MSc in Industrial Engineering and Management

This program gives you the skills to adopt changes in an industrial environment in a responsible and efficient manner, through established concepts in manufacturing, quality, and innovation.

Linköping University has been a pioneer in industrial engineering and management education since the 1970s. Thanks to our dedicated and experienced teachers, we can offer you interesting challenges and personal development to help you reach success. Besides lectures and laboratory work, we expect you to actively participate in projects, writing papers, essays, and reports and presenting minor research tasks. This is demanding, and for good reason. We take education seriously and want your time with us to be as meaningful as possible.

Three profiles

This program builds on your prior knowledge in engineering and mathematics and integrates it into an industrial engineering and management context. You will learn how to analyze the processes of tech companies to help steer them in the right direction by applying well-known methods and principles. The first semester has core courses in project management and organization, production planning and control, lean production, quality, and environmental engineering.

From the second semester onwards, you follow one of these profiles:

Innovation Management

Rapid change is the new normal, and the pace of innovation is bound to accelerate even further. All innovations have to be managed, however, most innovations follow a generic process. This profile focuses on the development and commercialization of resource-efficient products and solutions. You follow subjects in management systems and sustainability, innovation management, industrial ecology, leadership and organization, and business planning and entrepreneurship.

Operations Management

Provides a holistic view of operations management in manufacturing and service industries. You gain knowledge about approaches for creating, developing, and sustaining an effective organization that provides maximum benefits to its customers, with profitability as the starting point. Courses address the management of available resources, in particular with regard to the integration between materials and capacity. You learn about established strategies, planning principles, and methods such as Planning and Control, Agile and Lean Production, Theory of Constraints (TOC), and Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRPII).

Quality Management

A set of concepts and practices characterized by core principles like customer focus, process management, continuous improvement, the participation of everyone, fact-based decisions, and committed leadership. A key question is how an organization can improve its processes to provide maximum benefits to customers through the best use of available resources. This profile provides insight into approaches for creating and sustaining an effective organization, such as Six Sigma quality, quality and process development, and service development.

In addition to profile-specific courses, the program has mandatory courses in corporate social responsibility (CSR) and science and research methodology. Each profile concludes with a 12 ECTS project within the field of your chosen profile, in groups of 5-6 students. This real-world case prepares you for the master thesis in the final semester. This thesis is usually written together with another student and in close collaboration with a company, either a small local business or a global industrial corporation such as Ericsson or Scania.

Syllabus

Purpose

• An MSc in Industrial Engineering and Management from Linköping University is able to identify, analyze, solve, and communicate complex interdisciplinary problems in the industry, with a focus on integrating engineering and management knowledge and skills.
• The master’s program in Industrial Engineering and Management will become one of the leading international master's programs in the field. The courses in the program shall be on a level comparable to similar courses provided within other relevant, excellent international education programs.
• The master’s program in Industrial Engineering and Management will be the obvious choice for students who have a Bachelor of Science degree in an engineering subject and who have the ambition to increase and deepen their knowledge in industrial engineering and management, especially related to innovation management, operations management, and quality management.

Aim

After the completion of the master's program the student is expected to have acquired the following knowledge and skills:

Disciplinary knowledge and reasoning

An MSc in Industrial Engineering and Management from Linköping University is able to manage complex interdisciplinary problems related to innovation, operations, and quality management. From a thorough technical-economical-mathematical-management basis, an MSc is able to identify, analyze, solve, and communicate problems related to innovation, operations, and quality management.

Students with a Bachelor of Science degree in an engineering subject entering the program have already studied in-depth courses within a certain engineering discipline, e.g. mechanical engineering, civil engineering, electrical engineering, or computer science, including at least 30 ECTS credits in mathematics and/or applied mathematics. In the master's program, this engineering knowledge is integrated with organization management, operations strategy, leadership, operations planning and control, quality management, and project management in order to be able to manage complex industrial problems. Consequently, an MSc in Industrial Engineering and Management is able to describe, formulate, and analyze industrial problems by using mathematical tools and technological applications.

In addition to general, compulsory courses in these fields, the student has in-depth knowledge within one of the program’s profiles. Within the chosen profile, the student is able to:

• analyze complex problems based on relevant theory and practical knowledge
• relate and synthesize different theoretical perspectives and develop their own models of analysis
• apply academic principles, models, and methodologies in industrial firms
• critically assess methods, procedures, and practices that are applied in technology-based firms

Current research and new research results are integrated into courses at the end of the program, starting with a compulsory course covering research methodology, scientific writing, referencing techniques, and ethics. Each profile ends with a project course where the students apply previous knowledge in a structured and methodical way in order to carry out improvement projects, gaining in-depth practical understanding and experience from different kinds of businesses.

Personal and professional skills and attributes

An MSc in Industrial Engineering and Management has the individual and professional capability and attitude to take a leading role in dynamic industrial environments and is able to identify, formulate and examine complex engineering problems in a systematic way, both quantitatively and qualitatively. By using relevant literature and performing quantitative as well as qualitative empirical studies, an MSc in Industrial Engineering and Management readily adopts new knowledge. Quantitative empirical studies based on hypotheses can be tested in experiments as well as through statistical analyses. Qualitative studies include case studies that can be used to create theoretical constructs and propositions.

An MSc in Industrial Engineering and Management can identify, analyze and develop complex systems by defining the system’s boundaries and properties, considering the whole system as well as subsystems, and describing and examining the interaction between the different parts in the system including its important context variables. The students are trained to take initiative, work independently, creatively and apply critical thinking. Self-knowledge and a will to develop personally throughout life are important, and so is planning of time and resources in an efficient and effective way, taking responsibility, being reliable, and acting professionally. This includes being active in career planning and keeping up to date with the profession’s current developments.

Interpersonal skills, teamwork, and communication

An MSc in Industrial Engineering and Management is trained to collaboratively work on complex tasks. Interpersonal skills, teamwork, and communication are therefore of utmost importance. The students are trained to work together with other people in projects and groups. This includes contributing to group effectiveness by actively taking part, creating clear roles and responsibilities, actively sharing knowledge, and collaboratively achieving goals. An MSc in Industrial Engineering and Management can start, plan, manage and lead different types of projects and integrate the work of people from different specializations.

Furthermore, an MSc in Industrial Engineering and Management is able to communicate, orally and in writing, in a correct, inspiring way orientated towards achieving goals. Effective communication is comprised of both task-related and relationship-oriented skills. As the program is given in English, an MSc in Industrial Engineering and Management is proficient enough in English to take into account the state-of-the-art knowledge within the field and, based on this knowledge, understand, analyze, compare, and reflect on complex engineering problems, in written text and orally.

Planning, execution, and presentation of research or development projects with respect to scientific and societal needs and requirements

An MSc in Industrial Engineering and Management has deep knowledge of systems in innovation, operations, or quality environment, including different external factors in society, and understands the business conditions for industrial research and development projects and processes. This includes, for example, the ability to manage

• implementation processes by testing, validating, and verifying activities, including an understanding of change processes,
• operation and service of technically advanced systems, or
• innovation and introduction of new technology

An MSc in Industrial Engineering and Management has knowledge about suitable development processes for different kinds of research or development projects and is able to participate and actively contribute to all phases of research or development projects, including identification of needs, structuring, planning, execution, and presentation of projects. A compulsory course in corporate social responsibility contributes to the students’ understanding of the importance of technology in society, including economic, social, and sustainable development.

Research

Operations Management and Finance

A research group in Production Economics explores the boundary between engineering and management by developing theories and applications to optimize the use of resources within manufacturing and service industries.

Logistics and Quality Management

The Division of Logistics and Quality Management strives to be the most demanded expert and to educate the country's most popular students in logistics and quality management.

Project, Innovations, and Entrepreneurship

The division is involved in research, undergraduate and graduate education, and collaboration with industry and public sector organizations in the fields of project management, innovation, and entrepreneurship.

_Are you curious about what it is like to study at LiU? Join us for a chat about what it is like to live and study on our campuses in Sweden. We offer free webinars and recordings for both prospective and admitted degree students throughout the year. Visit our _ _Meet us online _ _page. _

About Linköping University

Linköping University will never rest on its laurels.

In close collaboration with the business world and society, Linköping University (LiU) conducts world-leading, boundary-crossing research in fields including materials science, IT and hearing. In the same spirit, the university offers many innovative educational programs, many of them with a clear vocational focus, leading to qualification as, for example, doctors, teachers, economists, and engineers.

The university has 32,000 students and 4,000 employees on four campuses. Together we seek answers to the complex questions facing us today. Our students are among the most desirable in the labor market and international rankings consistently place LiU as a leading global university.

LiU achieved university status in 1975 and innovation is our only tradition.

History of Linköping University

In 1975 Sweden’s sixth university was founded in Linköping. Since then Linköping University (LiU) has grown considerably, expanding to Norrköping and Stockholm.

Linköping has been an important center of learning since medieval times when Linköping Cathedral offered a school with extensive international contacts and its own student hall in Paris. In 1627 the Cathedral School became the third upper secondary school in Sweden and in 1843 a college for elementary school teachers began operations. In Norrköping, the Fröbel Institute – Sweden’s first college for training pre-school teachers – was founded in 1902.

From university college to university

What would later become Linköping University began to take shape in the mid-1960s. Higher education in Sweden was expanding and in 1965 the Swedish Parliament decided to establish a branch of Stockholm University, together with a university college of engineering and medicine, in Linköping.

In the autumn of 1967, the branch of Stockholm University moved into premises in central Linköping. There the first students could take courses in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Two years later the units for engineering and medicine got underway.

In 1970 education and research started moving into the recently built Campus Valla, a short distance from the town center. Buildings A and B were the first to be completed. The same year the various parts were merged to form Linköping University College, including faculties of engineering, medicine and arts, and sciences.

The new university college was the first in Sweden to offer study programs in Industrial Engineering and Management and Applied Physics and Electrical Engineering, both starting in 1969. A few years later, in 1975, Linköping University launched Sweden’s first Computer Science and Engineering program.

1975 was also the year when Linköping University College became Linköping University, the sixth university in Sweden. In line with the 1977 reform of the Swedish higher education system, teacher education was also transferred to Linköping University.

Interdisciplinary research and problem-based learning

Linköping University has always worked with innovation in education and research. In 1980 the newly formed Department of Thematic Studies adopted an approach that was new in Sweden. Research was organized in interdisciplinary themes, such as Technology and Social Change or Water and Environmental Studies. Scientists worked across boundaries to solve complex problems. LiU was also first in Sweden to introduce graduate research schools for different themes. The model later spread to other parts of the university and became a national success.

The new Faculty of Health Sciences (Hälsouniversitetet), formed in 1986, combined governmentally and regionally funded education. It introduced a radically changed methodology, being the first in Sweden to use problem-based learning, PBL. Later, LiU became the first university in the world to allow students from different health sciences programs to treat actual patients on a student-managed training ward.

Expansion to Norrköping – and Stockholm

A significant milestone in the history of the University was the opening of Campus Norrköping in 1997. Some programs had previously operated from Norrköping, but the number of students now grew drastically in line with government efforts to expand higher education. Historical factories in the former industrial district were again filled with life, as they were filled with classrooms, laboratories, cafés, a library and of course students.

Linköping University also expanded to Stockholm when the reputable Carl Malmsten School of Furniture sought a collaborative partner from the academic sector. The Malmsten furniture design and handicraft programs became part of LiU in 2000. After almost 60 years at Södermalm in central Stockholm, Malmstens moved to new premises on the island of Lidingö in the autumn of 2009. LiU got its fourth campus.

Buro Millennial / Pexels

LiU in figures

Some important figures for Linköping University.

Education

• 32,000 students (full-time equivalents 17,907)
• 21,400 on Campus Valla
• 5,500 on Campus Norrköping
• 3,900 on University Hospital Campus (US)
• 2,100 distance students and students in other locations, including Campus Lidingö

(Some students take courses on more than one campus.)

• 120 study programs, of which 27 are international programs in English
• 550 single-subject courses
• Exchange agreements with 400 universities in 50 countries
• 2,400 international students
• 2,200 first cycle degrees
• 2,700 second-cycle degrees

Research and scientific training

• 300 professors
• 1,200 PhD students
• 40 licentiate degrees
• 140 doctoral degrees

Staff

• 4,000 employees (full-time equivalents 3,156)