Engineering Management - Research Paper Example

The paper deals with the basic discussion of the various principles of engineering management and also the way in which these principles can be employed while working in the field to become an effective engineering professional and to excel in the field of engineering. Engineering management has become a very important field for engineers because of the growing competition in the market and thus each and every engineer is supposed to have knowledge of engineering management principles. The paper elaborates the experiences which were gained during a field internship in which the various engineering management principles learned in classroom were applied and the advantages of the various principles were observed. Engineering Management An engineer is supposed to study the principles of engineering management if he wants to become a successful professional in the field of engineering because the increasing competition in the market due to the limitations put up by the scarcity of resources has made it mandatory for the engineers for have a basic knowledge of management and planning strategies which were deemed as unnecessary for the engineers in past. Engineers are supposed to develop a knowledge of financial management, marketing strategies, risk management in addition to project management techniques in order to excel in the field of engineering and this knowledge should be gained before going out in the field (Shainis, Dekom & McVinney, 1995). I got my first experience of working as an engineer when I worked as a chemical engineering intern in a fertilizer plant. My stay at the organization and the plant was very knowledgeable experience as I managed to spend some time in each of the various operational sections of the organization. My knowledge of the various engineering management sessions helped me a lot during the planning and execution of the various projects which were assigned to me during my work at various sections in the organization and I managed to complete all of the projects whether they were related to research, design or operation with great success and thus I realized the importance of the study of engineering principles in order to become a successful engineering professional. Engineers today are expected to take more responsibility than merely providing the technical assistance because certain aspects of projects and industries are only understandable to the engineers and thus they are supposed to take the managerial responsibilities in various fields such as planning and procurement, other than technical assistance. Leadership and Management A leader is a person who tends to guide its organization towards set targets and objectives. A good leader is supposed to assume the frontline role while carrying out a project and it is the responsibility of the leader to motivate his team. A leader must be flexible in his attitude towards his team members because he has to act in various positions to train and guide his team. The job of the leader is to encourage and motivate his team members and in order to do so he must recognize and appreciate their performance. Leadership means setting up a direction in which the whole organization has to move in order to achieve the set targets, while management is something different; it specifies the methodology through which the people and the resources can move forward on the path defined by the leader. The leader tells the people what is expected of them and motivates them to aim high whereas the manager tells them the way forward to achieve the set targets as it is the responsibility of the manger to help individuals identify their role in the team. Leadership without management is never successful because in such a scenario the organization has a direction and a target but the individuals do not have an idea how they can achieve the target. Similarly management without leadership cannot yield the desired results because such a scenario lacks motivation and innovation and thus the organization does not grow effectively. Therefore an effective engineer and professional is the one who has both these traits so that he can set up high targets and a direction for achieving those targets while utilizing all the resources to their fullest (Benator & Thumann, 2003). A good understanding of the importance of leadership and management helped me in the successful carrying out of the projects which were assigned to me during my summer internship. As a leader I set my goals from the very onset and devised my strategy very carefully in which I was able to utilize all the resources available to me. Strong leadership traits helped me to develop persuasive and motivational skills while effective management helped me to learn stress management and following up of schedule. Financial Management The knowledge of financial management is also very important for engineers because it helps engineers to identify the value of various resources and enables them to devise strategies in which they can use the scarce resources effectively. At the end of the day the objective of the engineer is to achieve the maximum output in terms of comfort and also in terms of finances. An engineer is supposed to provide the best services at very little cost. Optimization of resources is a very important concern in today’s world where every industry has been affected by scarcity of resources and the success of an engineering organization depends upon good financial management of various resources (Shim & Siegel, 2008). The movement of money into and out of a business or project is called cash flow and it is measured for a specified duration of time. Maintenance of a cash flow statement helps the employees and managers of a company to check whether the organization is making profits or suffering loss. The knowledge of the cash flow situation of the organization is very important for effective financial management of a company because cash flow statement provides the basis of financial strategy of the company (Compton, 1997). An engineer cannot carry out extensive financial management because it involves a sound command over accounting principles but a successful engineer must have the basic knowledge about the various aspects of financial management and the engineer must be aware of the cash flow situation of the organization because a good cash flow condition encourages engineer to take aggressive decisions whereas an engineer is supposed to be cautious and frugal in the use of resources if the organization is suffering financial loss. During my summer internship I tried to keep myself aware of the financial condition of the organization and also observed the behavior of my engineering mentors with changing financial conditions (Eisner, 2008). Project Management Project management is a very important engineering management principle and engineers are supposed to have a very deep knowledge of the principles of project management in order to become successful professional engineers. The detailed planning, organization, acquiring and management of resources to achieve the goals effectively are done through effective project management. A good knowledge of project management principles help an engineer to successfully complete the various steps through which an engineering project passes. The objective of efficient project management is to achieve all the goals and objectives which are set during the beginning of the project and these goals are set on the basis of the requirements of the client or market. The most significant challenges for which project management is carried out include the management of time and budget and maintaining the quality at the same time. The optimization of time and resources is the very basic principle of project management and also the most strenuous challenge because there are always some unforeseen circumstances associated with engineering projects which hamper the fluent carrying out of the project. Various project management techniques have been suggested and formulated by researches but almost all of them are based on some basic principles or steps which include initiation, planning and design, execution and construction, monitoring and controlling systems and completion (Lock, 2007). During my summer internship I was assigned with a few small projects and I utilized the principles of project management which I studied during the project management sessions. Project management techniques are very helpful for engineers while working in field because they are very effective in managing the time and resources constraints for getting maximum output. An engineer cannot achieve success in his field without sound knowledge of project management. Risk Management Unforeseen circumstances have a great impact on the success of engineering projects and thus it is very important for engineers to carry out appropriate risk management. There are a number of risks which engineers are likely to face while working in field, these include natural disasters, accidents due to negligence of technicians, project failures, crash of potential financial markets, bankruptcy of sponsors, defects in project strategies, legal liabilities, credit risks, political instability and attack from professional rivals etc. Therefore there is a great possibility that engineers have to face unfavorable circumstances while working in field. Risk management actually deals with the identification of possible risks and formulation of an effective strategy for dealing with the possible risks; in simple words engineers are always supposed to have a plan B if A fails due to some potential risk while carrying out engineering projects or working in field. For effective risk management engineers should be well aware of the opportunities available to them because they must know the areas where a compromise can be made in order to achieve the targets without considerable losses if an unfortunate event occurs. Risk management is a very difficult task because there are very little options available to engineers and thus risk management is very often carried out by transferring the impact of risk from one aspect of a project to another and in some cases successful risk management strategies involve the transfer of risk to other organizations (Crouhy, Galai & Mark, 2000). The knowledge of the possible risks which can occur while working in field made me very cautious about risk management and during my internship I based my risk management strategies by giving paramount importance to safety while working in field because effective observation of safety principles help engineers to avoid the occurrence of various risks which occur due to personal errors and incorrect handling of equipment. I made it obligatory for all the technicians and staff to follow all the safety procedures even if they apparently seem unnecessary. Moreover I also tried to teach the staff and convince them about the importance of observing safety principles while working in field. Quality Management As the business and market atmosphere is becoming more and more competitive with each passing day there is a great stress on the market professionals to increase the production and expedite the delivery of products to achieve targets and meet deadlines. This pressure is ultimately transferred to the engineers and thus the engineers today are being pushed hard to maximize the production with limited resources in little time as a result ensuring quality is becoming more and more difficult. Quality management has been introduced to provide a guideline for engineers in such a scenario where financial and time constraints force the engineers to compromise on quality. Quality management is carried out in four steps; quality planning, quality control, quality assurance and quality improvement. In past quality assurance was deemed as a tool for maintaining a good repute of the organization in the market, however today quality assurance and thus quality management has become much more important due to the legalities involved in the whole process of production. Certain quality standards have been set up by various international organizations and thus it is mandatory for organizations to comply with these quality standards in order to continue working in the market. Therefore engineers are supposed to have a strong command over quality management because this is the only way they can ensure good quality while maximizing the production in minimum time and utilizing the minimum resources. During my internship I studied the quality management strategy of the organization and I observed that merely following the four steps of quality management the organization was able to effectively maintain the quality and comply with the quality standards set up for the industry. Not only has this, the quality improvement steps also enabled engineers working on the plant to give recommendations to the research and development department for improving the quality of the products. During my stay at the organization I gave suggestions to the quality control department to consider the feedback from the market on various products in order to give recommendations for improving the quality. Innovation, Intellectual Property and Entrepreneurship The scarcity of resources and the remarkable increase in the living standard of human beings has created a very competitive environment for engineers because engineers are supposed to come up with new ideas all the time which can serve as business grasping tools for the organizations. Thus creativity and innovation has become a very key tool for achieving individual and organizational success. The scarcity of resources and the improvements in the lifestyle has in fact enabled engineers to come up with new and innovative products. Today’s competitive business environment requires an engineer to have a good knowledge of various marketing strategies and thus more and more engineers are now working as entrepreneurs. The improvement in legislation has also encouraged engineers to carry out research because engineers are now able to get their ideas register and thus their creative work can become their intellectual property which cannot be stolen by other individuals. Thus engineers are supposed to have a good knowledge of market demands and also the challenges which are being faced by people due to the scarcity of resources in order to turn their research in the right direction and earn a good monetary return to their intellectual works. As an engineering student I have carried out various projects in which I employed the principles of entrepreneurship and devised strategies to sell out my engineering ideas in the form of profitable business. This has helped me in obtaining the basic knowledge about the business launch and marketing strategies of various products. The knowledge of the importance of innovation in engineering tells me that as a chemical engineer I am supposed to be in touch with the market demands all the time so that I can carry out research in the right areas and develop useful products for people which can easily be marketed because of their market demand (Bruin & Dupuis, 2003). Business Development, Marketing, Sales and Communication Research is one aspect of engineering but converting the researched ideas into good selling points for the organization is a challenge which engineers are facing these days. Therefore engineers are supposed to have a good knowledge of how businesses can be developed and what are the ways to achieve maximum profits out of the engineering ideas because at the end of the day engineers are important for the employer as long as they are making profits. Like all other professionals engineers also need to create a value of their own and on the basis of this unique value they can claim their importance in an organization. Similarly engineers are supposed to have an understanding of marketing strategies of various products which they develop, engineers they should also be concerned about the prospective sales of various products. I experienced the importance of the understanding of marketing and sales ideas for engineers during my internship because engineers there were more and more interested in developing such products which had very high demands in the market. Communication is also a very important aspect which engineers need to develop because they can convey their ideas only through effective communication. Engineers who are weak in communication cannot sell their ideas and thus have little importance as compared to those engineers who are expressive and can convince the sponsors and investors about the success of their engineering ideas. Communication skills are very important for the engineers because in certain industries and organizations engineers have to give presentations to the client because certain technical aspects of the project or the product are only understandable to the engineers and thus they can convince the clients effectively. Therefore it is very important for engineers to develop good persuasive skills, which is only possible with good communication. Constraints Based Management The concept of constraints based management has also evolved during recent times due to the increasing competitive environment which has evolved as a result of scarcity of resources. Constraint based management emphasizes on the fact that engineers and managers should base plan their projects and strategies keeping in view the most critical constraints in the execution of the projects. The most frequently occurring constraints in a project are time and finances where as there can be a number of other constraints which can be due to the limited availability of a number of resources. The concept of constraint base management marks the least available resource as the critical resource and thus the working of the project is based on the availability of that particular resource. Constraint based management has become a very effective technique in optimization of production keeping in view the available constraints of time and finances. During my summer internship I always had to coup with the time constraint and my knowledge of constraint based management helped me in carrying out the projects successfully as I always made time as the foremost priority and devised the schedule of other resources on the basis of the terms dictated by the time constraint. Planning should be done keeping in view the fact that a chain is as strong as its weakest link thus an engineer can be successful if he makes the weakest link or resource of the project strong by giving it the due importance and devising the strategy according to it. References Benator, B., & Thumann, A. (2003). Project management and leadership skills for engineering and construction projects. Fairmont Press. Bruin, A., & Dupuis, A. (2003). Entrepreneurship: new perspectives in a global age. Ashgate Publishing Ltd. Compton, D. (1997). Engineering management: creating and managing world-class operations. Prentice Hall. Crouhy, M., Galai, D., & Mark, R. (2000). Risk management. McGraw Hill Professional. Eisner, H. (2008). Essentials of project and systems engineering management. John Wiley and Sons. Lock, D. (2007). Project management. Gower Publishing Ltd. Shainis, M., Dekom, A., & McVinney, C. (1995). Engineering management: people and projects. Battelle Press. Shim, J., & Siegel, J. (2008). Financial Management. Barrons Educational Series. Read More