Background

• Manufacturing supervisors often have a college degree, with a focus in business management, industrial technology or engineering. This provides a base knowledge for supervisors so companies will not have to spend as much time training and educating them.
  
  

Features

• Training in a manufacturing or production environment typically involves learning how to operate equipment, train employees, schedule production, meet with other department heads or find ways to cut costs and improve production output. Supervisors may also receive training for total quality management or Six Sigma.
  
  

Growth and Wages

• According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the industrial production management field will decline slowly between 2008 and 2018, about eight percent overall. The median wage in May 2008 for this field was $83,290, with the middle 50 percent earning between $64,390 and $108,710, according to the BLS.