Role of production engineers in the public sector.

This paper aims to investigate the role of production engineers in the public sector. In the past, engineers used to be hired in the public sector only to work with technical issues in some departments. But nowadays, technical competency is not the only issue an engineer must have, and at the same time, there are some other approaches than technical ones that demand the presence of engineers in the government. In this scenario, production engineers rise as an important player on public affairs. It is explored in this paper the role of production engineers in public policies, technology and innovation issues, integration between technical and management approaches, and the holistic and systemic view that drives the career. This paper is constructed under some bibliographic information, as well as some empiric data and case studies. At the end of the work, one can conclude that as well as in the whole society, engineers? role in the public sector and government has been increasing and being crucial to build and sustain the competitiveness of the municipality / region / country and the effectiveness of the public services delivered to citizens.