Industrial engineering is a branch of engineering that concerns the development, improvement, implementation and evaluation of integrated systems of people, money, knowledge, information, equipment, energy, material and process. Industrial engineering draws upon the principles and methods of engineering analysis and synthesis, as well as mathematical, physical and social sciences together with the principles and methods of engineering analysis and design to specify, predict and evaluate the results to be obtained from such systems. In lean manufacturing systems, Industrial engineers work to eliminate wastes of time, money, materials, energy, and other resources.

The usual undergraduate degree earned is the Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering. The typical curriculum includes introductory chemistry and physics, mathematics through calculus and differential equations and also including probability and statistics, intermediate coursework in mechanical engineering, computer science, and sometimes electrical engineering.