The department was established in 1980, but the development of the B.Sc. program did not begin until 1982, when the appropriate calibre of lecturers was recruited. It was created by Industrial and Production Engineers who have extensive experience in academia and industry. The draft was distributed by the University Authorities for review by:

(i)                 Renown Professors in the discipline at home and abroad;

(ii)              Industrial Engineering Consultants, Civil Servants, Lecturers and Practitioners from the industry; and

(iii)            COREN (Council for the Registration of Engineering in Nigeria).

The final draft incorporated all of the stakeholders' comments and suggestions. The draft was approved by the Faculty Board of Technology and then by the University Senate during the 1983/84 session. COREN granted full accreditation to the program during its first visitation in 1988. COREN upheld its earlier decision in a reassessment in 1999. This decision was reiterated in 2007 and subsequent years.

Students were admitted for the first time in the 1984/85 academic year. They graduated in 1987/88, causing a rush by industry for immediate placement in the NYSC program. This validated COREN's earlier 1984 decision that the "Industrial Engineering Degree Programme is vital to Nigerian Industrial Development and should be encouraged" (Ref. COREN E/1/VOL.3/2845/227).

When it first opened its doors in 1980, the Department was unique in that it was the first to teach Industrial Engineering concepts as service courses to students from the Faculty of Technology. Sections of the core courses were extracted and modified for post-experience short courses for practicing engineers as a test of how important some portions of the core courses were to society. Since 1983, over 2000 participants from over 100 important West African companies have benefited.

The National Universities Commission (N.U.C.) decided to rename the department INDUSTRIAL AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING in 1990. Since then, the content of our B.Sc. has been revised to emphasize both production and industrial engineering.