If you are asking about the difference between process engineering and production engineering, this post is the right for you.
In this post, we’re going to help you to choose the best major for you by:
- exposing the difference between process engineering and production engineering.
- Mentioning the critical subjects that you will study process and production engineering.
- Finally, give some recommendations.
So if you are interested, you have to keep reading till the end to take the whole picture.
The difference between process engineering and production engineering
Production engineers work and focus on increasing and making production systems more efficient. They spend a lot of time working with operators and technicians in the plant. While Process engineers focus on developing and enhancing product quality.
A process engineer is a person who develop, design, and enhance the quality of products. For instance, a process engineer is a person who makes and designs a specific part of a car.
While production engineers focus on raising car production to enhance and raise the competitiveness of the company, for instance, making a plane to produce an additional 100 cars the next year.
Production engineering focuses more on the aspect of management and business of a product. while process engineers focus on engineering and design processes to build a product.
For this reason, we find production engineering studying some subjects out of Stem, like management and economics. We’re going to talk about it in detail in the next paragraph.
What do process engineers study?
we’re going to list 3 principal subjects that process engineers students focus into:
1 – Math
Process engineers study a lot of math, especially the most challenging math subject, calculus. in the process engineering curriculum, you will study:
- Calculus 1
- Calculus 2
- Calculus 3
we’re going to list the link of all these calculus classes’ subjects so you can discover what each class is involved in.
2 – Chemistry
The second thing that process engineers focus on is chemistry. You will study a lot of chemistry as a process engineer, including chemistry 1 and chemistry 2.
Chemistry 1 is not hard. In other words, it contains all subjects that you have studied in high school, which you revise in the first year of the major
chemistry 2 study topics include advanced chemistry subjects like:
- states of matter
- and reaction kinetics.
- acids and bases,
- gas laws,
3 – Physics
the last principal element you will study in process engineering is physics. As a process engineer you will be focusing on theses following subjects:
- Fundamentals Mechanics of Solids
- fluid mechanics
These subjects are also related to mechanical engineering so you will find a lot of similarities between process engineering and mechanical engineering curriculum.
Moreover, these subjects are highly math concentrated so you will be using a lot of calculus, especially derivatives and differential equations. For this reason, process engineer students dig deeper into math.
What do production engineers study?
We’re going to list the 3 principal subjects that production engineers study, which you will need to focus on and be good at to succeed in this major and get your bachelor’s in a short period of time.
1 – math
Production engineering includes a lot of math, especially calculus. Students study a lot of calculus, from the easy one, calculus 1, to the hardest calculus class, calculus 3.
So you need to be ready to absorb this huge amount of math. So if you have weak basics in math calculus or think that you aren’t enough at it.
In addition, production engineers also focus on probability and statistics that process engineers don’t focus on as well. This is normal because production engineering is a major that stands between technic and business, and statistics is really important for business.
2 – mechanical engineering subjects
You don’t study all mechanical engineering subjects because it is an individual major, but principally production engineers study these 3 principal mechanical engineering subjects such as :
- fluid mechanics
In statics, you will study the physics rules that make fixed or not mobile objects stand without collapsing. For instance, how a building, a bridge, or even a car can stand and support their own weight.
Dynamics is the reverse of statics, which means studying all the things that move. For instance, how cars move by determining their speed, acceleration, and other parameters. Dynamics are full of math. It requires good calculus.
In fluid mechanics, you will study all the principles that allow us to transform fluid energy. For instance, how hydraulic machines can lift 1 ton of weight with 1 cm of the pipe section. This domain requires dealing a lot with volumes and pressures.
3- Economics and management
As we said before production engineering is a major that stands between business and engineering. So you will be studying a lot of economics and finance subjects like statistics and accountancy.
Also, you will study management, for instance, learning how to manage the company’s resources by limiting the loss and increasing the company’s profits.
The last thing that production engineers study in management which logistics. In other words, you will learn how a company can carry its products and manage the stock to earn time and space.
Process engineers vs production engineers’ salary
In terms of salary process and production engineers have the same and close wages in other words and according to payscale:
- process engineers earn $73,569 a year
- production engineers earn $70,569 a year
process engineers vs production engineers which is better for me
Production engineering will be for you if you like business and economics and love to manage people. This job is made for people who love becoming leaders and communicating well with people.
Process engineering is better for people who like the design but don’t find their comfort in dealing with many people or in crowded environments. Because the most time you will spend in modeling and designing in your office.
In addition, production engineering is more stressful than process engineering. Because the most interesting thing that company relies on is to produce as much as possible.
process and production engineering are both good majors. Each year the demand for process and production engineering increases. So you don’t have to worry about not finding jobs in process or production engineering.
They are not like some declining occupations, such as drafters or nuclear engineering.