What do they do?

Design, integrate, or improve manufacturing systems or related processes. May work with commercial or industrial designers to refine product designs to increase producibility and decrease costs.

Also known as:

Facility Engineer, Manufacturing Engineer, Plant Engineer, Process Engineer, Process Improvement Engineer

Typical Wages

Projected Growth Rate

Employment of Industrial Engineers is projected to grow 13 percent from 2020 to 2030, faster than average compared to all occupations.

Projected Employment in OH

No Data Available
  • 13.5%

    Change

    Ranks #41 in job growth rate
    1,150

    Job Openings

    Ranks #6 in net job growth

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Education Level

Percent of workers in this field with these degrees:

  • Doctorate or Professional Degree  (3%)
  • Master's degree  (19%)
  • Bachelor's degree  (52%)
  • Associate's degree  (8%)
  • Some college, no degree  (11%)
  • High school diploma equivalent  (6%)
  • Less than high school diploma  (1%)

Typical College Majors

Most Popular Majors that prepare Manufacturing Engineers

Select Type of Degree:

  • #1
    • Degrees Granted

      5,537
    • Female Students

      1,976
    • Male Students

      3,561
    • Median Starting Salary

      $61,467
  • #2
    • Degrees Granted

      1,388
    • Female Students

      294
    • Male Students

      1,094
    • Median Starting Salary

      $51,600
  • #3
    • Degrees Granted

      724
    • Female Students

      228
    • Male Students

      496
    • Median Starting Salary

      $66,400
  • #4
    • Degrees Granted

      437
    • Female Students

      82
    • Male Students

      355
    • Median Starting Salary

      $62,000
  • #5
    • Degrees Granted

      329
    • Female Students

      138
    • Male Students

      191
    • Median Starting Salary

      $61,100

People in this career often have these skills:

  • Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
  • Mathematics - Using mathematics to solve problems.
  • Complex Problem Solving - Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
  • Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
  • Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
  • Monitoring - Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
  • Operations Monitoring - Watching gauges, dials, or other indicators to make sure a machine is working properly.
  • Judgment and Decision Making - Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
  • Writing - Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
  • Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
  • Systems Analysis - Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes.
  • Systems Evaluation - Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system.
  • Active Learning - Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
  • Technology Design - Generating or adapting equipment and technology to serve user needs.
  • Troubleshooting - Determining causes of operating errors and deciding what to do about it.
  • Time Management - Managing one's own time and the time of others.

People in this career often know a lot about:

  • Production and Processing - Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods.
  • Engineering and Technology - Knowledge of the practical application of engineering science and technology. This includes applying principles, techniques, procedures, and equipment to the design and production of various goods and services.
  • Mechanical - Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance.
  • Design - Knowledge of design techniques, tools, and principles involved in production of precision technical plans, blueprints, drawings, and models.
  • Mathematics - Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
  • Computers and Electronics - Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
  • English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
  • Physics - Knowledge and prediction of physical principles, laws, their interrelationships, and applications to understanding fluid, material, and atmospheric dynamics, and mechanical, electrical, atomic and sub-atomic structures and processes.

People in this career often have talent in:

  • Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Category Flexibility - The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Visualization - The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Information Ordering - The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Mathematical Reasoning - The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Number Facility - The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • Written Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Fluency of Ideas - The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
  • Originality - The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
  • Flexibility of Closure - The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
  • Speech Recognition - The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.

People in this career often do these activities:

  • Determine causes of operational problems or failures.
  • Analyze operational data to evaluate operations, processes or products.
  • Resolve operational performance problems.
  • Implement design or process improvements.
  • Develop technical methods or processes.
  • Determine operational methods.
  • Provide technical guidance to other personnel.
  • Design industrial processing systems.
  • Evaluate designs or specifications to ensure quality.
  • Recommend technical design or process changes to improve efficiency, quality, or performance.
  • Prepare operational reports.
  • Prepare procedural documents.
  • Create graphical representations of industrial production systems.
  • Confer with technical personnel to prepare designs or operational plans.
  • Supervise production or support personnel.
  • Design industrial equipment.
  • Install production equipment or systems.
  • Assess product or process usefulness.
  • Estimate operational costs.
  • Estimate technical or resource requirements for development or production projects.
  • Estimate time requirements for development or production projects.
  • Train personnel on proper operational procedures.
  • Devise research or testing protocols.
  • Analyze costs and benefits of proposed designs or projects.
  • Purchase materials, equipment, or other resources.
  • Investigate the environmental impact of projects.
  • Update technical knowledge.
  • Develop operational methods or processes that use green materials or emphasize sustainability.

This page includes data from:

O*NET OnLine Career data: O*NET 28.1 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (“USDOL/ETA”). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Logo Occupation statistics: USDOL U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment Statistics

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