Chapter 1: Managers and Development

A. Definition of Engineering Management

WHAT IS ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT?
Engineering Management refers to the activity combining “technical knowledge with the
ability to organize and coordinate worker power, materials, machinery, and money. It is also
a specialized form of management that is required to successfully lead engineering or
technical personnel and projects.
Engineering managers typically require training and experience in both general
management and the specific engineering disciplines that will be used by the engineering
team to be managed.
When the engineer is assigned to supervise the work of even a few people, he is already
engaged in the first phase of engineering management. His main responsibility is to lead his
group into producing a certain output consistent with the required specifications.
The top position an engineer manager may hope to occupy is the general managershio or
presidency of any firm, small or large. As he scales the management ladder, he finds that
the higher he goes, the less technical activities he performs. And the more management
tasks he accepts. In this case, it is but proper that the management functions taught in pure
management courses be well understood by the engineer manager.
There are different functions of engineering encompass the following area namely;
Research, Design and development, Testing, Manufacturing, Industrial, Construction,
Sales, Consulting, Government, Teaching and Management.
B. Origin of Modern Management
History
Historical Notes: Since the very beginning of the human civilization, peoples have been
using the concept of management as a very special tool to perform their tasks efficiently. In
almost every ancient civilization, we can see the influence of management. It was
impossible to make those well – equipped and advanced cities without proper management
skills.
Formal study of management: Although great feats of human achievement such as the
Egyptian pyramids, the Great Wall of China, the Colosseum in Rome and the Taj Mahal in
India all bear testimony to skilled management in ancient times, the formal study of
management only began late in the 19th century. One of the early pioneers of management
theory was Frederick W. Taylor (1856-1915), a mechanical engineer who believed that it
was management’s task to design jobs properly and to provide incentives to motivate
workers to achieve higher productivity.

Stevens Institute of Technology is believed to have the oldest engineering management

department, established as the School of Business Engineering in 1908. This was later
called the Bachelor of Engineering in Engineering Management (BEEM) program and
moved into the School of Systems and Enterprises.

Outside the USA, in Germany the first department concentrating on Engineering

Management was established 1927 in Berlin.
 In Turkey the Istanbul Technical University has a Management Engineering Department
established in 1982, offering a number of graduate and undergraduate programs in
Management Engineering.
In UK the University of Warwick has a specialised department WMG (previously known
as Warwick Manufacturing Group) established in 1980, which offers a graduate programme
in MSc Engineering Business Management.
Michigan Technological University began an Engineering Management program in the
School of Business & Economics in the Fall of 2012. In Canada, Memorial University of
Newfoundland has started a complete master's degree Program in Engineering
Management. In Denmark, the Technical University of Denmark offers a MSc program in
Engineering Management (in English). In Russia, since 2014 the Faculty of Engineering
Management of The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public
Administration (RANEPA) offers bachelor and master degrees in Engineering Management.

In France, the EPF will offer, from January 2018, a 2 year Engineering & Management
major in English for the 4th and 5th years of its 5 year Engineering Master’s degree. The
final 2 years are open to students who have completed an undergraduate engineering
degree elsewhere.
Frederick Winslow Taylor
(1856-1915)
Principles of Scientific Management (1911)
– Replace rule-of-thumb work methods with methods based on a scientific
study of the tasks.
– Scientifically select, train, and develop each worker rather than passively
leaving them to train themselves.
– Cooperate with the workers to ensure that the scientifically developed
methods are being followed.
– Divide work nearly equally between managers and workers, so that the
managers apply scientific management principles to planning the work and
the workers actually perform the tasks.

Jules Henri Fayol (1841-1925)

According to Henri Fayol specialization promotes efficiency of the workforce and increases
productivity. In addition, the specialization of the workforce increases their accuracy and
speed.

Max Weber was a german sociologist who approached management by focusing on

organizational structures, deviding organizations into hierarchies with clear lines of authority
and control. He believed that an ideal bureaucracy consists of six specific characteristics:
hierarchy of command, impersonality, written rules of conduct, advancement based on
achievement, specialized division of labor, and efficiency.

Elthon mayo. (1880-1949) was a Harvard professor who proposed that managers should
become more “people orientated”. Conducting experiments on conditions in the workplace
and incorporating the well-published findings of hawthorne studies, mayo declared that
logical factors were far less importantthat emotional factors in determining productive
efficiency”.he concluded that participation in social groups and group pressure as proposed
to organizational structures or demands from management had the strongest impact on
worker productivity.

Peter Greenleaf (1904-1990) he explained that becoming a servant-leader “begins with the
natural feeling that one wants to serve” followed by the aspiration to lead. Although the
concept of servant leader is fount in the bible and might even date further back into
antiquity, it was first proposed as a management by him.

C. ENGINEERS AS MANAGERS
THE FUNCTIONS OF THE ENGINEER MANAGER

Since prehistoric times, mankind has benefited from the various tools, equipment, and
projects developed engineers. Among these are the following:

1. The stone bladed axe which was a very useful tool; and the irrigation system used to
promote crop growing – 6000 to 3000 B.C.;
2. The pyramids of Egypt – 3000 to 600 B.C.;
3. Road building by the Romans – 600 B.C. to 400 A.D.;
4. The production of paper and gunpowder by the Chinese – 100 A.D. to 1600 A.D.
5. The production of steam engine and the spinning and weaving machinery – 1601
A.D. to 1799 A.D.; and
6. The manufacture of cars and household appliances – modern times.

A listing of all useful tools, equipment, and projects developed and produced by
engineers will be sufficient to produce volumes of books. These contributions indicate that
engineers have become an indispensable segment of the world’s professions. This
expectation will continue for a long time.

Even as engineers are currently producing solutions to man of the difficulties faced
by mankind, much is still expected of them. Their outputs, new or improvements of old ones,
are very much needed in the following specific problem concerns.

1. the production of more food for a fast growing world population;

2. the elimination of air and water pollution;
3. solid waste disposal and materials recycling;
4. the reduction of noise in various forms;
5. supplying the increasing demand for energy;
6. supplying the increasing demand for mobility;
 7. preventing and solving crimes; and
8. Meeting the increasing demand for communication facilities.

Specifically, the functions of engineering encompass the following areas.

1. Research – where the engineer is engaged in the process of learning about nature
and codifying this knowledge into usable theories.
2. Design and development – where the engineer undertakes the activity of turning a
product concept to a finished physical item. Design for manufacturability and value
engineering teams (a feature of some companies) are charged with improvement of
designs and specifications at the research, development, design, and production
stages of product development.
3. Testing – where the engineer works in a unit where new products or parts are tested
for workability.
4. Manufacturing – where the engineer is directly in charge of production personnel or
assumes responsibility of the product.
5. Construction – this is where the construction engineer (a civil engineer) is either
directly in charge of the construction personnel or may have responsibility for the
quality of the construction process.
6. Sales – where the engineer assists the company’s customers to meet their needs,
especially those that require technical expertise.
7. Consulting – where the engineer works as consultant of any individual or
organization requiring his services.
8. Government – where the engineer may find employment in the government
performing any of the various tasks in regulating, monitoring, and controlling the
activities of various institutions, public or private.
9. Teaching – where the engineer gets employment in a school and is assigned as a
teacher of engineering courses. Some of them later become deans, vice presidents,
and presidents.
10. Management – where the engineer is assigned to manage groups of people
performing specific tasks.

The Engineer in Various Types of Organization

From the viewpoint of the engineer, organizations may be classified according to the
degree of engineering jobs performed:
Level One- those with minimal engineering jobs like retailing firms.
Level Two- those with a moderate of engineering jobs like transportation companies.
Level Three- those with a high degree of engineering jobs like construction firm.
SKILLS OF AN ENGINEER MANAGER
Building modern technology products requires cohesive and collaborative teams of
people. And, like teams of all types, strong leaders are needed to communicate,
delegate, and motivate.
Vision
By seeing a bigger picture, engineering managers can better visualize what clients want and
what it takes to get there. While big-picture vision is important, an outstanding manager also
has an eye for detail; that analytical perspective comes innately to many engineers, but
managers can also put it to work in a broader context..
Communication Skills
You’ll be working with manufacturing personnel, project supervisors, technical leads, clients
and executives. Facility with public speaking in meetings, interviewing candidates, issuing
directions and rephrasing technical issues for people outside your industry is critical.

Responsibility
People in managerial positions invariably shoulder more responsibility, and engineering
managers are no exception. The most successful managers adhere to the “praise flows
downhill and responsibility travels uphill” philosophy.
Consistency
Consistency is key to any leadership position; without it, your staff members shut down to
protect themselves from inconsistent instructions. They learn to conceal errors rather than
openly bringing them to your attention because they don’t know what inconsistent
leadership may do when presented with a problem.
Technical Ability
In general, studies show that managers are more effective when they are knowledgeable
about the subject matter their team is dealing with. And engineering management is no
exception. The very best engineering managers tend to be highly skilled engineers in their
own right.
Emotional Intelligence
While the process of engineering can often seem cold and scientific, the reality of an
engineering organization is just as human as any other. A manager that can’t relate to his or
her team on an emotional level will struggle to build the camaraderie and trust necessary to
cooperate and do good work.

Knowing when, and when not, to get involved

Engineering managers must calibrate when a team or team member requires their
input—and, just as importantly, when they’re better off left alone. Nothing frustrates a
high performer more than having someone unnecessarily supervise a task that they are
fully capable of performing independently. Further, promoting a culture of accountability
is crucial in a complex environment like engineering, where no manager can ever have
full visibility into what his or her team is doing.

Allowing your team members to explore approaches they think are correct—even if you
believe they’re wrong. This is a tricky balance, because it means allowing a team member
to potentially waste time on a project, but will both facilitate them becoming a better
engineer and build trust that you’re there not to micromanage, but to develop their skills.

The Balancing Act

Engineering managers are a special breed, requiring both technical savvy and people
skills. And this combination doesn’t come easy—according to one Senior Engineering
Manager at Facebook, “the first few months are going to be miserable,” but those
willing to discard some skills in exchange for others can be successful.

Whether you’re new to leading a team or have been honing these skills for years, it’s easy
to see that being a engineering manager is a constant balancing act between these two
sides of the coin—but that successful leaders not only create high-performing teams.
QUALIFICATIONS OF AN ENGINEER MANAGER
Requirements for the Engineer Manager’s Job
Depending on the type of products or services a firm produces, the engineer
manager must have the following qualifications:
1. A bachelor’s degree in engineering from a reputable school; In some cases, a
master’s degree in engineering or business management is required;
2. Professional Engineer License (PE) is typically required;
3. A few years experience in pure engineering job; Typically it should be 3-5 years of
experience;
4. Training in supervision;
5. Special training in engineering management.
6. Engineer Manager must be good in math, communication and organizational skills,
computer programming and applications.

The qualifications will be of great help to the engineer manager in the performance of
the various management functions.
 CHAPTER 1: MANAGERS and
DEVELOPMENT

LEADER: Lacsamana, Aisra Mareez L.

MEMBERS:
Sambat, Jean Benette R.
De Leon, Adrian Renz P.
Bonotan, John Patrick S.
Dizon, Paulo James C.

BSCE 5-B

ENGR. ROSE MARIE TOLENTINO

INSTRUCTOR