I'm an industrial engineer. The book that got me started on that path was Cheaper By the Dozen, which we listened to on cassette tape on most road trips >2 hours growing up. I was fascinated by the thought of taking a process or procedure and eliminating as much non-value add time as possible, which they did throughout their lives on things like tonsillectomies for their kids. Some impactful books on the whole field include Factory Physics (focusing on material flow through a factory) and The Toyota Way (focusing on lean manufacturing).
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