Industrial engineering technicians help industrial engineers implement designs to use personnel, materials, and machines effectively. They prepare machinery and equipment layouts, plan workflows, conduct statistical production studies, and analyze production costs.
Industrial engineering technicians typically do the following:
- Suggest revisions to methods of operation
- Interpret engineering schematic diagrams
- Help determine quality and reliability standards
- Recommend changes to production standards
- Help plan work assignments
- Collect data to assist in process improvement
Industrial engineering technicians study the time and steps workers take to do a task (time and motion studies). To set reasonable production rates, they consider how workers perform operations such as maintenance, production, and service.
They also observe workers and make sure that equipment is being used and maintained according to quality assurance standards. They then evaluate the resulting data to recommend or justify changes to the operations or to the standards for improving quality and efficiency.