Engineering Management: Role of Engineering in Management

Every task undertaken has a technical aspect of its own. There are technicalities involved in nearly everything that we take up, be it in job, at home, during a travel etc. Engineering is more about technical aspects and approach and relating Engineering to Management definitely gives success. This is the reason why it is necessary to learn or study Engineering Management as a complete subject or qualification to have a successful career.

Management of Engineering or Engineering Management is an altogether specialization of Management as well as Engineering. In Engineering, Management generally comes with the subject of ‘Industrial Engineering and Management’, that is the stream of Mechanical Engineering. There is Bachelor’s as well as Master’s degree of IEM (Industrial Engineering and Management). Engineering in Management generally deals with applications, principles and practices of management. Some of the Business practices come under this stream, that teach the Organisation the best and most efficient ways of carrying out a successful business.

Engineering Management is an amalgamation of technological abilities of solving problems, planning strategies, administration, in order to fulfil the missions and vision at large. A Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering and Management is considered somewhat similar or equivalent to an MBA degree. Nearly all the content of both the degrees is same, hence making it less complex.

This stream can be best explained with examples of area contained in it, i.e. Manufacturing, Production, Technology, Construction, Design Engineering, Product development etc. similar areas. The function and the ultimate goal of all is the same. All of the areas relate to one another in some or the other way. They are rather interdependent on one another and require equal attention or focus while having a unified goal for an organisation.

Every Engineering Manager in order to succeed in what he or she takes up must undergo some training. Apart from that some experience as an intern with companies or on-job experience can also provide immense success. Every student or trainee in the initial learning stages of Engineering Management requires hands on experience in Business. Every Engineering Manager holds the responsibility of handling the Engineers of the organisation and department. They skill and coach the new comers and starters in the company. They act as mentors and motivators to the technical professionals hired by the company. An Engineering Manager covers most of the sectors of the organisation, be it HR, Finance and Accounts, Business Analysing, Market Economy, Technical, IT, supply Chain Management and a lot more!

If we go back to the history of Engineering Management, ‘Stevens Institute of Technology’ has had oldest ‘Engineering Management’s’ department that in 1908 got established as ‘School of Business Engineering’. Later, this was called as the program of ‘Bachelor of Engineering in Engineering Management (BEEM)’ and then moved in the ‘School of Systems and Enterprises’. The degree of Engineering Manager was very first granted at Drexel University, US in 1959. Eventually thereon, this degree became popular and has got spread till India as well and offers great scope.

Here are some of the interesting areas that the stream of ‘Engineering Management’ offers:

• Operations research and supply chain management

• Information technologies

• Decision engineering

• Management Of Technology – This largely covers accounting, economics, finance, organizational behaviour and organizational design.

• Education about –

–        accounting

–        Economics

–        Financial

–        Project managing

–        Systems’ engineering

–        Mathematical models’ implementing

–        Optimizing

–        (MIS) Management information systems

–        Quality controlling

–        Six Sigma (ranges of levels in six sigma i.e. green and black belt qualifications)

–        Operations’ research

–        (HRM) Human resources management

–        Industrial psychologies

–        Safety and health concerns

–        Research Methodology

–        Marketing Management

In a gist every Engineering Manager must be capable of carrying out these following responsibilities:

• Developing and delivering demonstrations of the product.
• Representation of the product to the customers, field events like conferences, statistics evaluation, seminars, etc and much more.
• Give the responses to the functional as well as the technical contents of the RFPs/RFIs
• Must be capable of conveying to the teams of Product Management the customer requirements.
• Capable of travelling for sales in the territory or areas assigned.

An ideal candidature for Engineering Management requires training along with experiences. The candidate must be motivated and confident in what he or she does or decides. The Manager must be flexible, have perseverance, patient, courageous, and positive in his or her approach and decisions.

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