Industrial Economics and Management (ME 491)

• Industrial Economics and Management (ME 491) is the course title.
• This course covers Management, Managerial Planning and Decision Making, Organising, Leading, Controlling ,Fundamentals of Accounting and Costing, Engineering Economy, and Project Management.
• Students will be introduced to the basics of management, managerial planning, and the decision-making process.
• Students will gain tools and techniques for planning and decision-making plus gain techniques and knowledge to assess the economic viability of alternative solutions to technical problems.
• Financial planning and economic optimization roles regarding savings and investments and also, effective project management are covered.
• Students will learn to assess and defend proposed solutions.
• Lectures take place Tuesdays with Dr L. D. Mensah and Mrs A. K. Intsiful from the Mechanical Engineering Dept and Mr. S. H. M. Aikins from the Agricultural Engineering Dept.
• Consultation periods are Mondays and Wednesdays 8.30am to 10 am or Thursdays 10.30am to 1pm / by appointment.
• Fundamentals of Management by Donnelly, Gibson and Ivancevich or any book on Management; Engineering Economy by L. T. Blank and A.J. Tarquin, McGraw-Hill Press, 4th edition, ISBN 0-07-063110-7 or any book on Engineering Economy; Accounting, Principles and Application or any basic Accounting book; Principles of Operations Management by Render and Heizer or any book on P O M. or Operations Management books are recommended.
• General Principles of Management, Financial Management , Engineering Economy, and Project Management are covered in 4, 2, 3, and 2-3 weeks respectively.
• Continuous Assessment accounts for 30% of the grade while Final Exams account for 70%.

Principles Of Management

• Management is coordinating and utilizing human and nonhuman resources for organizational profit, service, and survival.
• Management is coordinating an organisation's resources to achieve a goal.
• Management is a set of activities efficiently and effectively utilizing resources to pursue one or more goals.
• Management process includes Physical, Financial, Information, and Human resources with the aim to achieve organizational goals.
• Effectiveness is achieving organizational goals and efficiency achieves organizational goals with minimal resource wastage.

Management Process

• Planning & Decision Making, Organising, Leading/Directing, and Controlling are included in the management process.

Management Functions

• A manager's job is described by its functions, roles and skills.
• Management functions include planning and decision making, organizing, leading, and controlling.
• Planning involves determining the organisation's goals and deciding how best to achieve them including frameworks that describe how an organization expects to achieve its goals.
• Decision making is the process of thought and deliberation that results in a decision and managers must understand how decisions are made and what decision-making tools exist.
• Organising is grouping activities and resources logically and appropriately.
• Leading involves motivating employees to attain goals, managing group processes, and dealing with conflicts and change.
• Controlling monitors progress toward goal attainment and making necessary adjustments.

Management Roles and Skills

• A manager's role shares similarities with an actor in a play, involving specific expected actions and ways of behaving.
• Skills are the talents managers need to perform their roles effectively are very diverse.
• Interpersonal Roles include the figurehead, the leader, and the liaison role.
• Informational Roles include the monitor, the disseminator, and the spokesperson.
• Decisional Roles are taken by managers who act as entrepreneurs, disturbance handlers, resource allocators, or negotiators.

Management Skills

• Good managers possess a certain mix of skills which set them apart.
• Technical skills relate to the ability to perform a specialised task using specific methods or processes for example, Skills required to do an audit.
• Conceptual and Decision Making Skills relate to the ability to recognise complex and dynamic issues and the variables that influence its resolution.
• Diagnostic Skills are necessary to define and understand situations.
• Interpersonal Skills support good relationship skills between individuals.

Levels of Management

• Three levels of management include Top Level, Middle Level, and Supervisors.
• Top Level Management (e.g. CEO, VC, etc.) formulate higher levels goals and the actions to realize them in an organisation.
• Middle Level Management such as HoD, and Sales Managers define departmental goals with the higher level framework of goals for the organisation and actions to realize them.
• Supervisors implement the day to day operation of the organisation.

Planning and Goals

• Goals are statements of where an organisation wants to be at a specified time in the future,
• An Organisation operates without direction without goals.
• Goals are set as a first step in planning.

Steps in Goal Setting

• SWOT Analysis, setting general organizational goals, setting unit goals, setting sub-unit goals, and monitoring progress towards goal attainment are key.

The Environment & Goal Setting

• The general environment are the broader external factors beyond an organisation's control.
• General environment is a set of forces that characterise the general setting/context of an organisation.
• The task environment refers to the external factors that directly impact an organization's daily operations and performance i.e. the immediate surroundings.
• The task environment is specific organisations in the environment which influence the target company.

General and Task Environment

• The general environment consists of Political-legal, Economic, International, Socio-cultural and, Technological forces.
• The task environment has Customer, Competitor, Union, Regulator, and Supplier dimensions.

Types of goals

• Goals can be differentiated by level, area or function, time frame and specificity.

Multiple Goals

• Organisation rarely have a single goal.
• Most organizations must pursue a variety of goals to survive, regardless of size or diversity.
• Goal optimization is balancing and trading off between different goals for the sake of organisational effectiveness.
• Optimization allows the organisation to pursue a unified vision and helps managers maintain consistency in their actions.

Explore industrial economics and management principles in ME 491, including planning, decision-making, and control. Learn accounting, costing, engineering economy, and project management techniques and how to assess economic viability and defend solutions. Lectures happen on Tuesdays.