organization profile

To support Taiwan’s economic development and increase its industrial productivity and competitiveness, the Department Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM) was established at NCTU in 1984. Currently, IEM offers four degree programs: the undergraduate program (since 1984), graduate (master) program (since 1987), graduate (doctorate) program (since 1991) and the part-time master program (since 1999).
The role of industrial engineering and management is to optimize the quality and efficiency associated with designing, operating and improving sustainable processes for acquiring, producing, selling and delivering products and services. We commit to deliver quality education and research in the field of IEM. The department seeks to prepare students with knowledge and skills to become IEM professionals who are capable of designing an effective problem-solving model to predict, plan, control, coordinate, improve and integrate limited resources to maximizing business profitability. This department attempts to provide a fruitful learning experience for students to apply IEM theories to practices. The department is prepared to train students with diverse backgrounds and interests.

Highly Systematic and Widely Applicable
Industrial engineering and management, an interdisciplinary study, has broad applications to many types of industries and organizations. At NCTU, we focus on four areas: production systems, decision science, human factors engineering and manufacturing engineering.
●Production Systems: Concentrating on the planning and management of the traditional production systems (known as in-house production systems), we also study supply chain and logistics (global production systems) management in response to the global evolution in business models and manufacturing strategies.
●Decision Science: We examine the development of quantitative methods in system design, planning and control. We employ systems analysis, operations research, statistics, simulations and other engineering and scientific methods to improve industry and government decision-making.
●Human Factors Engineering: We conduct human information processing studies with the aim to uncover principles underlying human-machine interaction (HMI) and human errors. We are particularly interested in applications of high-tech products, complex systems (nuclear power plants, healthcare systems, etc.) and automated systems.
●Manufacturing Engineering: We study both traditional manufacturing systems and intelligent manufacturing systems. We combine our interest in system integration, planning and control to optimize their interactions with other management systems.

Balance between Theories and Practices
We emphasize the importance of balance between theories and practices. The main campus of NCTU is located right next door to the Hsinchu Science Park (known as “Taiwan’s Silicon Village”). A large number of the top executives in the companies in “Taiwan’s Silicon Village” are NCTU alumni, and they have formed a close network. The geographic privilege and the close network of NCTU alumni developed over time give us ample opportunities to collaborate. In addition to local and international high-tech industries, we collaborate with traditional manufacturing, supply chains and logistics, healthcare and agricultural logistics industries. Therefore, our research is often driven by real problems and needs, and solved with solid theoretic methodologies.
IEM receives many research grants annually from the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), and from other government agencies. Individual faculty members receive research projects from private firms. We assist companies by offering training programs and improving their operational efficiency. IEM faculty members are also board members of, or consultants to, private enterprises, serve on assessment panels for accreditations, reviews and competitions, etc.

Quality Learning Environments
The College of Management at NCTU has been accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate School of Business (AACSB), one of the world’s most prestigious accreditation associations for business and management programs. In addition to fundamental and traditional IE courses, such as quality management, production management, we also offer four different tracks to students, including (1) production systems, (2) decision science, (3) human factors engineering, and (4) manufacturing engineering. We encourage students to pursue a minor or a double degree according to their personal interests. We also provide a variety of scholarships, internship opportunities and oversea study programs.