Industrial Engineering is the Maestro of the Fourth Industrial Revolution Era

Industrial Engineering is the study both of the issues of design, management, analysis, assessment, and improvement in various fields of industry, such as production, service, information, communication, finance, health, public, and national defense, and of resolving these issues through analytic decision-making methods. As such, industrial engineering not only uses methods of optimization and management science (industrial engineering’s own method) but also the methods of various related fields - such as mathematics, statistics, computer science, and social science - to approach the issues from a systematic perspective.

Considering the issues that most companies tackle, the majority are those related to decision-making, and it is these issues that industrial engineering prioritizes: “which business markets do we enter in the future?”; “what kind of products are demanded at the moment?”; “how do we develop both the product and the technology?”; “how big will be the customers’ demands?”; “should we expand our facilities or outsource if the market expands?”; “which production plans maximize our operation rate?”; “how do we choose a distribution channel for materials and products?”; “what should we do to improve the efficiency of our processes and the quality of our goods?”; and “how should we organize various information systems within the company and between companies?”.

Industrial engineering is not staying, but constantly moving. Industrial engineering continues to change and expand as a result of technological improvements and changes in the industry. There are various, new research subjects, including business decision-making based on big data analysis, increased sophistication of internet and mobile services, social network analyses, e-commerce and e-business system design and administration, service system operation, investment risk management, the designing of optional products, the development of emotional products, high-technology marketing, and technical trend analyses. In this context, the nature of industrial engineering lies in its change, but is bound to improve efficiency and sustainability through optimization.

Industrial engineering students will gain the perspective that enables them to draw a big picture without missing the details. Within their organizations, industrial engineering graduates work as do conductors of an orchestra; just as musical directors should be able to analyze sounds of stringed, wind, percussion, and keyboard instruments and harmonize them to make the best sound, industrial engineering students are as fully qualified as CEOs who should control a whole system of strategic elements, administrative elements, and technical elements.

We at Seoul National University’s Industrial Engineering Department are doing our best to teach our students to play innovative and leading roles in the era of the 4th Industrial Revolution, in areas such as big data, AI, IoT, blockchain, and fintech with the vision of “Cultivate creative leaders that work for a better living and future by implementing more efficient and sustainable industry and systems through the integration of new technologies and innovative management techniques”.

The doors of Industrial Engineering at Seoul National University are always open for those talented students with the bigger dreams, the greater passion, and the warmer personality.

Department chair

Lee, Kyungsik