Frequently asked questions about Industrial Engineering?
Message from the Head of Department
Dear Students,
I warmly welcome you to the Industrial Engineering Department at Abdullah Gül University. Our department embraces and advances the university’s vision of being a "third-generation university"—one that is innovative, entrepreneurial, and socially responsible. Today’s world is rapidly evolving under the influence of concepts such as Industry 4.0, artificial intelligence, big data, and digital transformation. In this dynamic environment, industrial engineers play a key role in enhancing the efficiency and sustainability of systems by integrating technology with the human factor.
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A Doctor for the Patient, a Lawyer for the Defense, an Astronaut for Space, and for Everything Else: An Industrial Engineer
The phrase "A doctor for the patient, a lawyer for the defense, an astronaut for space – and for everything else: an industrial engineer" might sound overly ambitious at first glance, yet it actually underrepresents the real scope of what industrial engineers do. Not only can industrial engineers work across nearly every sector, but they can also support doctors, lawyers, and astronauts in performing their jobs more efficiently. In fact, many industrial engineers are employed in hospitals, courthouses, and aerospace institutions such as NASA.
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In Which Sectors and Departments Do Industrial Engineers Work?
It is possible to observe the diversity of industrial engineers’ fields of work through various sources. For example, Wikipedia mentions 18 different areas related to industrial engineering, including Financial Engineering, Project Management, Cost Engineering, Quality Engineering, Operations Research/Management Science, Logistics, Engineering Management, Ergonomics, Consulting, Safety Engineering, Accounting, and Facility Management (see [4]).
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Can Industrial Engineers Become Top-Level Executives?
An industrial engineer has the opportunity to pursue a career in any sector aligned with their interests and abilities, and even to conclude that career as a top-level executive. Indeed, a 2011 study conducted with 183 CEOs and general managers in Turkey found that 52% of CEOs had an engineering background, while 20% came from business disciplines.
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What Is the Definition of Industrial Engineering?
Due to the diverse roles industrial engineers play across a wide range of sectors, providing a strict formal definition and clearly delineating the boundaries of the field can be quite challenging. However, the following definition by the U.S.-based Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE) is widely accepted:
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What Type of Education Do Industrial Engineers Receive?
Industrial engineers receive an education that integrates both engineering and business fields. This education can be designed in various ways, depending on the courses and content drawn from both engineering and business domains. However, nearly all programs include fundamental courses such as probability, statistics, optimization, decision and risk analysis, simulation, operations research, business/process analysis, accounting, cost analysis, economics, computer science, and programming. In recent years, topics like occupational health and safety, technology/innovation management, and entrepreneurship have also become part of industrial engineering's domain, and have started to be incorporated into industrial engineering programs.
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Is Industrial Engineering a Profession with a Future?
Industrial engineering is one of the engineering disciplines that will never become outdated. The most significant reason for this is that industrial engineering continuously renews itself, stays aligned with current developments, and is a discipline that constantly develops new problem-solving methods and methodologies. The following news articles indicate that industrial engineering will continue to be popular in the future:
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What Do Industrial Engineers Do and What Characteristics Should They Have?
An industrial engineer, like engineers in all other fields, performs analysis, problem-solving, and system design. However, the systems that industrial engineering focuses on are very different from those in other engineering disciplines. While a mechanical engineer focuses on machine systems, a computer engineer focuses on computer systems, and an electrical-electronics engineer focuses on electrical-electronics systems, industrial engineering focuses on complex systems and processes that use resources such as people, machines, materials, information, money, and energy. In this context, both strategic-level systems like healthcare and transportation systems, and operational-level systems like patient admission systems and vehicle planning systems fall under the industrial engineer's domain. This requires industrial engineers to possess different academic and personal skills and to approach problems from a different perspective.
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