Areas of Study

Two students discuss a problem in front of a black board with equations.
Photo: Michigan Engineering

Many courses allow University of Michigan Industrial and Operations Engineering (U-M IOE) undergraduate students to focus on specific areas of study. Below is a list of possible areas of study and correlating courses.

*These are sample courses and not an exhaustive list.

| COMPUTING AND ANALYTICS

Learn the data science concepts needed to create decision support systems using advanced analytic techniques that transform raw data into information to aid engineers, managers and executives in making decisions.

  • Data Analytics (IOE 265, 366, 373)
  • Stochastic Processes (IOE 316)
  • Decision Analysis (IOE 460)
  • Design of Experiments (IOE 465)
  • Queueing Systems (IOE 416)
  • Simulation (IOE 474)
  • Advanced-Data Analytics (IOE 473)
  • Productivity Analysis and Performance Measurement (IOE 551)

| HUMAN SYSTEMS INTEGRATION

Understand the human factor— how our bodies and our minds impact our efficiency and our ability to work and how to use this knowledge to design safe and efficient workplaces and organizations.

  • Global Cultural Systems Engineering (IOE 430)
  • Human Error and Complex System Failures (IOE 434)
  • Human Factors in Computer Systems (IOE 436)
  • Automotive Human Factors (IOE 437)
  • Occupational Safety Management (IOE 438)
  • Human Motor Behavior and Engineering Systems (IOE 533)
  • Occupational Biomechanics and Exoskeletons (IOE 534)

| MANAGEMENT ENGINEERING

Understand how people act as individuals and in groups and use this knowledge to maximize the efficiency of organizations. You will learn how to apply administration, group dynamics and human motivation to managerial problems critical for success in today’s workplace.

  • Economic Decision Making (IOE 201)
  • Work Organizations (IOE 421)
  • Lean Manufacturing and Services (IOE 425)
  • Global Cultural Systems Engineering (IOE 430)
  • Corporate Finance (IOE 452)
  • Derivative Instruments (IOE 453)
  • Risk Analysis (IOE 561)
  • Occupational Safety Management (IOE 438)

| MANUFACTURING AND SERVICE SYSTEM ENGINEERING

Learn how to use principles of individual and operations engineering to maximize profits, minimize costs, and improve health and human safety in a wide variety of manufacturing and service system contexts including emergency response, energy, finance, healthcare, mobility supply chain and transportation systems.

  • Service Operations Management (IOE 419)
  • Lean Manufacturing and Services (IOE 425)
  • Operations Analysis and Modeling (IOE 440)
  • Production and Inventory Control (IOE 441)
  • Facility Planning (IOE 447)
  • Measurement and Design of Work (IOE 463)
  • Health Care OR (IOE 413)

| OPERATIONS RESEARCH

Learn advanced methods for describing, predicting, and optimizing system performance leveraging techniques from math, statistics, and computation to build data-driven models fundamental to all economic sectors. 

  • Operations Engineering (IOE 202)
  • Optimization and Computational Methods (IOE 310)
  • Stochastic Processes (IOE 316)
  • Advanced Optimization Methods (IOE 410)
  • Continuous Optimization Methods (IOE 511)
  • Stochastic Processes (IOE 515)

| QUALITY ENGINEERING

Prepare yourself to cope with the uncertainty in the design of engineering systems. Apple design techniques and reliability analysis to design quality control systems that are resilient to sources of uncertainty such as weather events, market uncertainty and emergencies.

  • Quality Engineering Principles and Analysis (IOE 461)
  • Design of Experiments (IOE 465)
  • Statistical Quality Control (IOE 466)

| CAREER PREPARATION

Prepare yourself for a post-graduate career in a variety of industries.

  • IOE Career Seminars (IOE 101)
  • Practicum in Production and Service (IOE 424)
  • Practicum in Hospital Systems (IOE 481)

Both IOE 424 and IOE 481 are consulting-based projects that are completed in teams of 4 students. The main difference between the courses is the client: IOE 424 students work with a company while IOE 481 students work for Michigan Medicine.