美国工业工程师学(AIIE)在1955年对工业工程做出定义：工业工程是综合应用数学、应用物理和社会科学的专门知识、技能以及工程分析和设计的原则和方法，对人员、物料、信息、设备和能源组合而成的综合系统进行设计、改进和实施，并且对系统的成果进行鉴定、预测和评估。
更多阅读请点链接：知乎/工业工程学
当然，这只是指中文维基，还有英文的可用：
Industrial engineering is a branch of engineering which deals with the optimization of complex processes, systems or organizations. Industrial engineerswork to eliminate waste of time, money, materials, man-hours, machine time, energy and other resources that do not generate value. According to the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers, they figure out how to do things better, they engineer processes and systems that improve quality and productivity.[1]
Industrial engineering is concerned with the development, improvement, and implementation of integrated systems of people, money, knowledge, information, equipment, energy, materials, analysis and synthesis, as well as the mathematical, physical and social sciences together with the principles and methods of engineering design to specify, predict, and evaluate the results to be obtained from such systems or processes.[2] While industrial engineering is a longstanding engineering discipline subject to (and eligible for) professional engineering licensure in most jurisdictions, its underlying concepts overlap considerably with certain business-oriented disciplines such as operations management.
或了解更多欧度服装ERP/PLM系统，GST/GSD，服装IE/工业工程
