MicroMasters Program in
Principles of Manufacturing

Gain expertise in the growing field of Manufacturing

Develop the fundamental skills needed for global excellence in manufacturing and competitiveness with the Principles of Manufacturing MicroMasters® program credential, designed and delivered by MIT’s #1-world ranked Mechanical Engineering department. Build your career with the credential or use it as credits towards a Masters Degree by applying to MIT’s world-renowned Master of Engineering in Advanced Manufacturing and Design. For more details about our blended program, click here.

The Principles of Manufacturing are a set of elements common to all manufacturing industries that revolve around the concepts of flow and variations. These principles have emerged from working closely with manufacturing industries at both the research and operational levels.

Who Should Enroll

Targeted towards graduate-level engineers, product designers, and technology developers with an interest in a career in advanced manufacturing, the program will help you understand and apply these principles to product and process design, factory and supply chain design, and factory operations.

What the Curriculum Covers

The program is composed of eight online courses and four final exams, which represents the equivalent of one semester of coursework at MIT. Courses will provide you with a fundamental basis for understanding and focus on the analysis, characterization, and control of flow and variation at different levels of the enterprise through the following subject areas:

• Manufacturing Process Control: Modeling and controlling temporal and spatial variation in unit processes.
  
• Manufacturing Systems: Modeling and controlling flows and variations in manufacturing systems with stochastic elements and inputs.
  
• Supply Chain for Manufacturing: Operating and designing optimal manufacturing-centered supply chains.
  
• Management in Manufacturing: Understanding the uses and flow of business information to start up, scale up and operate a manufacturing facility.

Use the MicroMasters Program Credential to Boost Your Resume, or Improve Your On-The-Job Skills

Boost your skills or build on the credential and apply to MIT’s world-renowned Master of Engineering in Advanced Manufacturing and Design Blended Program. This new blended program brings the successful applicant to MIT from January through August to take courses on campus alongside our full-time Master’s students.

All Courses are Open Enrollment

You can participate in an entire course for free. To earn a certificate for your work you can verify and pay the course fee. Upon passing a course, you can use your unique verified certificate as evidence of your effort. Enroll in individual courses at the right, or if you're ready to jump in, you can purchase the whole program at one time here.

Whether you plan to take a single course, to complete the online credential, or to apply for a Master's program, the MITx MicroMasters program in PoM will help you demonstrate your ability and proficiency in the dynamically changing field of manufacturing.

What You’ll Learn

• A new perspective for design and operational decision making at all levels of manufacturing, in the context of volume manufacturing, where rate, quality, cost and flexibility are the key metrics
  
• How to operate and control unit processes to ensure maximum quality
  
• Using basic and advanced statistical and feedback control methods
  
• How to design and operate systems of processes with optimal capacity, resilience and inventory
  
• How to design and operate optimal supply chain systems
  
• The financial underpinnings of a manufacturing enterprise, including new ventures

Job Outlook

• Exciting career opportunities in positions such as Manufacturing Engineer, Supply Chain Engineer, Design Engineer, Product Engineering, Product Development Engineer (Source: MIT Mechanical Engineering department)
  
• Mean salary ranges of $70,000 - 95,000 (U.S. only; source: Indeed.com)
  
• The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects employment of industrial engineers to grow 10% from 2016 to 2026, faster than the average for all occupations. (all occupations = 7%)
  
• The growth rate of new manufacturing firms is at its fastest pace since 1993. (source: U.S. Census, Business Dynamics Statistics via this report)
  
• 100% of graduates from MIT’s Masters of Engineering in Advanced Manufacturing & Design program are successfully employed within 6 months of completion

What Learners are Saying

"As an Industrial Civil Engineer whose first child was born during my studies, I appreciated the flexibility of the online Principles of Manufacturing MicroMasters® program. Although it may seem like a one-person endeavor, once you advance through the program, you recognize the classmates and TAs who are active in the forums and start to form a sort of ‘fellowship.’

I work in the cosmetics industry, and this program has shifted many of my opinions and decisions and has improved the results of my work.

Although the PoM program takes a 'macro' approach by exploring supply chains, production systems, inventory management, strategy and leadership, it doesn’t stop at theory; the program makes you understand the big picture of it all and the effects that certain factors have on an organization and/or industry."

--– Nicolas Spalloni, Industrial Civil Engineer

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