What Industrial Engineering Technicians Do

Industrial engineering technicians plan ways to effectively use personnel, materials, and machines in factories, stores, health care organizations, repair shops, and offices. As assistants to industrial engineers, they help prepare machinery and equipment layouts, plan workflows, conduct statistical production studies, and analyze production costs.

Duties

Industrial engineering technicians typically do the following:

• Suggest revisions for methods of operation, material handling, or equipment layout
• Interpret engineering drawings, schematic diagrams, and formulas
• Confer with management or engineering staff to determine quality and reliability standards
• Suggest changes to production standards for achieving the best quality within the limits of equipment capacity
• Help plan work assignments, taking into account worker performance, machine capacity, and production schedules
• Prepare charts, graphs, and diagrams to illustrate workflow, routing, floor layouts, how materials are handled and how machines are used

Industrial engineering technicians study the time and steps workers take to do a task (called "time and motion" studies). To set reasonable production rates, they consider how workers are doing operations such as maintenance, production, and service.

They also observe workers to make sure that the equipment is being used and maintained according to quality assurance standards. They then evaluate the resulting data to point out or justify changes to the operations or the standards to improve quality and efficiency.

Industrial engineering technicians generally work in teams under the supervision of industrial engineers.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2012-13 Edition