According to University Archives records, when the School of Mechanic Arts (the previous form of engineering school) was first established as part of North Dakota Agricultural College in 1917, the following five divisions were established:  architecture and architectural engineering, civil engineering, industrial engineering,mechanical engineering, and physics. 

The earliest accessible Industrial Engineering material which is included in a separate box of archives dates back to 1954, in which it reveals that the program of Industrial Engineering and Management had been offered only since 1935.

Plans for the Engineering Center were formulated shortly after World War II. Plans became finalized in 1955 with the completion of Dolve Hall, but did not become a reality until 1963 when ground-breaking for the Center took place. The project involved the construction of a circular administration building, a one-story addition to the front of Dolve Hall, and three additional buildings to house: Civil and Industrial Engineering, Electronics and Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Architecture. The plans also called for connecting the buildings with covered skywalks. By the fall of 1965, the Center was complete (at a cost of $1.4 million) and all five engineering buildings were linked together by uncovered skywalks (/Spectrum/, 1965, p. 9). The new facility housed sixty-five faculty members; twenty-five secretaries and technicians; and approximately 1000 students enrolled in Engineering and Architecture. 

It was not until 1954-1955, that the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management was added to the University Bulletin or catalog. In the 1962-1964 Catalog, Industrial Engineering and Management became just Industrial Engineering. In the 1974-1976 Bulletin, management was added back to industrial engineering to create the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management.

As of the 1999-2000 Bulletin, with the addition of the Manufacturing Engineering program, Industrial Engineering and Management became the Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Department.