services, including the application of analytic modeling, system simulation, queuing systems, work design, facilities design and quality management and control;
• learn to measure and allocate the resources of an enterprise optimally;
• become aware of today’s industrial drivers and learn tools and techniques to analyze problems and improve performance; and
• acquire a broad knowledge base through the choice of a concentration of courses in industrial engineering and related fields to suit their career needs.

Programs

• Industrial Engineering, M.S.

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