Industrial engineering includes study and practice in manufacturing, operations management, research, project management, technology, materials, and scientific processes. Students and professionals in the industry who want training in introductory or advanced levels of theory and application will find many relevant resources through open courseware classes. Schools like MIT and the Paris Tech Grad School offer classes to these students for free, covering industrial engineering subjects in design, project evaluation, industrial economics, industrial ecology, system design, nuclear technology management and more. In this particular collection, which serves as an example for the many different resources available online, students can access classes like Industrial Design Intelligence: A Cognitive Approach to Engineering; System and Project Management; and Systems Perspectives on Industrial Ecology.

These classes, as well as other open courseware classes in industrial engineering, give students and professionals easy, free and convenient access to high quality training resources. Students can increase their earning potential by learning new practices and techniques in industrial engineering, and get a solid foundation in the field while pursuing other work or degree programs. Skills learned include leadership and decision-making skills, project management skills, system design skills, mechanical engineering practices, and even the skills needed to run a nuclear technology organization or department. Coursework may also pull from other fields of study, like economics, to help engineering managers understand how their operations management, market research, and supply chain system affects and is affected by the greater economy.

• Industrial Design Intelligence: A Cognitive Approach to Engineering [MIT] – Students learn skills in project evaluation, design, mechanical engineering and more.
• System and Project Management [MIT] – This course is for intermediate to advanced system design students who need to learn real-life project management skills.
• Systems Perspectives on Industrial Ecology [MIT] – Students in this class learn “quantitative techniques for life cycle analysis of the impacts of materials extraction, processing use, and recycling.”
• Industrial Economics [Paris Tech] – This class gives engineers and engineering students valuable real-life skills in understanding how economics systems relate to their operations management and engineering products and services.
• Managing Nuclear Technology [MIT] – Topics covered in this class include nuclear technology policy issues, economics, nuclear waste management, the electric power industry and more.