Industrial and systems engineering is an engineering discipline devoted to the design, installation, improvement, and control of integrated systems of people, materials, and facilities in a wide range of organizations that produce goods or render services. Like other engineering fields, industrial engineering is concerned with solving problems through the application of specialized knowledge in mathematics and science, as well as in engineering economics, manufacturing systems, production and inventory control, operations research, quality engineering, reliability, facilities planning and materials handling. An important characteristic of industrial engineering is its system approach to integrate the basic resources of production, people, information, energy and other relevant resources to create a smooth, efficient and competitive operation. Industrial engineers are needed in virtually all enterprises engaged in product design, process planning and scheduling.