The Role of Industrial Engineering and its Impact on Sustainability: A Systematic Review Approach

Abstract

Increasing global awareness of environmental problems has propelled sustainable engineering into a pivotal discipline that is crucial for harmonising technological advancements with ecological responsibility. The purpose of industrial engineering (IE) is to improve processes, systems, and designs, placing an increased responsibility on industrial engineers to drive sustainable solutions. The International Journal for Sustainable Engineering (IJSE) provides cross-disciplinary information to promote sustainable practices in engineering. Drawing from the IJSE corpus, this paper analyses the alignment of sustainable development goals (SDGs) with IE topics. A framework is presented to map IE-related topics, derived from the Handbook of IE and IE undergraduate curricula in South Africa. A literature review was conducted on the relationship of each IE topic to sustainable engineering. The resulting analysis emphasised the current and potential incorporation of the SDGs into each IE topic, thus mapping out the present and potential roles of industrial engineers in achieving the SDGs.