Industrial technology is the field concerned with the application of basic engineering principles and technical skills in support of industrial engineers and managers. Industrial Technology programs typically include instruction in optimization theory, human factors, organizational behavior, industrial processes, industrial planning procedures, computer applications, and report and presentation preparation.

Planning and designing manufacturing processes and equipment is a main aspect of being an industrial technologist. An Industrial Technologist is often responsible for implementing certain designs and processes. Industrial Technology involves the management, operation, and maintenance of complex operation systems.

Accreditation and certification

The Association of Technology, Management, and Applied Engineering (ATMAE), accredits selected collegiate programs in Industrial Technology. An instructor or graduate of an Industrial Technology program may choose to become a Certified Technology Manager (CTM) by sitting for a rigorous exam administered by ATMAE covering Production Planning & Control, Safety, Quality, and Management/Supervison.

ATMAE program accreditation is recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation

Council for Higher Education Accreditation

The Council for Higher Education Accreditation is a United States organization of degree-granting colleges and universities. It identifies its purpose as providing national advocacy for self-regulation of academic quality through accreditation in order to certify the quality of higher education...

 (CHEA) for accrediting Industrial Technology programs. CHEA recognizes ATMAE in the U.S. for accrediting associate, baccalaureate, and master’s degree programs in technology, applied technology, engineering technology, and technology-related disciplines delivered by national or regional accredited institutions in
the United States.(2011)

Knowledge base

Industrial Technology includes wide-ranging subject matter and could be viewed as an amalgamation of industrial engineering

Industrial engineering

Industrial engineering is a branch of engineering dealing with the optimization of complex processes or systems. It is concerned with the development, improvement, implementation and evaluation of integrated systems of people, money, knowledge, information, equipment, energy, materials, analysis...

 and business topics with a focus on practicality and management of technical systems with less focus on actual engineering of those systems.

Typical curriculum at a four-year university might include courses on manufacturing process

Manufacturing

Manufacturing is the use of machines, tools and labor to produce goods for use or sale. The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high tech, but is most commonly applied to industrial production, in which raw materials are transformed into finished goods on a large scale...

, technology and impact on society, mechanical and electronic systems, quality assurance

Quality Assurance

Quality assurance, or QA for short, is the systematic monitoring and evaluation of the various aspects of a project, service or facility to maximize the probability that minimum standards of quality are being attained by the production process...

 and control

Quality control

Quality control, or QC for short, is a process by which entities review the quality of all factors involved in production. This approach places an emphasis on three aspects:...

, materials science

Materials science

Materials science is an interdisciplinary field applying the properties of matter to various areas of science and engineering. This scientific field investigates the relationship between the structure of materials at atomic or molecular scales and their macroscopic properties. It incorporates...

, packaging, production and operations management

Operations management

Operations management is an area of management concerned with overseeing, designing, and redesigning business operations in the production of goods and/or services. It involves the responsibility of ensuring that business operations are efficient in terms of using as little resources as needed, and...

, and manufacturing facility planning and design. In addition, the Industrial Technologist may have exposure to more vocational-style education

Vocational education

Vocational education or vocational education and training is an education that prepares trainees for jobs that are based on manual or practical activities, traditionally non-academic, and totally related to a specific trade, occupation, or vocation...

 in the form of courses on CNC manufacturing, welding

Welding

Welding is a fabrication or sculptural process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, by causing coalescence. This is often done by melting the workpieces and adding a filler material to form a pool of molten material that cools to become a strong joint, with pressure sometimes...

, and other tools-of-the-trade in manufacturing. This differentiates the field of Industrial Technology from other engineering and business disciplines. Graduates of Industrial Technology programs work with and between engineers, top management and production-line

Production line

A production line is a set of sequential operations established in a factory whereby materials are put through a refining process to produce an end-product that is suitable for onward consumption; or components are assembled to make a finished article....

 workers.

Industrial Technologist

Industrial Technology program graduates obtain a majority of positions which are applied engineering and/or management oriented. Since "Industrial Technologist" is not a common job title in the United States, the actual bachelor degree earned by the individual is obscured by the job title he/she receives. Typical job titles for degreed industrial technologists include production manager, plant manager, project manager, production supervisor, project engineer, manufacturing engineer, process engineer, etc.

A technologist curriculum may focus or specialize in a certain technical area of study. Examples of this includes electronics

Electronics

Electronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...

, manufacturing

Manufacturing

Manufacturing is the use of machines, tools and labor to produce goods for use or sale. The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high tech, but is most commonly applied to industrial production, in which raw materials are transformed into finished goods on a large scale...

, construction

Construction

In the fields of architecture and civil engineering, construction is a process that consists of the building or assembling of infrastructure. Far from being a single activity, large scale construction is a feat of human multitasking...

, graphics

Graphics

Graphics are visual presentations on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, computer screen, paper, or stone to brand, inform, illustrate, or entertain. Examples are photographs, drawings, Line Art, graphs, diagrams, typography, numbers, symbols, geometric designs, maps, engineering drawings,or...

, automation

Automation

Automation is the use of control systems and information technologies to reduce the need for human work in the production of goods and services. In the scope of industrialization, automation is a step beyond mechanization...

/robotics

Robotics

Robotics is the branch of technology that deals with the design, construction, operation, structural disposition, manufacture and application of robots...

, CADD, nanotechnology

Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology is the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally, nanotechnology deals with developing materials, devices, or other structures possessing at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometres...

, aviation

Aviation

Aviation is the design, development, production, operation, and use of aircraft, especially heavier-than-air aircraft. Aviation is derived from avis, the Latin word for bird.-History:...

, etc. Industrial Technology is considered to be a career path that is separate and distinct from that of engineering. The Council for Higher Education (CHEA) acknowledges technology and engineering as independent career paths.

Technological development in industry

A major subject of study is technological development in industry. This has been defined as:

• the introduction of new tools and techniques for performing given tasks in production, distribution, data processing (etc.);

• the mechanization of the production process, or the achievement of a state of greater autonomy of technical production systems from human control, responsibility, or intervention;

• changes in the nature and level of integration of technical production systems, or enhanced interdependence;

• the development, utilization, and application of new scientific ideas, concepts, and information in production and other processes; and

• enhancement of technical performance capabilities, or increase in the efficiency of tools, equipment, and techniques in performing given tasks.

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=LyeEG619IlUC&dq=isbn:0906321298

Studies in this area often employ a multi-disciplinary research methodology and shade off into the wider analysis of business

Business

A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...

 and economic growth

Economic growth

In economics, economic growth is defined as the increasing capacity of the economy to satisfy the wants of goods and services of the members of society. Economic growth is enabled by increases in productivity, which lowers the inputs for a given amount of output. Lowered costs increase demand...

 (development, performance). The studies are often based on a mixture of industrial field research and desk-based data analysis and aim to be of interest and use to practitioners in business management and investment (etc.) as well as academics. In engineering

Engineering

Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...

, construction

Construction

In the fields of architecture and civil engineering, construction is a process that consists of the building or assembling of infrastructure. Far from being a single activity, large scale construction is a feat of human multitasking...

, textiles, food

Food

Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. It is usually of plant or animal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals...

 and drugs

DRUGS

Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows are an American post-hardcore band formed in 2010. They released their debut self-titled album on February 22, 2011.- Formation :...

, chemicals and petroleum

Petroleum

Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...

, and other industries the focus has been not just on the nature and factors facilitating and hampering the introduction and utilization of new technologies but also on the impact of new technologies on the production organization (etc.) of firms and various social and other wider aspects of the technological development process.