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.
In addition to the core courses, sector-specific courses can enable industrial engineers to specialize in particular fields. For example, an industrial engineer can specialize in areas such as energy, healthcare, or logistics. However, a good industrial engineer can also write computer code like a computer engineer, perform statistical analyses like a statistician, or work as a management consultant. Industrial engineering programs largely overlap with programs such as Systems Engineering, Business Engineering, Operations Research, Decision Science, Engineering Management, and Management Science. Therefore, industrial engineers are also employed in these areas.