Industrial Engineering : Job Prospects & Career Options

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The job of an industrial engineer centers around the use of people, materials, energy, information and machines in the most effective way. Industrial Engineers work to increase productivity through management of people and methods of business organisation. They also evolve management control systems to assist in financial planning, cost analysis, production planning and physical distribution of goods and services.

Industrial Engineer can get jobs in almost all types of industries. Self employment opportunities are also available as consultants or specialists in methods and work operation usually after suitable years of industrial experience. They can also join private consultancy firms, R&D establishments of big companies or as purchase engineers and technical sales managers. Because of the broad-based nature of the course, production and industrial engineers can work with all types of engineering and manufacturing industries in the private and public sectors. The areas covering industrial Engineering include work-study, operations and maintenance, production planning and control, materials management, value engineering, network models such as p e r t (Program Evaluation and Review Technique) /c p m (Critical Path Method), operations research, computer science, financial Management, Statistical Quality Control etc. maximum

Those who have higher qualifications and adequate managerial experience can attain top positions in the industrial/management field with an attractive remuneration and incentives. Industrial Engineers can also work as plant engineers, manufacturing engineers, quality engineers, process engineers and industrial managers in different industries, management and service sector in the middle management cadre. Most of the opportunities are in the private sector.

The Union Public Service Commission holds Engineering Services Examinations every year for appointments to various Central services. Bachelor's degree holders in engineering/technology are eligible to appear for the examination.

A manufacturing engineer makes significant contribution in the production of consumer goods, durables or capital equipment. A programme in manufacturing engineering equips students with knowledge and skills to develop and manage systems governing productivity and quality improvement activities in any engineering-related industry. Also called industrial engineers, manufacturing engineers plan the most effective ways for an organisation to use people, material, information, energy and machines. They take care of selecting appropriate machinery and equipment, designing industrial layout, organising assembly line, checking quality and monitoring distribution and inventory. Opportunities exist in industrial and other sectors -- both in public and private -- as business systems analyst or business process engineer; production, process, assets or manufacture engineer; quality control manager; health and safety manager; human resource manager; logistics manager or facilities engineer; project manager; plant supervisor; scheduling and planning manager; operations manager; management consultant; etc.
Industrial engineers work in a variety of research labs and industries including manufacturing, communications, transportations, banking, pharmaceuticals, finance, travel, semiconductor, e-business, sports, health and information technology.

Research activities of industrial engineers include a breadth of techniques and application areas.
Deterministic methods of optimization and analysis
Stochastic method of analysis, optimization and control
Simulation modelling and analysis
Artificial intelligence based methods
Logistics and transportation
Supply chain analysis and inventory lanning
Financial engineering
Optimization, planning and control in manufacturing and robotics
Scheduling and ERP

The job prospects of an Industrial Engineer also include the following categories

Quality control :It is a set of measures taken to ensure that defective products or services are not produced, and that the design meets performance requirements. Quality Assurance covers all activities from design, development, production, installation, servicing and documentation. It can considerably reduce the cost of waste and rework.

Statistical process control: In manufacturing, usually proceeds are checked by randomly sampling and testing a fraction of the output. Testing every output is generally avoided due to time or cost constraints, or because it may destroy the object being tested The variances of critical tolerances are continuously tracked, and manufacturing processes are corrected before bad parts can be produced.

Productability: Quite frequently, manufactured products have unnecessary precision, production operations or parts. Simple redesign can eliminate these, lowering costs and increasing manufacturability, reliability and profits.

Motion economy: Industrial engineers study how workers perform their jobs, the goal is to reduce the time it takes to perform a certain job and redistribute work so as to require fewer workers for a given task.