The Department of Industrial Engineering was established on 1 January 2013 in application of Law 240/2010 on the reorganization of the Italian University system. The form of governance envisaged by the law is based on the centrality of the Departments, as bodies which on the one hand interface with the University’s Board of Directors and on the other become the driving force behind scientific, teaching and technology transfer activities.

Over the years of application of Law 240/2010 and drafting of the new University Statute, the engineering departments have played an important proactive role, suggesting solutions and best practices for collaboration between different cultural areas, thanks to the extremely positive experience lived within the Faculty of Engineering over many decades. Furthermore, since the engineering Departments are particularly open to the territory, to industries and public bodies, and are part of international research networks, they have also been able to bring valuable experiences in the organizational and management fields. In fact, since 2011, an informal body had been set up, but deeply rooted in the reality of the industrial engineering of the Federico II, made up of the Directors of the old Departments of Energy, Thermo-fluid dynamics and Environmental Conditioning, Aerospace Engineering, Economic-Management Engineering, Materials and Production Engineering, Mechanical and Energy Engineering, Naval Engineering, by the Presidents of the Degree and Master’s Degree Courses in Aerospace Engineering, Management Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Naval Engineering and by the Coordinator of the Doctoral School in Industrial Engineering.

To take the opportunity offered by the application of Law 240/2011, the objective of the working group was to define the organizational foundations of a new enlarged structure with relatively much broader organizational autonomy and responsibilities in the sectors in which the university operates. This made it possible to start on January 1, 2013, with a well-sketched idea of the roles and the goals. Naturally, getting out of theory and dealing with the operational organization required commitment and continuous and punctual feedback on the results.

First of all, we worked on the standardization of procedures, starting from the administrative ones but going to those of organization of the teaching activities and of both economic and manpower resources. All this was possible thanks to the commitment of the administrative staff who, despite the limited numbers and experience, were able to adapt their work to new operating conditions, such as the new rules on the University budget, the procedures for the quality of teaching, the reporting of European, national and regional projects, amplified by the dimension of the Department. It should be noted that simply due to the size of the laboratories, the newborn department was the largest among those of engineering and was among the largest in the University by the number of teachers and students.

An analysis of the strengths and weaknesses showed that although teaching had solid historical foundations and provided an excellent service to a vast student audience, namely in terms of occupational effects, it was necessary to increase manpower in weak but important areas, recruiting quality personnel of different seniority and experience. In the didactic field, it should also be noted that the Department of Industrial Engineering was one of the main promoters of the Polytechnic and Basic Sciences School.

In the field of research, by evaluating the recently, at that time, published results of the 2004–2010 Quality Assessment of Research conducted by the Italian National Agency for Evaluation of the University System and of Research, it was clear that, along with areas of excellence, in the mean little attention was paid to the dissemination of results and too much attention had been given to commissioned research and technology transfer, which in any case had allowed the development of laboratories and plants. Corrective actions were taken, based on internal reviews and selection of qualified personnel.

As a matter of fact, the quality of recruitment has always been a goal and a strength of the department, which has always known how to pay attention to a careful staff turnover and to take advantage of both national opportunities and self-financing capacity through research projects to increase its workforce. After 10 years of this new, challenging and surprising common journey, the synergies established have allowed fruitful teaching, research, and social and human activities, inside and outside the ancient walls of our University. We are proud of it.

It has been an amazing journey, sometimes difficult, a road to travel together, and this has been so important as the destination: we apprehended the capability of composing different and plural points of view, and this makes so precious the complexity, our greatest richness that we can offer to students, to the city of Naples, to the south Italian territory and to who feels to be part of the Federico II community.

The road is still long, but the journey has begun, and we look forward, with the confidence of awareness and the robustness of our values.

Antonio Moccia was the first head from 2013 to 2018. Rita M. A. Mastrullo had this role in 2019 and 2020; she terminated when was appointed as vice-Rector. The actual head is Nicola Bianco. He started in 2021 and will finish in 2026.