University of Groningen - Industrial Engineering Management Masters Program

Evert Westerhuis
University of Groningen IEM Alumni

Why did you choose to study Industrial
Engineering and Management and why the University of Groningen?
I chose Industrial Engineering and Management because I wanted to finish a technical and challenging study in which I could identify application in reality and in which I hoped not to lose interest due to scientific isolation. I chose the University of Groningen as it has the studies I ambitioned. I felt much less for the technical universities in our country as they appeared unsocial and narrow minded. Groningen University is a high quality scientific institute with a free mind.

What did you particularly find challenging about IEM in Groningen?
I found the parts where different disciplines and scientific methods are combined particularly challenging. For example a combination of statistical model fitting, computer programming and strategic planning or the mathematics of Markov processes for caching in IT systems. These combinations of disciplines are quite unique for IEM and make the study more interesting.

What were the pitfalls?
I had a hard time framing my bachelor and master thesis. I have the impression that other studies give more specified (or more constrained) problems or subjects, allowing an easier, more straightforward and more complete application on a specific scientific technique than on “application in reality”. The difficulty of applying science in reality is frustrating in an IEM Master Thesis research takes much more time. I think it is a pitfall that the Master thesis easily takes too long.

What specialisation did you choose and why?
I chose the IT specialization as it was a much more challenging curriculum at the time.

How was student life in Groningen?
Great, I had much fun and opportunity to develop my nonstudy related talents.

Where did you carry out your Master’s thesis project? What was the content?
I did my Master’s thesis at Shell International Exploration and Production. The content was about the theoretical explanation of the improvement in decision-making by intensifying communication in groups of people through organizing them as collaboration centers.

How do you see the career perspectives of an IEM student?
Since the IEM program is relatively new, IEM students sometimes have difficulties explaining what their study is about. Some people neither understand the content nor value the curriculum. A big advantage of the IEM engineer is the great financial and strategic insights learned during the education combined with a welltrained mathematical and technical mindset. This is very useful when growing to managerial positions and often people miss either the insight or the structured mindset.

Did you have any trouble finding suitable
employment? What is your current job?
I had no problems finding suitable employment. I am currently Project Manager at Shell Global Solutions International. I manage engineering projects with very challenging capital values.

What would you advise new IEM students?
Remember the structural thinking after your graduate; it is embedded in many courses, but usually not explicit. There are many similarities. Don’t be afraid to use and explain the scientific techniques at your work (like trending, programming, heuristics, strategic models).

University of Groningen Student

If you are interested in
the IEM Masters Program
contact:

Industrial Engineering Management
Nijenborgh 4
9747 AG GRONINGEN

Tel: +31 50 363 8430
Fax: +31 50 363 8498
E-mail: sectbk@fmns.rug.nl

Master’s Coordinator:
Dr H Kloosterman
Tel: +31 50 363 8489
E-mail: h.kloosterman@rug.nl
Web: www.rug.nl/tbk/index

How to design a fraud-resistant electronic toll collection system? How can an automobile production plant minimize production costs without compromising on quality and safety? How to design a new complex consumer product (e.g. cosmetic, food, pharmaceutical formulation) and implement it in an exciting production facility?

Master Industrial Engineering And Management

Lab These are typical questions that an IEM Engineer can address. In an ever-increasing technological society, IEM engineers will - in turn - increasingly become leaders of technological innovations and design.

IEM Master’s Program

The IEM Master’s program is a new engineering program within the University of Groningen. Started in September 2002, its emphasis is on learning how to deal with practical problems in business and how to obtain solutions driven by a technical and scientific design perspective. The general aim of the IEM Master’s program is to train engineers to acquire a thorough overview of the entire primary and secondary business processes, especially with respect to design aspects of technological product or process.

IEM at the University of Groningen is organised as an autonomous interfaculty situated between the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science and the Faculty of Business and Economics. IEM exploits and employs the innovative power of the parents’ faculties, that both have an outstanding international scientific reputation.

More than its nearest competitors, the IEM Master’s program of University of Groningen focuses on technology: in general the curriculum consists of 65% technical courses and 35% management courses.

There are three specializations within our program:

Discrete Technology and Production Automation (DT)
Information and Communication Technology (IT)
Product and Process Technology (PT)

Right from the start of the program one of these specializations has to be chosen.

Lab Career Perspective

Career Opportunities are abundant for IEM engineers. Career-market analyses consistently show that there is a strong need for professionals with a combined technical and managerial background. IEM Engineers with a DT specialization can start a career as a product manager, involved in the development of new innovative products within the tight boundaries of technical, market and product-related constraints.

An IT specialized IEM engineer is able to design independent complex information systems used, for example, by financial institutions, or governments, but also information systems used to enable control of industrial processes, or used for quality management. He or she is able to architect an information system adjusted to the needs and the strategies of the company in which it has to function.

Determining how a company can effectively use information technology is typically a question that an IT-specialized IEM engineer can address. PT-specialized IEM engineers can become a member of product and process design teams, enter a career as a production manager in a process industry, or occupy leading positions in business activities with the product to costumer value chain.