ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT

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By Dr Muhammad Ehsan Ulhaque: Visit http://elearning.alhaque.comfor Notes Page1 Topic 01: Engineering Management

ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT

Work is an activity that produces value for other people.

Introduction

1. One of the most important activities is Management. Ever since people began forming groups to accomplish aims they could not achieve as individuals, managing has been essential to ensure the coordination of individual efforts. As society has come to rely increasingly on group effort, and as many organized groups have become large, the task of managers has been rising in importance.

2. Management is the process of designing and maintaining an environment for the purpose of efficiently accomplishing selected aims. Managers carry out the functions of planning, organizing, staffing leading and controlling. Managing is an essential activity at all organizational levels. However, the managerial skills required vary with organizational levels.

3. Industrial Engineering is concerned with the design, improvement, and installation of integrated systems of men, material, and equipment. It draws upon specialized knowledge and skill in the mathematical, physical and social sciences together with the principles and methods of engineering analysis and design to specify, predict, and evaluate the results to be obtained from such systems.

MANAGERS & MANAGEMENT

4. Manager. A manager is someone responsible for the work performance of one or more other persons in an organization. Other important and essential human resources¹of organization, who directly report to the manager, are called subordinates.

5. Management. It is the process of planning, organizing, leading and controlling the use of resources to accomplish performance goal(s). The functions are explained as under:

1 Human resources are the people, individuals, and groups that help organizations produce goods or services.

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a. Planning. Planning is a process of setting objectives and determining what should be done to accomplish them. What is to be achieved? Setting of goals and identifying appropriate actions and steps.

b. Organizing. Organizing is the process of assigning tasks, allocating resources, and arranging coordinated activities to implement plans.

Allocating human and material resources in appropriate combinations to implement plans.

c. Leading. Leading is the process of arousing enthusiasm and directing human resource efforts toward organizational goals. Guiding the work efforts of people in directions appropriate to action plan.

d. Controlling. Controlling is a process of measuring performance and taking action to ensure desired results. Monitoring performance, comparing results to goals and taking corrective actions.

6. What do the managers do? Managers do the following:

 Effective managers utilize organizational resources to achieve both high levels of task performance and personal satisfactionamong people doing the required job.

 Performance effectiveness is an output measure of a task or goal accomplishment.

 Performance efficiencyis a measure of the resource cost associated with goal accomplishment.

 Improved quality of work life (QWL), which is an indicator of the overall quality of human experience in the workspace.

7. Each manager’s daily challenge is to fulfill performance accountability²to his or her superior. However, the managers are dependent on the performance of their subordinates.

2 Accountability is the requirement for a subordinate to show results of assigned duties to a superior.

Managers

Production Managers

Subordinates

Accountability

Dependency

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8. Productivity is a summary measure of the quantity and quality of work performance, with resource utilization considered.

9. Total Quality management (TQM) is managing with an organization-wide commitment to continuous work improvement, product quality, and totally meeting customer needs.

MANAGERS IN ORGANIZATIONS

10. What is an Organization? An organization is a collection of people working together to achieve a common purpose. All organizations like schools, government agencies, hotels, hospitals, small businesses and large corporations, require management. The purposeof any organization is to produce goods and / or services that satisfy the needs of customers & clients.

11. Organizations as Employers

 Large Businesses– SABCO,IBM, American Express, etc

 Small Businesses– over 90% of all businesses

 Global Businesses– Businesses operating in more than one countries

 Non Profit Organizations(NGO) – Hospitals, schools etc 12. Levels of Management

 Top mangers ensure that major performance objectives are set and accomplish in accordance with the organization’s purpose.

 Middle managers interpret higher level directions into plans and action guidelines for subordinates, pass information up the hierarchy to keep managers (Top managers) informed, and to keep peers to coordinate sub-unit activities.

 First Line managers set short-term objectives and implement the plans of middle and upper management level on a daily basis.

13. Types of Managers

 Line managers. Line managers are responsible for activities making direct contributions to the production of the organization’s basic goods and / or services.

 Staff managers. Staff managers use special technical expertise to advise and support the efforts of line workers.

 Functional managers. These are responsible for one area of activity, such as finance, marketing, production, personnel, accounting, or sales.

 General managers. They are responsible for complex organizational units that include many areas of functional activity.

 Administrators. Administrator is a manager who works in a public or non- profit organization.

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MANAGERIAL ACTIVITIES & ROLES

14. Mintzberg suggests that daily managerial work involve a set roles that good managers are able to perform very well. These roles are as under:

 Interpersonal Roles. How a manager interacts with people:- o Figurehead

o Leader o Liaison

 Information Roles. How a manager exchanges & process information:- o Monitor

o Disseminator o Spokesperson

 Decisional Role. How a manager uses information in decision making:- o Entrepreneur

o Disturbance handler o Resource allocator o Negotiator

 Managerial work is busy, demanding, and stressful. Following are the realities of managerial work:Managers work –

o long hours

o at an intense pace

o at fragmented and varied tasks o with many communication media

o largely through interpersonal relationships

15. Managerial Agenda & Networks. Agenda setting and networking are two critical activities to a manager’s success in mastering daily challenges. Through agenda setting good managers develop actions priorities for their job that includes goals and plans spanning long and short time frames. Good managers implement their agenda by working with a variety of people inside & outside the organization. Networkingis the process of building and maintaining positive relationship with the people whose cooperation may be needed to implement one’s work agenda.

16. Managerial Skills and Competencies

 A skill is the ability to translate knowledge into action that results in the desired performance.

 A Technical skill is the ability to use a special proficiency or expertise in one’s work.

 A Human skillis the ability to work well in cooperation with other people.

 A Conceptual skill is the ability to think analytically and solve complex problems.

 Managerial competency is a skill or personal characteristic that contributes to high performance in a management job.