Does the Industrial Engineering profession have a future?
Industrial engineering is one of the engineering disciplines that is never out-of-date. Industrial engineering is an adaptive discipline that updates itself with technological advancements and continuously develops new methodologies. The following news shows that industrial engineering will continue to be popular in the future:
- Industrial engineering is one of the 18 professions in the news published in 2009 which is titled “İşte geleceğin gözde meslekleri” [6].
- Industrial engineers can be a mathematician, a statistician, a data scientist and a software engineer according to “2014’ün en iyi 10 mesleği”[7].
- Industrial engineers can work as general and operations manager, market analyst and marketing analyst expert, auditor, medical and health services manager and management analyst according to “Geleceğin en iyi 20 mesleği” [8].
- Industrial Engineering is the only engineering brach of “The 10 Best Jobs for 2015” which is specified by partnership of Career Builder and EMSI (Economic Modeling Specialists International). Industrial Engineering can also work as a “sales representative and manager, software developer, web designer and medical/health services manager” [9].
- Industrial Engineers can work as analyst, mathematician, financial consultant, and operations research analyst according to “The Best Jobs in 2017”. (Operations Research is one of the sub-fields of Industrial Engineering. Statistics are one of the main areas of study in Industrial Engineering departments [10].
- Data science is seen as one of today’s most popular business areas which requires knowledge about probability/statistics, optimization and computer programming. In Industrial Engineering education programs, these subjects are seen as basic courses. Many industrial engineers are currently working as data scientists.
- The main objective of Industry 4.0 is to increase efficiency. Industrial Engineering is defined as Quality and Productivity Engineering and its main purpose is to make optimal decisions based on data analysis and modeling. Access data is very easy with Industry 4.0, thus the need for industrial engineers has increased.
- In 2011, according to a survey conducted with 183 CEOs and general managers, 52% of CEOs in Turkey are engineering background and 20%s are business background. Industrial and mechanical engineering are the leading figures with a rate of 31%. It is possible to say that industrial engineers are predominant, except for some fields [11] (link). Industrial engineers work as a senior executive (CEO, minister, vice chairman) at the world’s and Turkey’s largest companies (Turkcell, Unilever, Microsoft Turkey, Marks & Spencer, ETI, Central Bank, Ministry of Economy, Wells Fargo and Apple) [12].
- Investigation of the partnership of Fortune Turkey and Data Expert “The most effective finance managers” the top 50 are located in 5 industrial engineer in 2016 [13].
- The top 20 are located in 5 industrial engineer according to "Turkey's Most Effective Information Managers" which is organized CIO magazine in 2015.
In brief, an anonymous quote tells the truth: “There are doctors for patients, advocates for the defense, astronauts for space, and there are industrial engineers for the rest”
References
[1] Brandeau, M.L., Sainfont, F., Pierskalla W.P. Operations Research and Healthcare: A Handbook of Methods and Applications, Kluwer Academic Publishers, New York, 2005.
[2] Alves, C.J.S., Pardalos, P.M., Vicente, L.N. Optimization in Medicine, Springer, 2008.
[3]Yih, Y. Handbook of Healthcare Delivery Systems, CRC Press, 2011.
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_engineering
[7] http://finans.mynet.com/haber/detay/haber-analiz/2015in-en-kotu-ve-en-iyi-meslekleri/100614/12
[8] http://www.endustrimuhendisligim.com/endustri-muhendisligi-ile-ilgili-hosunuza-gidecek-5-bilgi
[9] http://www.businessinsider.com/best-jobs-for-2015-2014-11#industrial-engineer-
[12]https://www.endustrimuhendisligim.com/category/size-ozel/4-unlu-endustri-muhendisleri/
[13] https://www.endustrimuhendisligim.com/en-etkin-cfo-lar-aciklandi-iste-endustri-muhendisleri/
[14]https://www.endustrimuhendisligim.com/cio-odullerine-endustri-muhendisi-damgasi/
[15] http://www.sauemk.com/vitrin/endustri-muhendisligi-nedir-ne-degildir.html