Competition creates pressure on manufacturers to maximize efficiency. Wasting materials, time and even space can turn success into failure and profits into losses. At a plastics manufacturing company, an industrial engineer must determine how much of each raw material is needed to produce the required amount of ceramic powder and avoid waste. The mathematics and language skills needed to analyze such a production process are arithmetic using units and rates, the ability to do simple dimensional analysis, and the ability to gather relevant information and report findings in a timely manner.

Career Outlook

JOB	COMPENSATION	EDUCATION	NUMBER OF JOBS	OUTLOOK
Production manager	Median annual earnings were $61,660 in 2000.	Bachelor's degree	255,000 jobs in 2000	Slower than average
Industrial engineer	Median annual earnings were $58,580 in 2000.	Bachelor's degree	198,000 jobs in 2000	Slower than average

Associated Benchmarks
ADP benchmarks that address the knowledge and skills required to complete this task are:

CONTENT AREA	STRAND	NUMBER
English	Language	A7
	Research	D2, D4
	Informational Text	F1
Mathematics	Number Sense and Numerical Operations	I1.1, I1.2, I4.2
	Algebra	J5.1
	Geometry	K8.1
	Data Interpretation, Statistics and Probability	L1.3, L1.6