What Industrial Engineers Actually Do?

After I started to study industrial engineering, I realized almost everyone was unaware of what industrial engineers actually do.

I always hear the sentence “Industrial engineers know a little about things, they are not proficient at something.”

Some other people assume that industrial engineering is like studying business.

Some even assume that industrial engineering should not be an engineering field! I actually heard it from my friends, it is real.

All of the above are WRONG!

Industrial engineering is a real engineering field mainly focusing on optimizing systems and services. It is not like studying business because we deal with Math in almost every course we take. We learn how to turn a problem into mathematical modeling and then how to optimize that problem.

Every industry has to minimize its costs and maximize its profits and in order to achieve that goal, they have to optimize their businesses. Industrial engineers find the best way for a business to operate efficiently. When looking from this point of view, it is clear that industrial engineers leverage engineering skills to optimize business problems. They have to learn how to think analytically. They have to understand mathematical problems. Also, they should understand the economy and finance since they are focusing on various business problems.

As all industries from every sector have problems that require to be efficient, an industrial engineer can work anywhere, in any sector including manufacturing, healthcare, logistics, and even entertainment.

Industrial engineers can work on process optimization, quality control, supply chain management, ergonomics and workplace design, data analysis and decision-making, and project management.

Now, you can think of industrial engineers as the architects of efficiency. Their ability to blend technical expertise with creativity and problem-solving is what makes them indispensable engineers in today’s rapidly evolving business landscape.