Science Explorer Back to mapMap
Discussion
Subfield · Engineering

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering research

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering is a subfield of Engineering. Science Explorer counts 454k research works in it since 1950. 10.0% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

In short: discipline of engineering dealing with various manufacturing sciences and practices including the research, design and development of systems, processes, machines, tools, and equipment.

Research works
454k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
45k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.0%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Topics
17
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+44%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
41% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering (Engineering)

What is Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering research about, and what is growing?

By the world's output in 2021-25, its most used keywords are Supply Chain Management, Sustainability, Digital Twin, Internet of Things, Cyber-Physical Systems, Smart Manufacturing. Gaining share since 2011-15: Cyber-Physical Systems, Smart Manufacturing, Digital Twin, Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence. Losing share: Cutting, Packing, Genetic Algorithm, Manufacturing.

▲ gaining share of this field◆ holding its share▼ losing share

Size is the world's fractional works in 2021-25 in the topics tagged with each word; colour compares the word's share of this field with 2011-15. Each links to the topic it comes from most.

All 40 words, with their numbers
  1. Supply Chain Management29k▲ 2.9×2 topics
  2. Sustainability29k▲ 2.6×3 topics
  3. Digital Twin24k▲ 9.1×2 topics
  4. Internet of Things24k▲ 9.1×2 topics
  5. Cyber-Physical Systems22k▲ 9.9×1 topic
  6. Smart Manufacturing22k▲ 9.9×1 topic
  7. Deep Learning21k▲ 1.69×2 topics
  8. Assembly Planning20k▼ 0.66×1 topic
  9. Design for Manufacture20k▼ 0.66×1 topic
  10. Fabric Defect Detection20k▲ 1.61×1 topic
  11. Machine Vision20k▲ 1.61×1 topic
  12. Order Picking14k▼ 0.85×1 topic
  13. Warehouse Design14k▼ 0.85×1 topic
  14. Genetic Algorithm11k▼ 0.57×2 topics
  15. Industry 4.010k◆ 1.13×2 topics
  16. Logistics9,917◆ 0.98×2 topics
  17. Heuristic Algorithms9,523▼ 0.68×2 topics
  18. CNC Systems9,136◆ 1.00×1 topic
  19. Machine Tools9,136◆ 1.00×1 topic
  20. Manufacturing7,981▼ 0.57×1 topic
  21. Scheduling7,981▼ 0.57×1 topic
  22. Container Terminals7,001◆ 0.88×1 topic
  23. Operations Research7,001◆ 0.88×1 topic
  24. Flexible Automation6,983▼ 0.74×1 topic
  25. Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems6,983▼ 0.74×1 topic
  26. Tabu Search6,407▼ 0.76×1 topic
  27. Vehicle Routing Problem6,407▼ 0.76×1 topic
  28. Energy Efficiency6,302◆ 1.06×2 topics
  29. Railway Timetabling4,446◆ 0.98×1 topic
  30. Train Scheduling4,446◆ 0.98×1 topic
  31. Eco-Industrial Parks3,972▼ 0.60×1 topic
  32. Industrial Symbiosis3,972▼ 0.60×1 topic
  33. Cutting3,115▼ 0.56×1 topic
  34. Packing3,115▼ 0.56×1 topic
  35. Assembly Line Balancing3,070▼ 0.65×1 topic
  36. Optimization Methods3,070▼ 0.65×1 topic
  37. Artificial Intelligence2,959▲ 6.2×2 topics
  38. Management2,916▲ 1.37×1 topic
  39. Transport2,916▲ 1.37×1 topic
  40. Industrial Engineering1,855▲ 1.31×1 topic

Which countries lead Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering research?

On research quality in 2022-now, China, the United States and Germany rank highest in Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering. By volume, China and the United States publish the most (33k and 9.3k works in 2022-now).

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 China #1 all time 1.26× citation excellence · 1.07× journals · 100% breadth 13.6% top 10% · 30k works
  2. 2 United States #2 all time 0.85× citation excellence · 1.54× journals · 100% breadth 9.7% top 10% · 8.3k works
  3. 3 Germany #3 all time 0.83× citation excellence · 1.39× journals · 100% breadth 6.0% top 10% · 7.6k works
  4. 4 United Kingdom #4 all time 1.34× citation excellence · 1.44× journals · 100% breadth 15.2% top 10% · 2.6k works
  5. 5 France #5 all time 0.95× citation excellence · 1.24× journals · 100% breadth 8.3% top 10% · 2.8k works
  6. 6 Sweden #14 all time 1.50× citation excellence · 1.39× journals · 100% breadth 15.4% top 10% · 844 works
  7. 7 Spain #7 all time 1.34× citation excellence · 0.99× journals · 100% breadth 12.5% top 10% · 1.7k works
  8. 8 Canada #8 all time 1.24× citation excellence · 1.19× journals · 100% breadth 13.6% top 10% · 1.4k works
  9. 9 Italy #10 all time 1.39× citation excellence · 0.68× journals · 100% breadth 14.6% top 10% · 2.9k works
  10. 10 Australia #13 all time 1.55× citation excellence · 1.20× journals · 100% breadth 18.4% top 10% · 913 works

The track on each row is that row's top-10% rate. The ranking itself is the quality score, which compares the rate with what each place's own topics predict, adds its share of papers in the Nature Index journals, and counts output and breadth too.

Of 60 countries ranked in Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering. Ranked on the quality score for 2022-now; the bracket is the all-time rank.

All countries ranked in Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 33k works
  2. 2 United States 9.3k works
  3. 3 Germany 8.3k works
  4. 4 India 7.9k works
  5. 5 Russia 5.8k works
  6. 6 Indonesia 4.1k works
  7. 7 Italy 3.1k works
  8. 8 France 3k works
  9. 9 United Kingdom 2.9k works
  10. 10 Türkiye 2.6k works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 41.3%United States: 11.6%Germany: 10.3%India: 9.9%6 others listed: 27.0%41%largest
China33k · 41.3%United States9,256 · 11.6%Germany8,287 · 10.3%India7,919 · 9.9%6 others listed22k · 27.0%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering research?

Tsinghua University (China) ranks first in Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering on research quality in 2022-now, followed by Huazhong University of Science and Technology and Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 Tsinghua University China · Beijing · #1 all time 22.7% top 10% · 349 works
  2. 2 Huazhong University of Science and Technology China · Wuhan · #5 all time 29.2% top 10% · 481 works
  3. 3 Hong Kong Polytechnic University China · Hong Kong · #13 all time 28.5% top 10% · 283 works
  4. 4 Shanghai Jiao Tong University China · Shanghai · #6 all time 17.6% top 10% · 438 works
  5. 5 Chinese Academy of Sciences China · Beijing · #19 all time 12.3% top 10% · 556 works
  6. 6 Tongji University China · Shanghai · #27 all time 15.8% top 10% · 358 works
  7. 7 Zhejiang University China · Hangzhou · #31 all time 18.7% top 10% · 311 works
  8. 8 Chongqing University China · Chongqing · #14 all time 20.7% top 10% · 226 works
  9. 9 ETH Zurich Switzerland · Zurich · #4 all time 14.8% top 10% · 91 works
  10. 10 Nanyang Technological University Singapore · Singapore · #2 all time 22.1% top 10% · 148 works

The track on each row is that row's top-10% rate. The ranking itself is the quality score, which compares the rate with what each place's own topics predict, adds its share of papers in the Nature Index journals, and counts output and breadth too.

Of 316 institutions above the floor of 40 fractional works in Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering.

Top 100 Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering institutions

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 790 works
  2. 2 Fraunhofer-GesellschaftGermany 709 works
  3. 3 Beijing Jiaotong UniversityChina 601 works
  4. 4 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 600 works
  5. 5 Southwest Jiaotong UniversityChina 548 works
  6. 6 Wuhan University of TechnologyChina 524 works
  7. 7 Huazhong University of Science and TechnologyChina 516 works
  8. 8 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 504 works
  9. 9 RWTH Aachen UniversityGermany 474 works
  10. 10 Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityChina 472 works

Who are the leading researchers in Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering?

Counting only their work in Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, Liang Gao, Gilbert Laporte and Quan-Ke Pan have the most papers in the world top 10% for their subfield and year beyond the 10% expected.

  1. 1 Liang Gao China · #3,565 worldwide overall 166.7 of 310 papers here in the top 10%
  2. 2 Gilbert Laporte Canada · #8,708 worldwide overall 113.0 of 237 papers here in the top 10%
  3. 3 Quan-Ke Pan China · #4,552 worldwide overall 106.5 of 199 papers here in the top 10%
  4. 4 Ling Wang China · #88,147 worldwide overall 90.6 of 170 papers here in the top 10%
  5. 5 Xinyu Li China · #62,365 worldwide overall 98.9 of 188 papers here in the top 10%
  6. 6 T.C.E. Cheng China · #26,446 worldwide overall 100.7 of 354 papers here in the top 10%
  7. 7 Kaizhou Gao China · #11,029 worldwide overall 74.5 of 129 papers here in the top 10%
  8. 8 Fei Tao China · #14,479 worldwide overall 70.2 of 126 papers here in the top 10%
  9. 9 MengChu Zhou United States · #13,517 worldwide overall 96.5 of 248 papers here in the top 10%
  10. 10 Lihui Wang Sweden · #218,107 worldwide overall 95.5 of 303 papers here in the top 10%

Ranked on their work in Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering alone: how many more of their papers here reached the world top 10% for their subfield and year than the 10% expected, among 786,029 ranked researchers with a paper here. Each paper counts once, so many strong papers outrank one famous one, and a long record of ordinary papers does not climb. Identities come from OpenAlex author disambiguation, which occasionally merges or splits people.

Top 100 Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering researchers

What are the most cited papers in Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering?

The most cited paper in Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering is "The Knowledge-creating company: How Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation" (H. Takeuchi, 1997), with 13,221 citations. Next come "Ant system: optimization by a colony of cooperating agents" (12,083) and "YOLOv4: Optimal Speed and Accuracy of Object Detection" (10,541).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 The Knowledge-creating company: How Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation H. Takeuchi · Research Policy Dec 1997 13,221
2 Ant system: optimization by a colony of cooperating agents Marco Dorigo, Vittorio Maniezzo, A. Colorni · IEEE Transactions on Systems Man and Cybernetics Part B (Cybernetics) Feb 1996 12,083
3 YOLOv4: Optimal Speed and Accuracy of Object Detection Alexey Bochkovskiy, Chien-Yao Wang, Hong-Yuan Mark Liao · arXiv (Cornell University) PreprintOpen access 23 Apr 2020 10,541
4 The Circular Economy – A new sustainability paradigm? Martin Geissdoerfer, Paulo Savaget, Nancy Bocken et al. · Journal of Cleaner Production Open access 21 Dec 2016 9,096
5 A Concordance Correlation Coefficient to Evaluate Reproducibility Lawrence I-Kuei Lin · Biometrics Mar 1989 8,920
All 99 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering research done?

The largest centres of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Shanghai (China), Wuhan (China) and Moscow (Russia).

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 5.4k works
  2. 2 ShanghaiChina 2.8k works
  3. 3 WuhanChina 2k works
  4. 4 MoscowRussia 1.8k works
  5. 5 Xi'anChina 1.6k works
  6. 6 NanjingChina 1.4k works
  7. 7 GuangzhouChina 1.2k works
  8. 8 ChengduChina 1.2k works
  9. 9 HangzhouChina 975 works
  10. 10 TokyoJapan 926 works
See Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering on the map

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering research by country

The best places for Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering research inside each country, with that country's researchers and world standing.

Where is the best place to study Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering?

Among universities, judged by research, Tsinghua University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology and Nanyang Technological University score highest, combining standing in the field's ranking, citation excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%30%mean 21.48%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Huazhong University …Hong Kong Polytechni…Tsinghua UniversityNanyang Technologica…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Standingthis field's institution ranking, three quarters all time and a quarter 2022-now
50%
Citation excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
20%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
5%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
15%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
5%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
5%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreRank in field (all time)Top 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Tsinghua UniversityChina 82.0#1 (#1)22.1%1.6×377 +67.6%
2Huazhong University of Science and TechnologyChina 76.6#2 (#5)28.5%2.7×516 +94.4%
3Nanyang Technological UniversitySingapore 73.1#10 (#2)22.0%1.9×160 +39.8%
4Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityChina 71.8#3 (#13)27.1%3.5×319 +118.5%
5National University of SingaporeSingapore 68.7#15 (#3)22.7%1.1×139 +14.9%
6Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityChina 68.1#4 (#6)17.4%1.6×472 +61.8%
7University of Hong KongChina 64.4#11 (#9)22.3%1.3×129 +58.3%
8ETH ZurichSwitzerland 61.5#9 (#4)14.6%1.3×96 +57.0%
9Chongqing UniversityChina 59.7#8 (#14)20.3%2.2×245 +44.8%
10Delft University of TechnologyNetherlands 59.7#23 (#12)17.8%2.8×193 +19.5%

Universities only. The score blends standing (50%), citation excellence (20%), size (15%), specialisation (5%), growth (5%), international reach (5%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise. Standing is the score in this field's institution ranking, three quarters over all time and a quarter 2022-now; excellence averages the two windows too. Four years alone undercount fields such as AI, where many conference and arXiv papers from 2022 on carry no affiliation in the data.

Every institution in Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, country by country

Is Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 44% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Robotic Process Automation Applications, Applied Advanced Technologies and Digital Transformation in Industry.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.58% in 2024.

still counting0.20%0.40%0.60%Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering0.56% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering10.0% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

  1. Robotic Process Automation Applications+200%
  2. Applied Advanced Technologies+190%
  3. Digital Transformation in Industry+134%
  4. Industrial Vision Systems and Defect Detection+126%
  5. Sustainable Industrial Ecology+74%
  6. Advanced Manufacturing and Logistics Optimization+54%
  7. Engineering Technology and Methodologies-18%
  8. Diverse Industrial Engineering Technologies-28%
← shrinkingno changegrowing →

Growth in output from 2018-21 to 2022-25. Every topic is a page of its own.

What does Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering include?

Manufacturing Process an…91kManufacturing Process and Optimization: 91k fractional worksAdvanced Manufacturing and Logistics Optimization: 49k fractional worksIndustrial Vision System…48kIndustrial Vision Systems and Defect Detection: 48k fractional worksScheduling and Optimizat…42kScheduling and Optimization Algorithms: 42k fractional worksDigital Transformation in Industry: 35k fractional worksFlexible and Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems: 34k fractional worksEngineering Technology a…32kEngineering Technology and Methodologies: 32k fractional worksVehicle Routing Optimization Methods: 24k fractional worksMaritime Ports and Logistics: 22k fractional worksOptimization and Packing Problems: 16k fractional worksSustainable Industrial Ecology: 15k fractional worksRailway Systems and Energy Efficiency: 14k fractional works

Area is fractional works in that topic. Every name below is a page of its own.

Share who leads Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Who leads Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, on Science Explorer

A card with the countries and institutions that lead Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, for a post or a slide.

Download the card

1200 × 630 PNG, sized for social posts, drawn from the latest snapshot.

The leading institutions' badges6Each links to that institution's page and updates with every snapshot

Discussion

Ask a question or share a note about Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering. Keep it to the research: no personal attacks, advertising or links. Any reader can report a post, which collapses it for everyone until it is opened.