CE595/IME 430 - MANAGING ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY - Summer 2007
Instructor - Professor Jacob Van Roekel
3 Credit Hours
Text: Managing Engineering and Technology by Daniel L. Babcock & Lucy Morse, Prentice Hall, 2007, Fourth edition.
Additional Materials:
Other materials may be used during the semester and will be made available as appropriate.
Course Goals and Objectives:
This course introduces the management functions of planning, organizing, motivating, and controlling; it analyzes the application of these functions in research, design, production, technical marketing, and project management; and it studies evolution of the engineering career and the transition to engineering management."
This is a brief and general outline and accordingly is limited in value to describe the course goals and objectives. This syllabus is for the purpose of giving you more specific information about what I intend this course to accomplish.
The objectives are:
1. To develop an understanding of the nature and role of technology.
2. To develop an understanding of the nature and role of engineering management.
3. To have a significant understanding of the functions of technology management.
4. To develop an appreciation for the different technology management roles throughout the product life cycle.
5. To understand some of the fundamentals of managing technology projects.
6. To understand some of considerations that impinges upon managing your engineering career.
CLASS SCHEDULE
Reading
Assignment
Class Topics Babcock
May 22 Course Introduction
Nature and Roles of Engineering and Management Chap. 1
Historical Development of Engineering Management Chap. 2
May 29 Planning and Forecasting Chap. 3
Decision Making Chap. 4
Organizing Chap. 5
June 5 Some Human Aspects of Organizing Chap. 6
Motivating and Leading Technical People Chap. 7
Controlling Chap. 8
June 12 Managing the Research Function Chap. 9
Managing Engineering Design Chap. 10
Planning Production Activity Chap. 11
Review
First journal report due: Find a current journal article relating to the implementation of some new technology and write a short report on how the implementation is being managed (One type written double spaced page is sufficient for the journal report assignments).
Graduate students research paper topic due: You need to have decided on what your term paper topic will be by this time. I will want to see what you will be writing about.
June 19 Mid Term Exam (Chapters 1 - 9)
Communication with Impact Handout
Managing Production Operations Chap. 12
Jun 26 Engineers in Marketing and Service Activities Chap. 13
Project Planning and Acquisition Chap. 14
Project Organization, Leadership, and Control Chap. 15
July 3 Achieving Effectiveness as an Engineer Chap. 16
Managerial and International Opportunities for Engineering Chap. 17
Special Topics in Engineering Management Chap. 18
Review.
July 10 Final exam
2nd journal report due
Graduate students research paper due (10 double spaced pages)
PERFORMANCE MEASURES
Mid Term Exam Points 150
Final Exam Points 150
Class Participation 10
Journal Reports 100
Research Paper (grads) 100
Total Points 410(510 grads)
Grades will be based on 10 % increments of total possible points from 90% – 100% = A; 80% – 89% = B; 70% – 79% = C; 60% – 69% = D, and less than 60% = F.
Research Paper
One of the requirements for this course is to complete a paper dealing with the management of some technical activity, facility, etc., that is of particular fascination to you. The class syllabus handed out indicates that a proposed topic for the term paper is due at mid term. This suspense is to insure that you will have enough time to use the library, etc. An example topic might be "The St. Louis Gateway Arch". Then, the management issues could deal with the planning and construction of the Arch including problems and hurdles encountered during the process.
The topic chosen can be one of your choices, but requires my approval. The emphasis is on the management of a technical or engineering activity, facility, etc. You will need to do some library literature research in the process of selecting a topic so that there is some level of comfort that literature is available relative to the topic chosen.
As indicated in the course syllabus, the term paper will constitute 100 points out of a total of 515 points for the course (22%). The 100 points will be distributed as follows:
Appearance of Paper, i.e., layout, English, spelling, etc. 10
Statement of management issue(s) and significance 10
Literature review (including bibliography) 10
Body of paper with analysis 50
Conclusions/summary 10
Overall flow of paper 10
TOTAL 100
A general guideline as to the size of the paper would be ten double spaced pages. Emphasis is on quality rather than quantity.
HIGHLIGHTS OF TOPICS IN
MANAGING ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY
As a result of studying Managing Engineering and Technology and handout materials, you should have accomplished the following in order to achieve the course goals and objectives stated in the syllabus:
Chapter 1: Engineering and Management
Understand the nature and role of technology in society. Be able to discuss the product development process. Understand the role of engineering and engineers. Be able to describe how "engineering' and "management" meet the definition of a profession.
Be able to distinguish between the three levels of management.
Be able to define any of Mintzberg's managerial roles and Koontz's managerial functions.
Be able to distinguish between Engineering management and general management.
Chapter 2: Historical Development of Engineering Management
Be able to identify key early contributions to engineering management, such as the development of staff concepts, interchangeable parts, and the significance of the industrial revolution.
Be able to discuss the significance and limitations of Scientific Management and generally the contributions of key persons.
Be able to describe the contributions of Fayol and Weber.
Understand the nature and significance of the Hawthorne studies.
Chapter 3: Planning and Forecasting
Be able to distinguish between mission, strategy, and objectives.
Be able to describe the process and purpose of management by objectives.
Understand planning premises, planning horizon, policies, and procedures.
Understand the importance of sales estimates.
Be able to describe the weighted moving average, exponential smoothing methods, and forecasting methods.
Be able to discuss the concept and importance of technological forecasting.
Understand the concepts of innovation and entrepreneurship.
Chapter 4: Decision Making
Be able to distinguish between routine and nonroutine decisions, and between optimizing and satisficing.
Be able to discuss the use of models in management science.
Be able to diagram a payoff table and distinguish between decision making under certainty, risk, and uncertainty.
Be able to solve a simple linear programming problem.
Be able to make decisions under risk by maximizing expecting value using a payoff table and/or decision tree.
Understand what queuing theory and simulation are about.
Be able to make decisions under uncertainty using maximax, maximin, equally likely, and minimax regret assumptions.
Understand from computer-based information systems.
Chapter 5: Organizing
Be able to distinguish between a proprietorship, partnership, corporation, and cooperative.
Be able to define "organizing" and discuss the use of key activities in organizing.
Be able to describe where each of the several models of departmentation might be appropriate.
Be able to discuss the factors affecting span of control.
Be able to distinguish between line, staff, and service relationships and functional authority.
Be able to discuss the key findings of Woodward and Aston studies.
Understand the implications of computers on organizational structure.
Chapter 6: Some Human Aspects of Organizing
Understand the key steps in selecting technical personnel (establishing requirements, use of resumes and applications, interviews, reference checks, and plant visits).
Be able to compare methods of appraising performance.
Understand and be able to discuss formal authority and influence and the five key sources of power.
Be able to distinguish between assigning duties, delegating authority, and exacting accountability.
Be able to discuss the barriers to delegation by engineers.
Understand why committees and meetings are used and how to make them effective.
Chapter 7: Motivating and Leading Technical People
Be able to compare the content theories of motivation developed by Maslow, McGregor, Herzberg, and McClelland.
Understand the key process theories of motivation: equity, expectancy, and behavior modification.
Be able to discuss leadership traits and matrix approaches to understanding leadership, such as the managerial grid.
Be able to describe the nature of Tannenbaum & Schmidt's leadership continuum.
Be able to describe Fiedler's contingency model and contrast its assumptions with those of Tannenbaum & Schmidt.
Be able to discuss the nature and attributes of technical professionals.
Be able to describe some differences between research scientists and applied engineers.
Chapter 8: Controlling
Be able to describe the steps of the control process.
Be able to distinguish between closed-loop (automatic) and open-loop control.
Be able to distinguish between feedback and feed forward control systems.
Be able to describe the purpose and use of a balance sheet and an income statement for financial controls.
Understand and create financial ratios from financial data.
Understand the budgeting process and significance of responsibility (cost or profit center).
Chapter 9: Managing the Research Function
Understand NSPE New Product Development Process, Blanchard's Product Life Cycle and Betz's Technology Life Cycle.
Understand in gross terms who funds and who performs R&D by type in the U.S., and identify the sectors performing most R&D.
Be able to distinguish between alternative new product/technologies strategies.
Understand the need for screening research ideas and the simple and weighted checklist methods of doing so.
Understand the simple payback time method.
Be able to find the net present worth of future income given a corporate rate of return.
Be able to describe and distinguish between patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets.
Understand the steps in the creative process.
Understand how to encourage creativity in technical employees.
Understand the support services needed to make research and engineering effective.
Chapter 10: Managing Engineering Design
Understand the nature of engineering design and the phases or stages in systems engineering and new product development processes.
Be able to describe the control systems in design, how they relate, and when in the process they occur – drawing/design release, configuration management, design review, and management audit.
Understand the issues related to product liability.
Be able to define risk and reliability and the understand the significance of reliability.
Know what the other “ilities” in design are.
Chapter 11: Planning Production Activity
Understand the vital nature of productivity as it relates to our national interests and the central position that the engineer has in production organization.
Understand the considerations for plant location, design, and layout in planning manufacturing facilities.
Generally understand the concepts of EOQs, Break-even charts, and learning curves.
Understand the MRP and MRP II and their differences in production control activities.
Be able to describe the concepts of Just-In-Time inventory management.
Understand and be able to describe the evolution of flexible manufacturing systems.
Chapter 12: Managing Production Operations
Be able to define quality assurance, its importance to being competitive, and to describe and list its costs.
Know generally the how statistics are used in quality assurance.
Be able to describe how Demming impacted the world of quality assurance and the concepts of Total Quality Management.
Be able to define productivity.
Understand how maintenance and facilities (plant) engineering impact on managing production operations.
Chapter 13: Engineers in Marketing and Service Activities
Understand the types of marketing relationships and the extent of engineering involvement in marketing industrial products.
Understand how and where a large number of engineers are involved in service organizations.
Chapter 14: Project Planning and Acquisition
Know the characteristics of a project.
Be able to discuss the process of anticipating and preparing proposals that are essential to the life of project organizations
Be able to list and describe the planning and control tools used in project management – statement-of-work, milestone schedule, work break-down schedule, gantt chart, and network scheduling systems (CPM & PERT).
Be able to discuss the types of contracts.
Chapter 15: Project Organization, Leadership, and Control
Know the basic elements of a project driven organization.
Be able to the basic types of organizations, which are more suited for project management, and the relationships between project manager, functional manager, and working engineer.
Know the key elements of the Project Manager’s charter and their importance. Understand the aspects of motivation, managing conflict, and team building.
Be able to discuss the key tools for managing and controlling the project schedule and cost.
Chapter 16: Achieving Effectiveness as an Engineer
Understand the results of the 1984 AAES survey.
Learn how successful engineers manage their careers and understand that your technical expertise is only part of your total package.
Understand the importance to getting off to the right start. Know the advice of successful engineers regarding your work (the first 5 years most important) including initiative, visibility, and corporate culture; regarding your boss including selection, keeping he/she informed, and making his/her job easier; and regarding associates/outsiders.
Be able to chart your career including your definition of success, career direction/field, and career stages.
Understand the importance of communication and how effectively communicate your ideas.
Understand the importance of life-long learning, accreditation, registration, and certification.
Chapter 17: Managerial and International Opportunities for Engineers
Understand the relationship of management to an engineer’s career and the need for engineers in top management.
Understand the importance of international trade to US interests and the nature of multinational companies regarding regions, cultures, trading blocks, etc.
Chapter 18: Special Topics in Engineering Management
Understand the changing position of women, minorities, and internationals as engineering becomes a more diverse profession.
Understand the different philosophies regarding ethics and their relationship to ethics of the engineering profession.
Understand be able to discuss the ethical questions that were present in the Hyatt Regency and Challenger disasters.