Job Details
Sector(s)
Component Manufacturing and Research & Development
Median Pay
$95,300 per year
$45.82 per hour
Job Type
Entry- to Mid-Level
Typical Entry-Level Education and Work Experience Requirements
Bachelor's degree required; little to no experience required
Alternate Titles
Production engineer, process engineer, manufacturing engineer, and industrial production manager.
Brief Job Description
Industrial engineers find ways to eliminate wastefulness in marine energy component manufacturing processes. They devise ways to use workers, machines, materials, available technology, and energy to increase efficiency and minimize the time and costs required to manufacture marine energy systems and components.
Education and Training Description
Industrial engineers should have a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering. Employers also value experience, so internships or cooperative education engineering programs while at universities are a plus. To be hired into formal engineering roles, industrial engineers generally need to acquire a fundamentals of engineering license by passing the fundamentals of engineering exam.
With a fundamentals of engineering license and four or more years of work experience, industrial engineers can take a test to acquire a professional engineering (PE) license. Industrial engineers with a PE license can be a technical specialist within the industrial engineering discipline, oversee other engineers, develop designs and specifications, and oversee construction activities. An advanced degree, additional work experience, and a PE license can lead to more job and career advancement opportunities in the research and development sector, training or education field, and managerial roles.
Job Profile
Industrial engineers find ways to eliminate wastefulness in the marine energy manufacturing processes. They devise efficient ways to use workers, machines, materials, available technology, and energy in order to increase productivity and minimize time and costs in the manufacture of marine energy systems and components.
Industrial engineers develop, evaluate, and improve manufactured products and methods, utilizing their knowledge of product design, materials and parts, assembly processes, tooling, production equipment capabilities, and quality control standards. To do this, industrial engineers carefully study manufacturing, safety, product standards and requirements, and international standards relevant to marine energy, which is in active development under International Electrotechnical Commission Technical Committee 114. Then they use mathematical methods and models to design manufacturing and information systems to meet those requirements most efficiently.
When designing industrial manufacturing systems, industrial engineers must address worker safety, ergonomics, and environmental impacts. They also work with other engineers, accountants, and project managers to assist in financial planning and cost analysis.
Industrial engineers typically:
- Review production schedules, engineering specifications, process flows, and other information to understand methods and activities in manufacturing and services
- Determine how to manufacture parts or products, or deliver services, with maximum efficiency
- Develop management control systems to make financial planning and cost analysis more efficient
- Enact quality control procedures to resolve production problems or minimize costs
- Work with customers and management to develop standards for design and production as well as meet national and international industry standards
- Know the market and most current designs and best processes for their field
- Design control systems to coordinate activities and production planning to ensure that products meet quality standards
- Confer with clients about product specifications, vendors about purchases, management personnel about manufacturing capabilities, and staff about the status of projects.
Job Skills
Industrial engineers typically need:
- Creativity. Industrial engineers use creativity and ingenuity to design new production processes in many kinds of settings to reduce use of material resources, time, or labor while accomplishing the same goal.
- Critical-thinking skills. Industrial engineers create new systems to solve problems related to waste and inefficiency. Solving these problems requires logic and reasoning to identify strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to the problems.
- Listening skills. These engineers often operate in teams, but they must also solicit feedback from customers, vendors, and production staff. They must listen to customers and clients to fully grasp ideas and problems the first time.
- Math skills. Industrial engineers use the principles of calculus, trigonometry, and other advanced topics in mathematics for analysis, design, and troubleshooting in their work.
- Problem-solving skills. In designing facilities for manufacturing and processes for providing services, these engineers deal with several issues at once, from workers’ safety to quality assurance.
- Speaking skills. Industrial engineers sometimes have to explain their instructions to production staff or technicians before they can make written instructions available. Being able to explain concepts clearly and quickly is crucial to preventing costly mistakes and loss of time.
- Teamwork. Industrial engineers must be able to work with other professionals to serve as a bridge between the technical and business sides of an organization. This requires being able to work with people from a wide variety of backgrounds.
- Writing skills. Industrial engineers must create documentation for other professionals or for future reference. The documentation must be coherent and explain their thinking clearly so that others can understand the information.
More Information, Job Opportunities, etc.
For more information on industrial engineering jobs, see: