The Industrial Engineering Department was founded in 1972 within the Engineering Science Faculty of Ege University by Kemal Karhan, İlter Akat and Gündüz Balkan. The Department became a part of the Mechanical Engineering Faculty of Ege University in 1978 and then joined the Engineering Faculty of Dokuz Eylül University in 1983. The department offers graduate programs within the Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences. Medium of education in the undergraduate program is English-assisted Turkish while Master of Science (M.S.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) programs are offered in English.

The following people have chaired the department:

• 1974 – 1975 Prof. Dr. Kemal KARHAN
• 1975 – 1985 Prof. Dr. Gündüz BALKAN
• 1985 – 1989 Prof. Dr. Kutlu ZORAL
• 1989 – 1997 Prof. Dr. Demir ASLAN
• 1997 – 2004 Prof. Dr. Hasan ESKİ
• 2004 – 2007 Prof. Dr. Edip TEKER
• 2007 – 2010 Prof. Dr. Hasan ESKİ
• 2010 – 2011 Prof. Dr. G. Miraç BAYHAN
• 2011 – 2023 Prof. Dr. Adil BAYKASOĞLU
• 2023 –          Prof. Dr. Şeyda A. YILDIZ