Chapter 1: Introduction to Engineering Management PDF

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT ENGR. MARK ANDREW M. ALINGOG Management, succinctly, is the exercise of drawing the straight line from what you are and where you are; to what you want to be; where you want to go. The straight line connotes the economy in time and m...

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT ENGR. MARK ANDREW M. ALINGOG Management, succinctly, is the exercise of drawing the straight line from what you are and where you are; to what you want to be; where you want to go. The straight line connotes the economy in time and means—material and human, and the freedom from kinks, distortions and aberrations, in the journey from the starting point to the destination. - Urwick defines management as the art of directing human activities. Management is considered as the art and science of Definitions making decisions. It is the process of relating resources to goal accomplishment. - It is the process of planning, organising, staffing, leading and influencing people, and controlling. The following nine elements of management, necessarily present in all forms, are presented in sequential order in which the management process is conceived, evolved and implemented: There has to be a horizon—a universe, a bound within which the - management must perform. There must be an organization, which gives the body to the Elements management. There is a universal need for planning, implementation and of monitoring. Any management must properly equipped with its staff. management Management needs leadership and direction. Communication is the life blood of the management process. - There is the need for all-pervasive coordination. Management requires constant evaluation, monitoring or control. Innovation, a pride of place in competitive management success. Planning Planning involves advance decisions related to what, when, why, how, and who. It involves: - Self-appraisal to determine the current position. Study of environment around organization. Functions Specifications of goals and objectives and means to achieve them. of Framework of policies, procedures, standards and anticipated course of actions. management Forecasting. Resources to achieve the forecast. - Revision of plans and adjustments in changed situations. Coordination of processes involving planning. Organizing Organising involves those activities of the management that are performed to translate the required activities of plans into a - structure of task, authority and responsibility. This framework includes people, task, resources, and performance in respect to Functions the organizational goals. Sub-functions of organising are: Defining the nature and content of each job in the of organization. Setting the base for grouping the jobs together. management Deciding the size of groups. Delegating authority to assigned managers. - Directing and Motivating stimulate the organization to undertake actions along the plan. Major ingredients for directing are leading, coordination, - communication, influencing and team work. It involves: Communication and explanation of objectives to the Functions subordinates. Assign the performance standards. of Helping subordinates through proper guidance and personal interaction to meet the standards of performance. management Reward for better performance both financially and written appreciation. - Praise and censuring the employees wherever required. Management of change through proper communication and building confidence among different layers of management and workers. Coordination in the entire process. Controlling Controlling relates to measure the performance against goal, determining the causes of deviations from goals, and taking - corrective actions for improvement. Managers are required to assure that the actual outcomes are consistent with the planned Functions outcomes. It involves: Standard of performance. of Information related to gaps in standard and attained performance. management Corrective actions to bridge the identified gaps. Control function is useful for (a) short-range corrections through - better directing, (b) moderate corrections through re-engineering benchmarking, and (c) long-term corrections through re-defining goals and new planning endeavour. The management is segmented into three distinct layers in an organization. These layers are top management, middle management and lower (operating) management. Top - management consists of Chairman; Managing Director, President, Vice-President; and similar other positions; middle Types management involves heads of departments, divisional heads, general managers, etc; lower management includes workers like Of supervisor, foreman, superintendent and other operating personnel. Management - The activities of different types of management are different in proportions. Top management is more focussed on planning strategic issues but less involved in directing function. - On the other hand, lower management is more focussed on directing and less on planning. The skills needed for different Types levels of management is also different. While less technical and personnel skill is required at top, more of these skills are Of required at lower level. On the contrary, more conceptual and decision-making skills are required at top level. Management For total quality management, more commitment is needed at top level while more efforts in team-building are required by - lower management. Middle management is expected to facilitate the continuous improvement. A manager’s role is to organize, supervise, and control people to ensure productive outcomes. Organizations are essential for productive work as they bring together people, materials, and - equipment to achieve various goals. By combining talents and resources, organizations can accomplish more than individuals Role of the working alone. All organizations, whether companies, schools, industries, hospitals, or sports teams, have objectives like profits, Manager market share, educational achievements, health, or winning games. They plan to ensure the right people are doing the right - jobs with the best equipment at the right time. Managers are the people responsible for helping organizations to achieve their objectives and for creating and implementing their plans. Based on Mintzberg (1973), one can identify three roles - for managers. Interpersonal Role Role of the Figurehead: It means symbolic-head. His activities include ceremony, status requests and solicitations. Manager Leader: It means responsible for motivating and activating the subordinates. His activities include responsibility for staffing, - training, subordinate’s team building, etc. Liaison: It means maintaining a self-developed network of outside contacts and information. His activities include interactions with outsiders, responding to mails, external board work, etc. Informational Roles Monitor: This means seeking and receiving a wide variety of special information to develop a thorough understanding of - organization and environment. He acts as the nerve centre of internal and external information. Role of the Disseminator: This means transmission of outside information to his subordinates. His role includes filtering, clarifying, Manager interpreting and integrating different information so that value added knowledge emerges for organizational use. His - activities also support verbal communication with subordinates’ review meeting, etc. Spokesperson: This means transmitting information to outsiders on behalf of the organization or department that he heads. He serves as an expert to clarify the organizational plan, policies, actions and results. Decisional Roles Entrepreneur: This means searching the organization and its environment for opportunities and initiating the - “improvement (or change) process” to bring about transformation. This involves designing and completing Role of the projects for changes, leading to improvements. Disturbance Handler: This means responsibility related to Manager corrective actions when organization faces sudden, unexpected disturbances. His actions include review and - rectification of the crisis. Resource Allocator: This means responsibilities related to the allocation of resources of the organization among all concerned people or departments. Negotiator: This means representing the organization at major negotiations. 4th role: Knowledge Leadership Role Knowledge team builder: This means that the managers should create teams that have expertise in certain areas. This - is done through regular updating of knowledge through seminar, journal, internet-search and adoption of technology. Role of the His activities include finding right people, who can share same expertise in building knowledge-base. Manager Sustaining and maintaining knowledge: This is related to knowledge management. His activities include documenting - and sharing the expertise among group members. If an individual leaves the organization, the knowledge should stay with other members of the group. 5th role: Change Handler Continuous improvement supporter: This means the route of marginal or gradual improvement. It is the path which TQM - also advocates. Managers’ role is to develop a quality culture and teambuilding. Problems are identified and solved for Role of the small but gradual improvement. The role of the manager is to tell everybody that there exists a better way of doing the thing Manager which we are doing now. Benchmarking Leader: Benchmarking involves identifying - “best-practices” or world-class performers in your area and identification of gap between world-class and your organization. This gap is bridged through systematic planning and leadership. Manager’s actions involve identification of benchmark, building teams to make changes and evaluation of performance during the change. 5th role: Change Handler Re-engineering Leader: Re-engineering is the total, radical redesign of the system. Managers have a great role to play as - they have to prepare resources (including subordinates) for a total transformation. Unlike continuous improvement, which Role of the is gradual, and benchmarking, which is moderate, re- engineering is dramatic transformation and thus requires Manager careful handling of situation and resources. The risks are higher in re-engineering. Therefore, its management is more - difficult as compared to other two change processes Managers face the challenge of controlling organizational processes while leading and inspiring their teams. They must balance maintaining current systems with the need for change to - meet customer demands. This applies to both commercial and non-profit organizations. As customer needs evolve, businesses The must anticipate and respond to these changes. Managers need to be flexible, creative, and innovative, focusing on customer Management satisfaction. In larger organizations, management roles become more specialized, but the core goal remains to meet customer Challenge demands effectively. - The science of management today often follows the principle that “what can’t be measured isn’t worth doing,” a view supported by Professor Sir Roland Smith but criticized by John - Harvey-Jones as outdated. This belief stems from the 1960s when measurement, especially in accountancy, was seen as key Management to success. Modern information technology has enhanced measurement capabilities, but managers must still consider the as accuracy of data. Sometimes, intuition overrides data, as with Sony’s Walkman, which succeeded despite negative market Science research. This shows that market research is just one factor in decision-making. - ‘The difficulty is that there can never be any single correct solution to any management problem, or any all-embracing system which will carry one through a particular situation or - period of time.’ (John Harvey-Jones, 1993) Management The fact is that over the years management styles and fashions change and business environments alter. As a subject of study as and analysis management can be seen as a mongrel form of social science, borrowing as necessary from other social Science sciences, and because it is concerned with people and their behaviour there is an element of unpredictability about the whole - process.