Industrial engineering is a broad field that is difficult to describe in a few words.
This is because, of all the engineering disciplines, industrial engineering is perhaps the broadest . Industrial engineers are engaged in a variety of functions that no other engineering field can claim. The best way to describe industrial engineering and what industrial engineers do is to describe the various areas of specialization within the discipline. Here at Iowa State University , students in industrial engineering can pursue the standard program or choose to specialize in one of five key areas. The five key areas are manufacturing engineering , operations research , human factors engineering , engineering management , and enterprise computing .