Industrial engineering is an engineering profession that is concerned with the optimization of complex processes, systems, or organizations by developing, improving and implementing integrated systems of people, money, knowledge, information, equipment, energy and materials.
Industrial engineers use specialized knowledge and skills in the mathematical, physical, and social sciences, together with the principles and methods of engineering analysis and design, to specify, predict, and evaluate the results obtained from systems and processes. From these results, they are able to create new systems, processes or situations for the useful coordination of labour, materials and machines and also improve the quality and productivity of systems, physical or social. Depending on the sub-specialties involved, industrial engineering may also overlap with, operations research, systems engineering, manufacturing engineering, production engineering, management science, management engineering, financial engineering, ergonomics or human factors engineering, safety engineering, or others, depending on the viewpoint or motives of the user.
Even though its underlying concepts overlap considerably with certain business-oriented disciplines, such as operations management, industrial engineering is a longstanding engineering discipline subject to (and eligible for) professional engineering licensure in most jurisdictions.