What is a Manufacturing Engineer?

Manufacturing engineers deal with all aspects of the production processes that manufacture the huge variety of indispensable, innovative, high-tech, and, at times, mission-critical products we depend upon. Manufacturing engineering is very interdisciplinary in nature. Manufacturing engineers can specialize in a variety of application-specific technologies, including discovering and designing "smart" materials, controlling chemical and other manufacturing processes, pushing the limit in microelectronics, innovating in manufacturing microsystems. They are also responsible for understanding, integrating, and managing large information systems.

In the new era of global and decentralized manufacturing where supply chain management is critical, the skills of the manufacturing engineer are in increasing demand. Thus, manufacturing engineers are well positioned to thrive in the new economy based on the generation and processing of information. They apply techniques pioneered in the study of manufacturing systems to design and control communication networks, electric power networks, and transportation networks.

Many manufacturing engineers build on their understanding of both the production process and its economic aspects to pursue careers in management and consulting. In fact, since the field is closely related to management, manufacturing engineers can combine their technical expertise with their business experience to pursue an MBA.

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