Operations Research and Industrial Engineering: The Applied Science and its Engineering

Programs of education in industrial engineering, operations research, and management science should be based upon definitions of the respective fields, upon a concept of the present and future scopes and limitations of professional activity in these fields, as well as upon an evaluation of what academic disciplines provide the most suitable preparation for the respective professional activities. This paper examines these subjects and concludes that educational programs for these professions should have much in common and that, although a wide variety of quite different types of educational experience can provide the basis for professional work in industrial engineering and in operations research, these educational programs should emphasize the system and the decision-making approaches to the science, engineering, and practice of management.