An industrial engineering body of knowledge?

Abstract

Civil engineers have a defined Body of Knowledge. Mechanical engineering currently has a Body of Knowledge task force focused on the future of mechanical engineering education. Can we agree on an industrial engineering Body of Knowledge, or at least agree on outcomes that distinguish industrial engineering (IE) from other engineering disciplines? The ABET program criteria for industrial engineering state only that "The program must demonstrate that graduates have the ability to design, develop, implement, and improve integrated systems that include people, materials, information, equipment, and energy. The program must include in-depth instruction to accomplish the integration of systems using appropriate analytical, computational, and experimental practices." Other than the requirement for systems integration involving people, material, information, equipment, and energy, nothing distinguishes the IE program criteria from the general criteria specified for all engineers. This paper reports the results of a study of the program educational objectives, outcomes, and curricula used by IE (or similarly named) programs in their ABET continuous improvement plan. The objective of the study was to identify outcomes common to industrial engineering programs that distinguish industrial engineering from other engineering disciplines. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2007.