About IE

Industrial Engineering focuses on the analysis and design of processes in business and society in a variety of fields, like manufacturing, logistics, product development, construction, telecommunication, finance, and healthcare, as well as their optimization, management, and decision support. Currently, performance in Industrial Engineering often is separately optimized. The increasing size and complexity of systems and resulting vast growth of the ICT environment for data and control communication requires a joint design of both systems and their ICT environment. The UT is well positioned to be a key player in this area. On the one hand, Industrial Engineering is a well-established field of research that is well positioned in application domains including Civil Engineering, Industrial Design Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Management Science. On the other hand, all groups are related via a common mathematical modeling language. In particular via Operations Research, that is also a key research area within Applied Mathematics. Furthermore, the UT is via the CTIT well positioned in the area of ICT.

The University of Twente has a strong tradition in research and education in Industrial Engineering that ranges across technical and non-technical sciences.

The field Industrial Engineering has a strong international basis, both in organizations that focus on the professional development and application of the field (http://www.iienet.org; http://msom.society.informs.org; http://www.informs.org; http://www.incose.org) and in leading academic programs (http://ieor.berkeley.edu; http://www.isye.gatech.edu; http://www.stanford.edu/dept/MSandE; http://www.cesun.org; http://www.epp.cmu.edu; http://www.seor.gmu.edu; http://esd.mit.edu). Although different definitions are used with slightly different emphases, there is a number of clearly common elements that constitute the shared view of what the field of Industrial Engineering represents in education, application, and research.

IE is concerned with the design and improvement of operational and strategic processes and integrated systems. These processes or systems provide products or services to customers or to the society at large. The design and improvement of processes and systems considers multiple goals concerning time, money, materials, energy and other resources. Several organizations and multiple stakeholders often are involved (supply chains, alliances, public-private partnerships) and governance structures can be part of design and improvement initiatives.

IE is used in a variety of fields, such as manufacturing, logistics, product development, construction, information and telecommunication, finance, energy, transportation and healthcare. The term “industrial” can be misleading; this does not mean just manufacturing. It encompasses service industries as well. It has long been known that industrial engineers have the technical training to make improvements in a manufacturing setting. Now it is becoming increasingly recognized that these same techniques can be used to evaluate and improve productivity and quality in a wide variety of service industries, as well as in the public sector.

IE is a field of engineering and one important element of its approach to the design and improvement of processes and systems is the use of quantitative methods. These are derived from fields such as operations research, management science, mathematics, economics, statistics, information systems, and engineering.

IE draws upon specialized knowledge and (analytical) skills in the mathematical, physical, and social sciences, together with the principles and methods of engineering analysis and design. Unlike traditional disciplines in engineering, IE addresses the role of human decision-makers and other stakeholders as key contributors to the inherent complexity of systems.

IEs are problem solvers. They work on real-world problems, combine disciplines, and develop project and process-management expertise and communication skills. IEs can have various undergraduate backgrounds in engineering and other quantitative fields. Key skills and qualities that they will need to possess are:

Industrial engineering is also known as operations management, operations research, production engineering, or manufacturing engineering; a distinction that seems to depend on the viewpoint or motives of the user. In healthcare, for example, IEs are more commonly known as management engineers, engineering management, or even health systems engineers.

Research in Industrial Engineering is concentrated in the CTIT SRO Industrial Engineering & ICT, see also http://www.ctit.utwente.nl/research/sro/ie-ict. Research focuses on fundamental research in four applications, three of which are covered by knowledge or research centres:

The first and second areas are covered by the 3TU initiative SCIMM.

The participating groups are organised around the four application areas

The following chairs participate in the Graduate School: