SEEM 3530 Engineering and Technology Management Introduction

1. SEEM 3530 Engineering and Technology ManagementIntroduction

2. 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 materialsand forces of nature for the benefit of mankind • (1979, US. Engineering societies). • What is Management? • A set of activities (including planning and decision making, organising, leading and control) directed at an organisation’s resources (human, financial, physical and informational) with the aim of achieving organisational goals in an efficient and effective manner. • (Griffin) SEEM 3530

3. 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 SEEM 3530

4. Major Premises • Technology and business savvy represents a very powerful combination of great demand in society • Market environment is rapidly evolving (changing marketplace complexities, web-based 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 SEEM 3530

5. 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 SEEM 3530

6. Work of an Engineer As Technical Contributor • Understandobjectives 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) SEEM 3530

7. 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) SEEM 3530

8. 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) 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. Dual Aims SEEM 3530

9. Henri Fayol (1841-1925) • Mining Engineer • six primary functions of management: • forecasting • planning • organizing • commanding • coordinating • controlling (feedback->adjustment) }leading SEEM 3530

10. Engineering Management Functions SEEM 3530

11. 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) SEEM 3530

12. Skills for Technical Managers Administrative Skills Leadership Skills Technical Skills SEEM 3530

13. 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 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) Enterprise Objective: Value Addition SEEM 3530

14. Managerial Decision Making • What, where, who, how – managers faces numerous and challenging decisions • Decision making qualities - knowledge, information, and decision making skills Management by intuition? SEEM 3530

15. 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. [Don’t 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 SEEM 3530

16. 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.) SEEM 3530

17. 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. SEEM 3530

18. SEEM 3530 • Knowledge and skills in decision-making tools • Appreciation of management issues and complexities in implementing decisions SEEM 3530

19. 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 SEEM 3530

20. BP Oil Spill Project Management Under-fire BP boss Tony Hayward takes time out to enjoy Cowes Week SEEM 3530

21. A Decision Making Example Gilbert and Mosteller’s 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 haven’t 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? SEEM 3530

22. 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! SEEM 3530

23. 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 SEEM 3530

24. 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 near-optimal • 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 SEEM 3530

25. 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 SEEM 3530

26. 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 SEEM 3530

27. 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 SEEM 3530

28. 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. SEEM 3530

29. Challenges In the New Millennium SEEM 3530

30. 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 SEEM 3530

31. Challenges - Outside Keep abreast of emerging technologies and apply them to strengthen company’s 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 SEEM 3530

32. 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 SEEM 3530

33. 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 SEEM 3530

34. Challenges - Local Utilize resources to best achieve company’s 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 SEEM 3530

35. 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 SEEM 3530

36. 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) SEEM 3530