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SEEM 3530 Engineering and Technology Management

Introduction

What is Engineering?
The profession in which a knowledge of the mathematical and natural science gained by study, experience, and practice is applied with judgement to develop ways to utilize, economically, the materials and forces of nature for the benefit of mankind (1979, US. Engineering societies).
Introduction

What is Management?
A set of activities (including planning and decision making, organising, leading and control) directed at an organisations resources (human, financial, physical and informational) with the aim of achieving organisational goals in an efficient and effective manner. (Griffin)
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Engineering Management
Engineering Management is concerned with the direct supervision of engineers and the management functions (planning, organising, leading and controlling) in a technological organisation.

Prepare engineers to become effective leaders in meeting the challenges in this new millennium
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Major Premises
Technology and business savvy represents a very powerful combination of great demand in society Market environment is rapidly evolving (changing marketplace complexities, webbased technologies, globalization) Leaders with understanding of technology and management perspectives are needed Engineers with proper management and leadership training have great opportunities to add value
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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
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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)
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Introduction

Aims
Make engineers more effective as technical contributors (understand managerial points of view, effect teams coordination, drive to add value) Ready engineers for managerial positions (managerial functions, success factors, leadership talents, business/management perspectives, expectations, contributions)
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Dual Aims
Make engineers more effective as technical contributors (understand managerial points of view, effect teams coordination, drive to add value) Ready engineers for managerial positions (success factors, leadership talents, business/management perspectives)
Introduction

Make managers more effective in decisions involving technologies (understand engineering language, limitations and possibilities) Ready managers for contributing effectively in the management of a technology-critical organisation.

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Henri Fayol (1841-1925)


Mining Engineer six primary functions of management:
forecasting planning organizing commanding leading coordinating controlling (feedback->adjustment)

Introduction

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Engineering Management Functions

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Engineering Management Functions


Planning (forecasting, setting objectives, action planning, administering policies, establishing procedure) Organizing (selecting organizational structure, delegating, establishing working relationship) Leading (deciding, communicating, motivating, selecting/developing people) Controlling (setting performance standards, evaluating/documenting/correcting performance)
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Skills for Technical Managers

Leadership Skills

Administrative Skills

Technical Skills
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Enterprise Objective: Value Addition


Management-speak:
Increase Sales Revenue (new and enhanced products/services faster, better, cheaper - to create greater customer satisfaction) Reduced Cost to Do Business (simplified product design, new technologies, improved productivity, raised efficiency, reduced inventory via supply chains, new production and marketing partnerships and alliances)
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Engineering-speak:
Efficiency - Accomplishing tasks with the least amount of resources (time, money, equipment/facilities, technology - know-how, procedure, process, skills) -

do things right
Effectiveness Accomplishing tasks with efforts commensurate with the value created by these tasks - do the right things
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Managerial Decision Making


What, where, who, how managers faces numerous and challenging decisions
Decision making qualities - knowledge, information, and decision making skills

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Beware of Our Weakness: We Are Poor at Learning from the Past


How to improve our management intuition? Should fully utilize past information to update both current beliefs and future predictions We are active learners, but tend to filter information to confirm our opinions. Draw unbiased insights about the current state of the world from available data We are frequently poor observational statisticians. [Dont know Bayes rule?] Conservation bias: reluctant to give up prior beliefs about the world, even in light of new information, revision of beliefs towards right direction is often insufficient, or overly conservative
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Learnable Skills
Management knowledge and skills (operational, strategic, financial/accounting, interpersonal skills/communications, etc.)
Decision making skills/ tools (what-if analysis, risk analysis, problem solving, root cause analysis, decision tree, optimization, etc.)

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Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915)


Principles of Scientific Management (1911)
Replace rule-of-thumb work methods with methods based on a scientific study of the tasks. Scientifically select, train, and develop each worker rather than passively leaving them to train themselves. Cooperate with the workers to ensure that the scientifically developed methods are being followed. Divide work nearly equally between managers and workers, so that the managers apply scientific management principles to planning the work and the workers actually perform the tasks.
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Knowledge and skills in decision-making tools Appreciation of management issues and complexities in implementing decisions

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Planning
Project Scheduling Project Budgeting and Selection

Organising
Strategic decision-making Game theory

Leading
Incentives and Productivity (Principal-agent theory)

Controlling
Project Management Performance evaluation

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Project Management

BP Oil Spill

Under-fire BP boss Tony Hayward takes time out to enjoy Cowes Week

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A Decision Making Example


Gilbert and Mostellers Marriage Problem:
Suppose you decide to marry, and to select your life partner you will interview at most 100 candidate spouses. The interviews are arranged in random order, and you have no information about candidates you havent yet spoken to. After each interview you must either marry that person or forever lose the chance to do so. If you have not married after interviewing candidate 99, you must marry candidate 100 !! Your objective, of course, is to marry the absolute best candidate of the lot. But how?
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Beware of Our Weakness: We Are Myopic


If we isolate a single critical fault in human abilities to act as efficient decision makers, it is that we do not think ahead.

We are often unable to look ahead more than one period or step!
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Heuristic vs. Analysis


Heuristic
A technique to solve a problem with a good but not necessarily optimal solution Based on experiences, hunches/instincts, and judgment

Analytical Formulate the decision model for the problem Use of computer and other tools to conduct an extensive and thorough analysis to produce an optimal solution
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When Do Heuristics Work Well?


Optimal answers are often obvious
Draw on life experience to come up with an answer

Task environments are forgiving of mistakes


A wide range of behaviors/solutions are optimal or nearoptimal

One can learn by trial and error


Reinforcement learning: be more likely to repeat actions that generate good results and less likely to repeat acts that produce bad ones
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When Do Heuristics Fail Us?


Ambiguity of Feedback
The trial and error method does not work: the decision is not repeated or feedback is ambiguous

Complexity of Decision
The problem is not intuitive: beyond our cognitive capabilities

High Penalty for Mistakes


A small mistake could lead to serious consequences

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Strategic Decision Making


Marriage problem: Interview the first 37 (100/e) candidates, Then continue interviewing and marry the first candidate that is better than the initial 37. This maximises the chance of marrying the absolute best candidate.
In this course, we will investigate models and frameworks for strategic decision making under uncertainty and risk
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Leading/Motivation
Tenth Worker Commits Suicide At Foxconn Plant in Shenzhen 25 May, 2010 Chinese media reported that the families of those who died had received compensation of up to 100,000 yuan (14,500 US), equivalent to about 10 years' wages.

Long hours, Low pay, high pressure

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Challenges In the New Millennium


Marketplace changes rapidly (Web-based technologies, globalization, customer demand, business networks) affecting how progressive companies will be organized Engineering managers to lead by supervising complex teams, innovating with vision for the future, designing global products, and organizing supply chains, apply global resources to derive economies of scale and scope.
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Challenges In the New Millennium


Inside Outside

Present

Future

Local

Global

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Challenges - Inside
Implement projects/programs; manage people, technologies, and resources to add value; develop new product features to enhance company competitiveness; define, control and reduce costs to improve profitability; initiate technology projects to sustain company position
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Challenges - Outside
Keep abreast of emerging technologies and apply them to strengthen companys core competencies; apply web-based tools to enhance operations and foster customer relations; identify best practices to improve engineering operations and surpass them; create supply chain networks to derive speed, quality and cost benefits
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Challenges - Present
Do things right to keep company operating smoothly; use Balanced Scorecard to monitor non-financial and financial performance; control costs and eliminate wastes to attain profitability in the short-run

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Challenges - Future
Seek e-transformation opportunities to create company profitability in the long-run; introduce new generation products timely; create vision for the future related to technologies; Define what should be done for technology-based success in the future

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Challenges - Local
Utilize resources to best achieve companys objectives; take ethical and lawful actions while taking into account local conditions; maintain and nurture local professional networks; share lessons gained with people at other company sites

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Challenges - Global
Apply location-based resources to realize global economies of scale and scope for achieving cost and technology advantages; develop global professional networks; acquire a global mindset; exercise leadership roles in international settings

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Tips for Engineering Managers


Demonstrate Technical Competence & Innovative capabilities Brush Up Communications skills (ask, listen, write and talk) Show unfailing reliability to induce trust and confidence Be Proactive in seeking challenging tasks Exhibit readiness for assuming larger responsibilities (take courses, practice skills, gain experience)
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