How useful is an Industrial Engineering degree?

[jingramm]

Anyone here with an EM degree? Is EM one of those degrees that can get you into various industries and not seem one dimensional like a computer engineering degree might?

 

[rcpratt]

My understanding is that it is among the easiest and lowest-paying engineering degrees. But I'm too lazy to look at numbers. It definitely branches to various industries, though.

edit: Actually, this has it 7th out of 15 for BS in engineering. Not bad.
edit2: Err, that's what wikipedia said, but it certainly looks like the 3rd lowest at that link.

 

[Imp]

I did civil and in my first year, I remember running into one industrial engineering student, and 3 or 4 mining engineering students; there were only about 10-15 mining students in my graduating year.

I don't know what IEs do honestly, but from my experience, it's a very small program. And it wasn't because it was hard to get into.

Financial Engineering is one of those new up and coming degrees. From what I've read, there are full-on electrical, mechanical and civil engineering graduates who don't care for the work they do, so they end up applying their "problem solving" skills learned from engineering in the financial sector. I'll be taking an intensive graduate level course on that this coming May, not really sure what to expect.

 

[bignateyk]

There's a reason it's called "Imaginary Engineering".

I think it is geared more toward going straight into a management track than other engineering degrees are. Overall, much less technical. More systems oriented I think.

I think the pay is in line with other engineering degrees, maybe slightly lower than things like Chemical and Petroleum Engineering.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

There's a reason it's called "Imaginary Engineering".

I think it is geared more toward going straight into a management track than other engineering degrees are. Overall, much less technical. More systems oriented I think.

I think the pay is in line with other engineering degrees, maybe slightly lower than things like Chemical and Petroleum Engineering.

ROFL. The thing is you could get axed the next day because honestly it's not that technical. I did manufacturing engineering which sit sin the middle of IE and process engineering. I met with IEs sometimes and it was like uhhh... really? That's all you do?

Choose something more technical if you want a secure job these days, and stay on top of what you do.

 

[bignateyk]

If anything, get a real engineering BS degree, and then get your masters in IE.

 

[rcpratt]

There's a reason it's called "Imaginary Engineering".

I think it is geared more toward going straight into a management track than other engineering degrees are. Overall, much less technical. More systems oriented I think.

I think the pay is in line with other engineering degrees, maybe slightly lower than things like Chemical and Petroleum Engineering.

They nicknamed Industrial & Operations Engineering "In-and-out engineering" at Michigan. I dunno what the difference is though, we just had IE.

 

[Printer Bandit]

it was referred to as Imaginary Engineering at Georgia Tech.

 

[MikeMike]

does IE involve designing the packaging for products in the most efficient way?

 

[HomeBrewerDude]

It really depends on the program where you get the degree and which faculty members you most closely study under. I would agree that IE is less technical in nature than other Engineering disciplines. Here are some of the areas where a IE grad might specialize:

Decision Science/Operations Research
Health Systems
Human Factors and Ergonomics
Manufacturing and Production Systems
Quality Engineering
Safety and Accident Prevention

 

[ShawnD1]

does IE involve designing the packaging for products in the most efficient way?

I remember doing something like this in high school. The most efficient cylinder design for a coke can was shorter and fatter (same volume, less aluminum required). Someone sent to letter to coke asking why they didn't use that design and the reply was that the current shape is the most comfortable to hold.

So yeah, efficiency and consumer products don't really mix. Nobody wants products that are difficult to hold when there is a bit of grease on your fingers

 

[rcpratt]

does IE involve designing the packaging for products in the most efficient way?

I sat in on a friend's packaging engineering class at MSU once...if you can call it engineering. That was interesting.

 

[ra1nman]

My co-workers often refer to them as furniture movers...

 

[Gibson486]

I got an EE, but my title is an Industrial Engineer (or a rather, the group that hired me), but I really do very little industrial engineering. It is such a board topic. You are better off getting a different engineering degree then doing something in that field.

 

[Spike]

It all depends on what you want to do. I got my BSE in IE and now work in the IE dept of a fortune 500 company. The jobs in the dept are all about creating a more efficient operations side along with all the planning. It is a job geared towards management as the entire department is at a management level (we are all supervisors or higher) and many of the higher ups in the company came from IE.

If you want real engineering as in working on schematics, designing products, building things then IE is not the place. If you want to work on systems efficiency, human interface technology, or JIT manufacturing then IE is probably the way to go. I would also argue that in recent times IE's have become more desirable instead of less. I know in this recession the company turned to the IE dept heavily to reduce costs across the board while maintaining our service/products which we did. In the end while most other departments have been downsized recently IE has actually expanded.

Just some food for thought. I'm actually considering getting a masters in civil just for a change of pace even though civils get paid even less than IE's.

 

[Zebo]

Anyone here with an IE degree? I do have interest in operational improvement type of work as well as financial engineering (FE might be too quant heavy for me though). Is IE one of those degrees that can get you into various industries and not seem one dimensional like a computer engineering degree might?

Their basic thing is setting up factories and supply/labor/mechanical/production efficiency in businesses. It's useful especially if you have people skills since it's more of a business engineering degree, or should i say makes the bridge between business and production side.

If you're just starting I'd do accounting/MBA get all A's and go work at an investment bank. That's where money is at.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

I remember doing something like this in high school. The most efficient cylinder design for a coke can was shorter and fatter (same volume, less aluminum required). Someone sent to letter to coke asking why they didn't use that design and the reply was that the current shape is the most comfortable to hold.

So yeah, efficiency and consumer products don't really mix. Nobody wants products that are difficult to hold when there is a bit of grease on your fingers

You are right. Engineers in general tend to shy away from things that are difficult to measure. This habit tends to make them disregard those factors as unimportant. That's why there is a need for administrators to direct their efforts. Unfortunately, good administrators are more difficult to find than good engineers.

 

[DrPizza]

I majored in Industrial Engineering for a *little* while at the first university I attended. I only knew that I was supposed to be an engineer, so sayeth my guidance counselor because I was so good in math and science. So, I randomly chose that major of the two available at that university. During orientation weekend, 3 days before classes started, we took a tour of the engineering building. We looked at some senior projects. We talked about how important it is to have the desks just the right height above the ground, and the chairs the right height. One senior project was to build an enclosure for a robot. It was just the right size for the robot to go into, turn around completely, and plug itself in. 6 months of work went into that project. I thought about it...

2 hours later, I had officially changed my major.

 

[lozina]

Tits on a bull

 

[DT4K]

I've worked with 3 IE's that I know of, all in manufacturing companies. All of them were very bright people, but none struck me as extremely technical. Certainly not like the EE's and ME's I've worked with.

1. His job was basically to look at all the manufacturing processes and logistics of the whole operation and come up with more efficient ways to do things. He also ended up getting into software auditing work.

2. Not sure what path she took to get into IT, but she's now a Microsoft Dynamics AX implementation analyst. She does project management and works on AX implementations at some of our global sites.

3. I think she spent some time doing the same thing as guy number 1, then moved into IT, got an MBA along the way, and is now the IT director of our company, with about 30 people reporting to her.

 

[jingramm]

bump

 

[Sumguy]

In my school its known as the major other engineers pick when their original field of engineering is too difficult.

 

[dud]

I have two engineering degrees (IE and EE). IE is by far more interesting and has more variety than EE or other specialties IMHO. Even if you decide to specialize in IE you still have to complete the core classes in EE, ME, CE, etc.

If you like variety then go for it ...

 

[jappey101]

Hello All!

I hope you can help me. I am in my 2nd year in a bachelors program in physics and I realize now that I would like to become an industrial engineer.

I do not know if it is better to transfer now to a bachelors program in industrial engineering, which I will graduate from in 3 years, or if I should finish my physics bachelors next year and then only get a masters in Industrial Engineering. Is one option better than the other in terms of getting jobs?