Mapping the job potential of the industrial engineer : a web-investigation

Abstract

The industrial engineering discipline is inherently interdisciplinary and broad, with many areas of specialization. It interfaces with both the hard sciences and the soft sciences to solve a wide variety of problems in all sorts of industries. However, the discipline's broadness has been both beneficial and problematic for its development. On one hand, it has kept industrial engineering flexible, dynamic, and timeless. On the other hand, it has led to misunderstanding, confusion, and a lack of recognition of the discipline. To clarify the misperceptions surrounding the discipline, the potential job titles of the industrial engineer were gathered through web-scraping. These job titles were then categorised based on job role/function and areas of concern. The categories that were based on areas of concern were: Method/Process/Operation/System/Project, Supply Chain/Logistics, Manufacturing/Production, Business/Management, Data/Infor-mation/Technology, Quality/Reliability/Safety, Lean/Six-Sigma/Continuous Improvement, Ergonomics/Human Factors, Facility/Field/Plant, and Procurement/Purchasing/Investment. The categories that were based on job role/function were: Engineer, Analyst, Manager, and Consultant. Ultimately, the job potential of the industrial engineer can be summarized as a vast and flexible combination of job roles/functions, areas of concern, and industries or contexts.