What is industrial engineering

Industrial Engineering (Industrial Engineering or IE for short) is an applied engineering specialty, which is divided into traditional IE and modern IE. Drucker pointed out that it is scientific management.

Traditional IE is through the study of time and action research, factory layout, material handling, production planning and scheduling, in order to improve labor productivity. Modern IE is based on operations research and systems engineering as the theoretical foundation, and computers as the advanced means, which is compatible with and contains many new disciplines and theoretical techniques.

Industrial Engineering (Industrial Engineering, referred to as IE) originated in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century, and it is widely used in developed countries with the background of modern industrialized production. Modern industrial engineering is based on large-scale industrial production and socio-economic systems as the object of study, in manufacturing engineering, management science and systems engineering and other disciplines on the basis of the gradual formation and development of a cross-cutting engineering disciplines. It is the people, equipment, materials, information and the environment and other elements of the production system for the optimal allocation of industrial and other production processes for systematic planning and design, evaluation and innovation, so as to improve industrial productivity and socio-economic benefits of the specialization of integrated technology, and the content of an increasingly wide range.

In the era when mankind was engaged in smallholder economy and handicraft production, people managed production with their own experience. To the early 20th century, industry began to enter the "era of scientific management", the American engineer Taylor (F.W. Taylor) published the "principles of scientific management" book is the representative of this era and the classic works of industrial engineering. From around 1910, the American Gilbreth couple (Frank.&.L.Gilbreth) engaged in action (method) research and workflow research, and also set up 17 kinds of basic factors of action (kinesis, Threbligs). Taylor and Gilbreth are the most famous industrial engineering founders.