This weeks introductory lecture outlined what many professionals have discussed regarding

management, the purpose of business, and tasks of a manager. I work as a project manager
and Industrial engineer for a manufacturing plant within the Navy. Our manufacturing
division makes parts for the Naval aircraft carriers and various aircraft platforms. I work as a
project manager that interfaces with the fleet, design engineers, and contractors to ensure
the successful manufacturing of Naval parts in order to support the warfighter in its mission.
There was a number of discussion topics in this weeks lecture that related to my
workplace and work life culture. When Understanding the Business was being examined the
topics relating to the fact that the customer is the business particularly caught my attention
when I was thinking about my own workplace experience. The importance of
understanding your customer and providing them what they need is extremely
important. In my line of work our customer would be the design engineers and the Navy. The
design engineers make part drawings for all of the different systems that the Navy needs to
defend our country. Our manufacturing group needs to make sure we create exactly what is
called out for on the drawing and provide our engineers/customers exactly what they asked
for. The part drawings we deal with are very specific as they call out for specific quality
assurance testing, machinists need to adhere to thousands of an inch of tolerance on
dimensions of the part, and material specifications and properties need to be exactly as
specified to hold up to the harsh conditions in the military.
The section about the Key Results Areas for a business was another area that helped
to identify with my place of work. The non-profit based social responsibilities are a key factor
in the way we perform work. Although our goal is to create parts in the fastest time possible,
theres a number of different groups we need to adhere to regulations. A partnering groups
that oversee our manufacturing operations include safety, HAZMAT, environmental, and
public works. Our department needs to make sure we adhere to all the Navy regulations for
the areas that were listed.

Week 2s lecture and reading materials delve into a number of Engineering Management
topics that are relevant to current workplace environments. The topic discussion about
Knowledge Workers and MBO (Management by Objectives) are the sections that I
was able to relate to my work experience. Myself along with most of the people that I work
with are Knowledge workers. I work with a large group of engineers who are highly trained
and are able to perform tasks under their own autonomy and direction. The management
team in my department has an off-site meeting at the beginning of each fiscal year where
they discuss objectives for the upcoming year. At this meeting the managers come up with a
list of 10-12 objectives and goals they would like our department to strive for this year. The
list of objectives that is generated is then sent out to the workforce. The branch managers
sit down with their employees and go over methods for accomplishing these outlined
objectives for the year. Our internal Black Belt will keep track of all the objectives throughout
the year, monitor the progress, and track metrics along the way. At the end of the year when
the Navy requests managers to submit amounts for employees to receive bonuses, the
progress on these different yearly objectives will be analyzed and a grade will be given to
each employee based on performance. This method that I have described is very similar to
the MBO process that is detailed in the book. The MBO 5 step process which has been
outlined consists of setting organizational goals, cascade objectives to employees, monitor
progress, evaluate performance, reward performance, and the MBOs feed into the next
cycle. This process for defining goals and managing knowledge workers is a key step in the
engineering management life cycle.

In Week 3s lecture and reading topics there was a great deal of very informative and
thought provocative Engineering Management topics that were discussed. The management
topic relating to the effectiveness of a manager and more specifically the internal
questions that can be asked to one self were particularly interesting to me. As soon as I
started learned about Druckers Feedback Analysis I immediately started thinking about the
internal questionnaire would be a very useful tool for myself. I have just recently taken over
as a team lead for the capital investments group within the Prototype and Manufacturing
Division of the Navy. Moving forward, I will be using Druckers model in order to document
my thought process and expectations for certain projects that our team will be working on.
By documenting all of the results of the project that I expected and comparing those to the
actual results of the project will allow me to become a better manager. Druckers Feedback
Analysis will reveal certain patterns that are common with my projects, I will be able to
determine what my teams and personal strengths and weaknesses are, as well as identify
abilities that I need to enhance to become a more effective manager and engineering
professional.
The few questions that were identified as good ones to ask yourself as a manager I
believe will be very useful for my personal growth. By asking yourself what are you doing
that does not need to be done will help to eliminate non-value added tasks throughout the
work day and throughout a project. By eliminating these useless activities, the team will
have more time to work on the final product of the project and add value to the project a
greater percentage of the time. The next question identifies any tasks that the manager is
doing that can be done by others. Delegation is one of the strongest skill sets a manager can
have. I have been trying to become better at delegating work to members of my team so
that I can focus on portions of the project that can only be completed by myself.

This weeks lecture and booking reading material provided knowledge and insight into a number
of informative topics relating to Engineering Management and the context for managing the
technical function. The topic that was discussed which I found the most relatable to my current
work environment and job would be the section about culture. The culture of a company can
have an extremely strong impact on how a business is run, the type of business that is performed,
and the mood/style of the workplace. The impact that a culture can have in an organization can
shape decision patterns, guide actions, drive behavior, and it influences your values and beliefs.

One of the biggest problems I have had in performing my Industrial Engineering job in our
manufacturing plant is initiating a change in culture and customs. Our maintenance department
currently performs all machine repairs and maintenance tasks on a reactive basis. Therefore, a machine
breaks down or a job is needed to be done and the supervisor goes into our data collection system and
inputs a ticket order to initiate maintenance to act on the repair. However, I have been proactive in trying
to stand up a preventative maintenance program. The new PM program would involve the scheduling of
all required yearly tasks on each piece of equipment in our shop and executing these oil checks, filter
changes, machine leveling, etc. on the required frequency throughout the year. (Annually, bi-annually,
quarterly, weekly, etc.)The response from all the older employees working at NAVAIR is that a

preventative maintenance program has been attempted many times before but it never gets off the ground
or fails. In order for the new maintenance program to work there needs to be a culture change in the
workforce so that they go into this new endeavor with an open mind. I believe that the correct competitive
context has been established due to the enormous benefits for our department if we keep machines
working for a longer period of time with the change in strategies. I fully outlined my execution plan for
how to set-up the PM program and delivered the strategy in a concise and well-articulated manner. A
night shift team will be created in order to handle the increased workload for our new maintenance
program which will suffice as creating working structures. The support from management has been
crucial for getting this project rolling and it helped to create a supportive people practices for the team.

The section in Week 5s lecture that caused me to reflect inward towards my own experience in
my workplace is the portion regarding Managing Meetings. Meetings are often thought of as the
biggest waste of productive time at work. At my workplace everyone complains about excessive
meetings and many people blow off meetings all together because they feel that the meeting is
not accomplishing productive work. While I agree with these points, I do think that meetings are
useful and there should be training in the workplace associated with learning the effective ways
to run and manage a meeting. There are many situations and projects that come up at work where
you need to get input from a number of different people and departments. When you try to run a
job down through a number of different emails or face to face discussions you get different
answers from different parties and it gets very confusing. A meeting is a great opportunity to
bring only the necessary players into a room and solve a problem. The meeting needs to have a
definitive purpose and goal and the people invited to those meetings needs to be limited to only
those who are necessary for information and/or decisions to be made.
I was fortunate enough to learn very early in my career good meeting management skills from
my first boss. Many of the principles that my boss taught me were outlined in this weeks lecture
and they are skills that I still use today. An agenda is a necessary component for a meeting
because it keeps the meeting focused and directed towards certain individuals. The worst
situations arise when everyone in a meeting starts chiming in on a topic and the meeting goes off
course. The meeting maker needs to keep the group on course and stick to the time limits.
Meetings that go on for too long force all the attendees to lose focus and you do not get the best
information out of them. Minutes and tasks with assigned people are necessary for an effective
meeting to finalize.

In this week's lecture the topic that sparked my interest the most was the team
performance section. I was just recently promoted to a team lead role at my workplace. I
am currently working overseeing a team of two engineers and one material buyer under me.
I am striving for my team to be a high volume output and high performance team so the
positive drivers of team performance were very useful in evaluating the current setting of
my own team. The nature of the work is critically to a high performing team having

entusiasm and focus for a project. The manufacturing of parts for the Navy is extrememly
rewarded work and you feel proud that you are a part of the team getting parts out to the
fleet. Your contributions on a particular project has the impact to save someone's life or
affect a mission. Recognition is another excellent driver for a high performance team. Our
staff sets up rewards ceremonies every quarter in which certain individuals and groups are
recogonized for their accomplishments on a specifc project. I think this is a great way to
inspire the workforce with some reinforcement and encouragement to continue performing
at a high level. The proper technical direction for our team comes from myself as well as our
branch head. Both of us are very new to our positions, but we both come from good
engineering backrounds and have good work performance standards since working for the
navy.

In Week 7s lecture there was a number of topics outlined which I could relate to my personal
work experience and reflect on. This weeks lecture outlined some principles in Making
Optimal Decisions. In the process of coming up with an effective decision, it is very important
to evaluate whether or not a decision is absolutely necessary. There are many times in my work
situation where I am pressured to make decisions. I am the lead Industrial engineer working on
the shop enhancement and maintenance team. Often times I will be approached about decisions
to be made regarding certain pieces of equipment on the shop floor or questions relating to
machine maintenance. Unless the answer is very clear and true it is a good idea to decide not to
make an immediate decision. Im never one at work to pretend to know everything and have the
answers to all questions, so in many situations where I am approached with a problem I tend to
tell the customer that I will get back to them with a decision. I will use this time to research the
problem that has been brought up and talk with subject matter experts who are more familiar
with the certain situation, equipment, or manufacturing process.
In my workplace it feels sometimes that everyone feels obligated to make decision on the spot.
In most situations it is good practice to make an immediate decision if only necessary. Some
situations that will cause the need for an immediate decision occur when conditions will continue
to deteriorate if a decision is not made, a major opportunity will be missed if not acted on, and a
decision should be jumped on if the benefits greatly outweigh the cost and risk involved with the
project.

In Week 8s learning content centered on decision making the topic discussion that I
could relate my work experience to in the most effective way was the parts about
dealing with uncertainty and risk management. In the manufacturing
environment I work in, as well as most professions, there is a great deal of risk and
uncertainty associated with the work that is performed on a daily basis. Our
department has the design engineering teams submitting request for quotes to our
department on a regular basis. As part of the quote rollup the team lead needs to
determine the manufacturing hours, labor, materials, and tooling needed to make a
specific part. There are a number of unforeseen situations that can arise that could

affect the projected turnover time for a specific component. We add in a risk factor
based on the complexity of the project that is a dollar value built into the quoted
price in order to cover ourselves in the event that the job becomes out of scope,
machines break down, engineering drawings are incorrect, etc.
Before each project I like to write out all the potential risks and keep an eye
on them throughout the course of the manufacturing cycle. Following the matrix
model presented in the readings I would like to implement these foundations and
look to mitigate or avoid negative risks and exploit positive ones. I look back on
some past projects and think about how these lessons could have helped to avoid
some pretty significant shop failures occurred due to unforeseen or unplanned risks.
Moving forward for every project I plan on making up a risk matrix and tracking
potential risks throughout the life cycle of a project.

In Week 9s learning content the topic discussion that I could relate my work
experience to in the most effective way was the sections related to Portfolio
Management. I oversee the Investments group within our manufacturing
department. Were responsible for researching, planning, and executing the
procurement of new industrial machines and implementing them into our shop and
work flow processes. In one given year well have about 30 different large scale
projects running at one time in different points of the procurement life cycle
process. I keep an excel spreadsheet with the status of each project and comments
about next steps and any problems that have occurred so far. The excel
spreadsheet on projects that I have been keeping can relate to the model for
portfolio management that was presented in this weeks discussion.
Moving forward, I will take the concepts learning from this topic and apply
them to my master excel sheet of projects at my workplace. By providing columns
that list the size, cost, priorities, resources needed, etc. will help to provide a more
robust manual to follow in accomplishing projects throughout the year. The
management deal will also help to realize the full cost of the projects up front and
relate that information to the management team to use in decision making.