GAINESVILLE, FL:  Chris Seibert (BS ISE 1992) believes Industrial and Systems Engineers will be in demand for a long time to come.  He attributes this to three factors: (1) The economy is improving, growing the need for ISE help; (2) Service expectations are increasing by all consumers (want products and services on demand); and (3) Automation will help meet those increased expectations, which will require ISE knowledge for implementation.  He conveyed these thoughts to students in the Introduction to ISE class on Monday, February 18.

After graduating from UF, Seibert took positions with Newport News and then Lillian Vernon before moving to Tampa to work with Home Shopping Network (now officially HSN) in St. Petersburg.  As Operating Vice President – Industrial and Process Engineering, he is in charge of the industrial engineering functions, change management and maintenance.  He has been involved with opening and automating two facilities (in Tennessee and California) along with installing warehouse and labor management systems.

He stressed that students need to see the “big picture” on all of their future projects and try to envision bring value beyond just that project.  He also said it was important to focus on turning data into information with value.  “Its not only being confident in your mathematical abilities,” he said.  “You need to be able to sell it.”  And that can be from the shop floor all the way through management.