A topic I can comment on! I got my degree in Manufacturing Engineering, and work in hardware engineering. Funnily enough, I’m writing this on a shuttle that left the factory today on my way to the hotel. The go to for my undergrad was Fundamentals of Modern Manufacturing [1]. It gives a surface level understanding and isn’t too dry most of the time. It’s an interesting book that you can just open up and learn somethi…
You're the 2nd other IE/manufacturing engineer I've found on the site! I can second the recommendation for Fundamental Modern Manufacturing. This was required reading for my two hands-on manufacturing classes. They have so many manufacturing processes I hadn't heard of, and very good descriptions of them.
I am one, too, with specialization in high tech electronics manufacturing processes and control systems. To be honest, it's relatively straightforward to understand how manufacturing works... If you have access to a factory. The two areas that I find the most interesting are Operations Research (essentially, solving optimization problems) and Supply Chain Management, which seems like it'd mostly be OR, too, but in reality ends up being much more about how well you understand laws and regulations and can bend them to your will.