Industrial engineers design, improve and implement integrated systems of human beings, materials, energy, information, and equipment to produce goods or services efficiently. For example, they may be involved with:
- Planning how production or service systems will work
- Measuring work performance
- Establishing work standards and specifications
- Establishing and managing quality standards
- Designing logistics and supply chain networks
- Analyzing project benefits and costs
- Enhancing systems operations
Industrial engineers apply knowledge and skills from social as well as physical disciplines (for example, mathematics, statistics, engineering, chemistry, physics, psychology and sociology) to solve problems in a wide variety of industries (for example, education, agri-food, environment, distribution and transportation, health care, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing). They may specialize in facility layout and design, production planning, logistics systems design, ergonomics, manufacturing, project management or operations research.
Facility layout and design specialists:
- Evaluate proposed sites for facilities
- Design new buildings or redesign existing ones, taking into account factors such as product and people flow through the workplace (for example, shipping and receiving requirements, packaging methods), energy consumption and employee safety
- Decide where machines, equipment and offices should be located to achieve maximum production at minimum cost
- Create ergonomic workstation designs that reduce worker fatigue, eliminate unnecessary work steps and increase productivity
To evaluate proposed sites, they investigate:
- Labour supplies
- Transportation options for moving people, raw materials and finished goods
- Fuel, power, water and utility costs and supplies
- Sanitary and waste disposal systems
- Fire protection
- The cost of land, buildings, and taxes
Production planning specialists:
- Evaluate production systems, equipment, work methods and products
- Develop operating systems that reduce costs and increase quality and production
- Use computers to analyze information about existing systems and simulate new ones
- Devise work methods and determine how much work each machine or employee must produce to meet production targets
- Establish methods of paying employees for the kind and amount of work they do
- Plan systems to check the quality of finished products
Logistics systems specialists are concerned with:
- The movement of materials and information from the purchasing of raw materials through to production, distribution, servicing and recycling
- Preventative maintenance systems design and planning
- Customer service
- Inventory development
- Transportation
- Development of effective information systems
- Market needs analysis and strategic planning
Management and operations specialists plan work patterns, systems and procedures, and make recommendations regarding improvements. They:
- Develop and set up systems to control workflow, materials flow, paperwork and quality assurance of products and services
- Set costs and arrange budgets
- Assess, on an ongoing basis, how well methods, systems and procedures are working
For information about ergonomics, manufacturing engineering and operations research, see the Ergonomist, Manufacturing Engineer and Operations Research Analyst occupational profiles.
