Affiliation:
1. University of Aveiro, Portugal
2. University of Minho, Portugal
3. University of Coimbra, Portugal
Abstract
Industrial engineering and management (IEM) is considered a softer type of engineering. IEM professionals have been slow in implementing many changes that have occurred in production, ranging from mass production to mass customization paradigms embedded in Industry 4.0. This chapter introduces and discusses the role of IEM professionals in dealing with all the changes required for the implementation of these paradigms. This chapter discusses the training of these professionals that demands more applied research, and, at the same time, it seeks to instigate their curiosity and creativity to generate new solutions based on fundamental research. A semi-systematic literature review was used. The results indicate that an IEM professional needs a strong leadership style and ethical sense to lead multidisciplinary teams and should also be a systems, lean, and sustainability thinker, who has the technological, digital, and transversal skills to face the current and future challenges of the successive industrial revolutions.