STUDY OF TRENDS AND PERSPECTIVES OF INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING RESEARCH

Industrial engineering is an engineering discipline which, because of its multi-disciplinary nature, has played an important role in the development and optimization of different systems at macro and micro levels. In this paper, the results of a research to study the position and trend of Industrial Engineering research in recent years are described. The data from a sample of 7 114 IE-related articles from international journals during the last 27 years were used for the analysis. The results showed that the development of IE in many countries has a strong correlation with their industrial and economic development. However, IE research topics are spreading in other management and engineering departments and so there is a need to redefine the discipline and its specific areas of interest. According to the prediction made using time series analysis, the most favorite fields of IE research in future will be on subjects related to information technology, intelligent systems, optimization, quality, and supply chain management. Bedryfsingenieurswese is 'n ingenieursdissipline wat vanwee die multi-dissiplinere aard daarvan 'n belangrike rol gespeel het in die optimisering van verskillende sisteme op makroen mikrovlak. Hierdie artikel hou die resultate voor van 'n navorsingsprojek wat onderneem is om die posisie en rigting van Bedryfsingenieursnavorsing in onlangse jare te bepaal. Die data van 'n monster van 7 114 Bedryfsingenieursverwante artikels wat verskyn het in internasionale joernale oor die afgelope 27 jaar is gebruik vir die ontleding. Die resultate toon dat die groei van Bedryfsingenieurswese in verskeie lande sterk korreleer met industriele en ekonomiese ontwikkeling. Tog blyk dit dat die navorsingsonderwerpe van Bedryfsingenieurswese sprei na ander bestuurs- en ingenieursdepartemente en dus bestaan daar 'n nodigheid om die dissipline en die spesifieke belangstellingsvelde te herdefinieer. Volgens die vooruitskatting wat gedoen is met behulp van 'n tydreeksanalise, blyk dit dat die gunstelingterreine vir navorsing in die toekoms op die gebiede van inligtingstegnologie, intelligente sisteme, optimisering, gehalte en voorsienings-kettingbestuur sal wees.