IntroductiontoEngineeringManagement

Lecture 1: Introduction

Dr. Mohamed Mourad

Course Objectives

• Review the engineering management functions of planning, organizing, leading and controlling.

• Identifying and applying basic quantitative tools used in engineering management.

• Developing analytical, critical thinking, and communication skills through considering engineering management case studies.

Course Outline

Principles of Engineering Management

The importance of management to engineers

Applications of these Principles in Engineering Organizations

Course Outline

Principles of Engineering Management

The importance of management to engineers

Applications of these Principles in Engineering Organizations

Changing Work Content

First LineSupervisor

MiddleManager

Top Managers

Technical skills 70% 30% 5%

Interpersonal skills

25% 40% 25%

Conceptual skills

5% 30% 70%

Management

• Is getting work done through others.

• Requires a set of activities (including planning and decision making, organizing, leading, and controlling) directed at an organization’s resources (human, financial, physical, and information), with the aim of achieving organizational goals in an effective and efficient manner.

• An organization is a group of people working together in a structured and coordinated fashion to achieve a set of goals.

Management in Organizations

Management in Organizations

• Manager: Someone whose primary responsibility is to carry out the management process.

• Effective: Making the right decisions and successfully implementing them.

• Efficient: Using resources wisely in a cost-effective way.

Management Functions• Planning: Setting goals and deciding how best to

achieve them.

• Decision Making: Selecting a course of action from a set of alternatives.

• Organizing: Grouping activities and resources in a logical fashion.

• Leading: Processes to get members of the organization to work together to further the interests of the organization.

• Controlling: Monitoring organizational progress toward goal attainment and taking corrective action when needed.

Management Functions

Most managers engage in more than one activity at the same time

Management: Origins

What is Engineering?

The profession in which a knowledge of the mathematical and natural sciences gained by study, experience, and practice is applied with judgment to develop ways to utilize, economically, the materials and forces of nature for the benefit of mankind. (ABET)

Engineer: A person applying his/her mathematical and science knowledge properly to solve practical problems.

Typical Engineering Activities

• Design/development of products/processes

• Project engineering/management

• Value engineering and analysis

• Technology development and applied R&D (laboratory, field)

• Production/manufacturing and construction

• Customer service

Work of an Engineer As Technical Contributor

• Understand objectives of tasks specified

• Develop action plan for implementation

• Define standards (performance metrics)

• Select methodology/techniques

• Implement task with proper efforts

• Generate results and secure value

• Report findings (impact, lessons)

What is Engineering Management?

• Engineering management is a process of leading and controlling a technical function/enterprise.

• Engineering management is similar to other definitions of management, but with a slant toward technical issues.

Management Levels and Areas

Management Levels

Level Type of Job

First-line Managers

Directly supervise non-managers.

Carry out the plans and objectives of higher management using

the personnel and other resources assigned to them.

Short-range operating plans governing what will be done

tomorrow or next week, assign tasks to their workers, supervise

the work that is done, and evaluate the performance of individual

workers.

Middle Management

Manage through other managers.

Make plans of intermediate range to achieve the long-range goals

set by top management, establish departmental policies, and

evaluate the performance of subordinate work units and their

managers.

Provide and integrating and coordinating function so that the

short-range decisions and activities of first-line supervisory

groups can be orchestrated toward achievement of the long-range

goals of the enterprise.

Top Management

Responsible for defining the character, mission, and objectives of

the enterprise.

Establish criteria for and review long-range plans.

Evaluate the performance of major departments, and they evaluate

leading management personnel to gauge their readiness for

promotion to key executive positions.

Basic Managerial Skills

Basic Managerial Roles

Some reasons an engineering background can help prepare for an engineering management position1. Engineers: logical, methodical, objective, and make

unemotional decisions based on facts.

2. Use their technical knowledge to check the validity of information.

3. Can analyze problems thoroughly, look beyond the immediate ones, and ask good questions to explore alternative solutions to technical problems.

4. Understand what motivates engineers.

5. Can review and evaluate the work of their subordinates since they understand what they are doing.

Some reasons an engineering background can help prepare for an engineering management position

6. Can engage in future planning with appropriate consideration for technology and its relationship to cost effectiveness.

7. Engineering backgrounds help in technical discussions with customers.

8. Their background increases the manager's credibility with subordinates, customers, and superiors. People attribute qualities, abilities, skills, and knowledge to them, which allows the manager to influence those who have that perception.

Role Differences Between Engineers and ManagersPosition Engineer Manager

Focus More concerned with things technical/scientific

More concerned with people

Decision making Makes decisions with much information, under conditions of greater certainty

Makes decisions often with inadequate information, under conditions of greater uncertainty

Involvement Works on tasks and problems solving personally

Directs the work of others to goals

Process outcomes Work based on facts with quantifiable outcomes

Work based on fewer facts, less measurable outcomes

Effectiveness Depends on person technical expertise, attention to detail, mathematical/technical problem solving, and decision making

Depends on interpersonal skills in communication, conflict, management, getting ideas across, negotiating, and coaching

Role Differences Between Engineers and Managers

Engineers Versus Managers

What Engineers Do What Managers Do

Minimize risk Take calculated risks

Emphasize accuracy and mathematical precision

Rely heavily on intuition, take educated guesses, and try to be "about right"

Exercise care in applying sound scientific methods on the basis of reproducible data

Exercise leadership in making decisions under widely varying conditions based on sketchy information

Solve technical problems based on their own individual skills

Solve techno-people problems based on skills in integrating the talents of others

Work largely through their own abilities to get things done

Work through others to get things done

Philosophical Similarities Between Engineering and Management

Both engineers and managers are trained to be decision makers in a complex environment.

Both allocate resources for the operation of existing systems or for the development of new systems.

Both have to recognize, identify and evaluate the interactions among system components. (Cleland and Kocaoglu 1981)

The Scope of Management

• Large businesses: Most knowledge comes from large profit-seeking organizations.

• Small and Start-Up Businesses: Management is key as wrong decisions may never be recovered. This is how most businesses start. Compaq started by 3 in 1982. In 1994 76th largest with sales of $7b.

• International management: Most large organizations derive a significant portion of their business from international markets.

Nonprofit Organizations

• Government Organizations: Subject to political and public pressure.

• Educational Organizations: Unique management and administration problems.

• Healthcare Facilities: Clinics, Hospitals, HMOs. New educational programs.

• Nontraditional Settings: Religious organizations, service organizations, households, …, etc.

Effective and efficient use of resources

Management: the driving forces

• Social Forces: The norms and values that characterize a culture.

• Economic Forces: Economic systems and general economic conditions. Market economy. Competition.

• Political Forces: Governing institutions and general policies and attitudes. Legal cases against business.

Management Perspectives

• Classical: Scientific (individual workers) and Administrative (whole organization)

• Behavioral: Individual attitudes and behaviors and group processes

• Quantitative: Applies quantitative techniques to management.

• Integrated: All three perspectives must be integrated for best performance (Systems and Contingency perspectives)

Scientific Management

1) Development of a science to replace rule -of-thumb working knowledge;

2) Scientific selection and development of individuals;

3) Combining the results of work study with selected and trained workmen;

4) Intimate, friendly co-operation between management and the workforce.

UPS:

Three feet per seconds

Knock immediately

Stores must handle 1,124 packages per hour

Load packages at the rate of 500 per hour

• External Environment:Everything outside an organization the might affect it.

• Internal Environment:The conditions and forces within an organization.

Management Context

The External Environment

• General Environment: The set of broad dimensions and forces in an organization’s surroundings that create its overall context

• Task Environment: Specific organizations or groups that affect the organization.

The General Environment

• The Economic Dimension: The overall health of the economic system in which the organization operates.

• The Technological Dimension: The methods available for converting resources into products or services.

• The Sociocultural Dimension: The customs, mores, values, and demographic characteristics of the society in which the organization functions.

• The Political-legal Dimension: The government regulation of business and general relationship between business and government.

• The International Dimension: The extent to which an organization is involved in or affected by business in other countries.

The External Environment: Example

Ford’s General Environment

The Task Environment

• Competitor: Competes for resources.

• Customer: Whoever pays money to acquire an organizations products or services.

• Supplier: Provides resources.

• Regulator: A unit that has the potential to control, legislate, or otherwise influence the organization’s policies and practices

• Regulator Agency: An agency created by the government to regulate business activities.

• Interest Group: A group formed to attempt to influence business.

• Strategic Ally: Another organization working in a joint venture or a similar arrangement.

The Task Environment: Example

Ford’s Task Environment

Environmental Response

Management Ethical and Social Context

• Ethics: An individual’s personal beliefs regarding

what is right and wrong or good and bad.

• Ethical Behavior: Behavior that conforms to

generally accepted social norms.

Managerial Ethics

Areas of SocialResponsibility

Social Responsibility

Tentative Course Outline

Introduction

Strategic Capacity Planning for Products and Services

Planning function: Production Planning

Facilities Planning

Planning function: Managing Production (quality)

Planning Function: Project Management

Organizing

Leading

Controlling: Quality Control

Controlling: Cost Control

Course Info

Books• C. M. Chang, “Engineering Management: Challenges in the New

Millennium”, Prentice Hall.

• L.C. Morse, and D. L. Babcock, “Managing Engineering and Technology’, Pearson.

• Contact :mmourad@aast.edu

• Website : https://cloudecampus.org/

Thank You!