How important are statistics to Industrial Engineering?

This question lets you 'strut your stuff' on essentially what is the bread and butter of industrial engineering. The discipline provides ample occasions to apply statistics. At most positions industrial engineering work in, statistics are as important to doing their jobs successfully as physics is to civil engineers doing theirs.

Answer the question by saying, 'Statistics are one-way IEs crunch big data and interpret them for analysis. My most recent use of statistics was using samples from two years of past revenue, along with the Forecast function in Excel, to create an accurate seasonal forecast for a startup company. In other words, I fed these function values from the past into a data table and used the linear regression function in Forecast to forecast values for future points. Using statistics this way improved on the old rule of thumb method used two years' prior, allowing the company to better plan for material and labor and thereby save money.'

However, if it is an interview for your first IE job, say, 'I know statistics are critical, and I learned through my studies to accomplish the organization's objective and help them move forward.' Then ask if they would like you to show them a specific example.