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Is Advanced Manufacturing and Systems Management any good?

What are the differences between the various Master's programs offered under Industrial and Systems Engineering?

  • While browsing through the websites of the Industrial Engineering Department of many universities, I've observed that they all have something in common: diversification. Here are some of the common programs that are offered: 1. Industrial Engineering 2. Systems Engineering 3. Operations Research 4. Manufacturing Systems Engineering 5. Logistics Some universities also club the (6.) Engineering Management program with the above mentioned programs in the Industrial Engineering Department. Could someone who is knowledgeable in this subject provide me with details on each of them?

  • Answer:

    Industrial Engineering (IE) is surely is big umbrella encompassing various other fields in itself. Overall, its main focus is to improve efficiency through optimizing the processes that run along in an enterprise. It can also deal with standardizing the processes in order to achieve the best result every time. Operations research (OR) under IE deals more with the mathematical methods in order to facilitate a decision making process. For example, if you are designing a building, how many elevators will be required is a function of the number of people who will be using the building. Thus, if you have the raw data, it will help you determine your answers through statistical regression models, PERT, CPM, simulation, game theory analysis and various probability models. Logistics deals with the supply chaining of an enterprise. If a manufacturing enterprise, it deals from how the parts are going to be delivered from the vendor (taking considerations of lead time, cost, quantity, place to store them at your end etc.), movement of parts with the company and the quick turn around time to make a product. For an university, it deals with how the students will be getting an admission until their graduation. For the above example, the university must gather this data in order to determine how much money needs to be spent on infrastructure. Thus, how many housing needs to be built and so on. Here it becomes an inter-disciplinary problem. The field of Systems engineering deals with this. Systems engineering takes into consideration various other fields which must closely work like a well oiled machine. For example, in manufacturing an aircraft, systems engineer would know logistics (parts), operations research (how many doors to make), industrial engineering (how to build it efficiently) and has to integrate all these to make it happen.  Hope this helps, Good luck.

Saumitra Thakkar at Quora Visit the source

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Well, the reality is that in a one-year masters program, you end up taking mostly the same classes in any of those disciplines. A masters program is usually meant as a terminal degree (e.g. you go into industry after, not for a PhD). Talking about specific masters programs rather than the discipline itself, an easy way to find out what the degree entails is just to look at the core classes required of that specific masters program at each school's website.. that should give you some obvious signs. Again, most masters programs will have you take the same core: 1 statistics class, 1 linear programming class, 1 engineering economy class, etc. Then, in the second semester you could pursue a few classes in different areas. I know I didn't answer the direct question about the difference between the disciplines, but I hope to provide insight about specific masters prorgams. Really they are all very different in career paths but I find they are all very similar regarding which classes you take in a one-year masters program. Therefore, the school's reputation and job placement statistics are quite important to consider.

Nick Charles

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