Industrial Engineering - Careers, Salary, Jobs, Scope

Brief Summary

Why INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING?

According to a study in 2016, industrial engineering jobs were among the most in-demand jobs and experts feel that this trend will continue in forthcoming years. The important factors that affect the process of manufacturing are materials, machines and people. Industrial Engineering finds a way to utilize all these factors efficiently and effectively.

Industrial engineers mainly deal with manufacturing, and industrial engineers who are required to come up with new and innovative ways to improve the production process.

Usually, employees spend 40 – 45 hours a week working. There is not much travel involved in this line of work. Additionally, industrial engineers are the ones who get some of the highest salaries and they also have extensive job opportunities.

INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING: Jobs and Career Opportunities

Factory Layout Engineer

They plan the layout of the factory. The layout plays an important role in deciding the efficiency of the plant or factory. They decide where to place the machinery so that the production work goes on smoothly.

Their main field of study is ergonomics that deals with the optimal design of the workplace that enforces high standards of safety and also improves the efficiency of the production process. They are paid around Rs. 3,50,000 per annum.

Operations Analyst

They act as a link between the customers and the company. They initiate communications with the customers, trying to understand their requirements and delivering the same to the manufacturing team.

Another important task that they do is project estimation. Capital plays a very crucial role in any business model and therefore, proper forecasting is important.

They need to do a thorough analysis of all the costs and give the company an estimate on the costs that will be incurred during the project. They are paid Rs. 4,00,000 annually.

Inventory Control Specialist

These specialists are tasked with managing the resources of the company. Usually, when in discussions about taking on projects, it is the inventory control specialists who recommend the profitability.

They deal with numerous issues like resolving quantity issues, place orders for raw materials when in need, training new employees etc. The average salary of inventory control specialists is Rs. 2,73,000 per annum.

Manufacturing Engineer

Improving the manufacturing process is the goal of this job. Engineers assigned to this post need to come up with efficient and effective improvisations on the existing practices employed in the manufacturing industry.

They look for optimal and economic ways to turn the raw material into the finished product. They make Rs. 4,08,000 on an average annually.

Plant Manager

As the name suggests, these managers are in charge of the plant. They are responsible for all the activities that take place in the plant and hence it is an important position to hold. They are tasked with the responsibility of organizing and supervising the daily activities in the plant.

Additionally, they also act as the last line of defense when it comes to the quality of the manufactured product.

It is of extreme importance that they ensure that the manufacturing process goes on efficiently with an eye for safety hazards and quality of the products. The average annual salary of plant managers is Rs. 12,50,000.

Production Planner

They are responsible for the entire production process, coordinating the different activities like efficient manufacturing of products, shipping the products etc. They have a large number of employees working under them and need to coordinate the activities of different sectors to get the finished product.

Additionally, they are also responsible for the quality of the manufactured product. The average annual salary is Rs. 3,50,000. Additionally, experience plays an important role.

INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING: Salary

The starting salary is around Rs. 3,00,000 and with experience, this values can go as high as Rs. 15,00,000. This field is all about the practical knowledge that a candidate possesses. Theoretical knowledge can take you far but expert practical knowledge improves the candidate’s chances of getting a better job.

INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING: Recruiters

Usually, companies involved in manufacturing offer jobs to industrial engineers. A few of them are as follows:

• Micron
• Textron
• Kaiser Permanente
• Pratt & Whitney
• Amazon Corporate LLC
• FCA Group
• JP Morgan
• Indian Railways
• BSNL
• Reliance Industries
• Infosys
• Wipro
• Maruti Udyog
• ONGC
• TCS

Specializations

• Ergonomics

Design of the workplace is extremely important especially in manufacturing plants where people tend to interact with heavy machinery. In simple words, candidates enrolled in this specialization learn how people interact with equipments and then come up with design plans to improve the same.

Additionally, this field also aims to reduce the number of accidents and increase safety at the workplace. It has also been proved that proper and intelligent design of a workplace will definitely improve and fasten the manufacturing process.

• Systems engineering

People enrolled in this specialization deal with complex problems that can be encountered and come up with solutions to combat these issues. Manufacturing involves the process of repeating a particular process.

On the other hand, system engineering deals with problems that might be encountered during the manufacturing process. The problems can either be related to machinery, software, people etc.

Students learn to combat such issues so that the manufacturing process goes on smoothly, enabling the company to meet their customers’ needs.

• Production engineering

This is a combination of mechanical engineering and business management. In this specialization the students get to learn about the different production procedures employed in the industry.

They get an in depth understanding of the process and also are encouraged to come up with new and innovative techniques to improve the existing mechanisms. They are encouraged to have a deep knowledge about different production processes and have to come up with ways to manage them in the most economic way.

This is an important and challenging specialization.

INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING: Syllabus

The syllabus is designed in such a way the students get a good and deep understanding of the concepts used and at the same time also get to practice and apply these concepts in real time.

• Mathematics
• Thermal Physics
• Introduction to engineering
• Fields and waves
• Graphics
• Basic Electronics
• Manufacturing Processes
• Facility layout and design
• Inventory systems
• Welding, casting and forming
• Fluid Mechanics
• Thermodynamics
• Data Analysis
• Ergonomics

The syllabus is vast and students get a taste of the different concepts used in the industry.

Popular Colleges offering INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING

Below is a list of top colleges offering Industrial Engineering in India:

Requirements for INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING

The requirements for pursuing this specialization are pretty simple and straight forward.

• The candidate should have scored 50% or above in their 10^th
• The candidate should have scored 50% or above in their 12^th

There are many colleges that conduct separate exams and sometimes also define their own set of requirements.

Why should you choose INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING?

One advantage of this specialization is that industrial engineers are needed in every sector, be it manufacturing, retail or healthcare. This creates a plethora of opportunities for people specializing in this field. This is one specialization whose demand will never decrease.

There is a constant need in the manufacturing industry for skilled professionals. Additionally, this specialization also overlaps with business disciplines and this opens up new opportunities for industrial engineers.  There is a common misconception among people that industrial engineering is only for companies who specialize in manufacturing.

However, they are far from being true. This specialization finds its use in many industries like service industry, transportation industry, oil and gas industry etc. And due to this reason, the number of options available to a graduate specializing in industrial engineering is vast.