Overview

National polls consistently rank the U-M Industrial and Operations Engineering undergraduate and graduate programs among the best, currently #2 in the United States. Exceptional faculty and graduate students bring high-impact research to the world while creating a hands-on learning environment for our strong undergraduate program.

Industrial and Operations Engineering (IOE) focuses on achieving best-case scenarios through analysis, design, and control of materials, machines, and behavior. Since the department’s inception in 1956, IOE (or “Industrial Engineering,” as originally named) has expanded from the manufacturing industry into all sectors of the economy.

Through IOE, it’s possible to achieve optimal performance, process, and production in systems. IOE engineers are able to design, improve, and install optimized systems in growth fields like:

• Banking
• Insurance
• Healthcare
• Transportation/Distribution
• Environmental Protection
• Information Processing

The foundation of IOE is operations research and ergonomics but due to its near-limitless applicability, the design and control of systems has expanded to a variety of research and application areas:

• Human Performance
• Engineering Economics
• Production and Facility Planning
• Quality Control
• Simulation
• Data Processing