Management Decisions for Engineers


Book Description

This title is a guide, designed for engineering managers, to the theory and practice of how good decisions are made and why poor decisions occur. It is the result of many years of teaching and consultancy in organizational and social decision making and provides some of the most important concepts in managerial decision theory.




Engineering Decision Making and Risk Management


Book Description

IIE/Joint Publishers Book of the Year Award 2016! Awarded for ‘an outstanding published book that focuses on a facet of industrial engineering, improves education, or furthers the profession’. Engineering Decision Making and Risk Management emphasizes practical issues and examples of decision making with applications in engineering design and management Featuring a blend of theoretical and analytical aspects, this book presents multiple perspectives on decision making to better understand and improve risk management processes and decision-making systems. Engineering Decision Making and Risk Management uniquely presents and discusses three perspectives on decision making: problem solving, the decision-making process, and decision-making systems. The author highlights formal techniques for group decision making and game theory and includes numerical examples to compare and contrast different quantitative techniques. The importance of initially selecting the most appropriate decision-making process is emphasized through practical examples and applications that illustrate a variety of useful processes. Presenting an approach for modeling and improving decision-making systems, Engineering Decision Making and Risk Management also features: Theoretically sound and practical tools for decision making under uncertainty, multi-criteria decision making, group decision making, the value of information, and risk management Practical examples from both historical and current events that illustrate both good and bad decision making and risk management processes End-of-chapter exercises for readers to apply specific learning objectives and practice relevant skills A supplementary website with instructional support material, including worked solutions to the exercises, lesson plans, in-class activities, slides, and spreadsheets An excellent textbook for upper-undergraduate and graduate students, Engineering Decision Making and Risk Management is appropriate for courses on decision analysis, decision making, and risk management within the fields of engineering design, operations research, business and management science, and industrial and systems engineering. The book is also an ideal reference for academics and practitioners in business and management science, operations research, engineering design, systems engineering, applied mathematics, and statistics.




Decision Making in Systems Engineering and Management


Book Description

Decision Making in Systems Engineering and Management is a comprehensive textbook that provides a logical process and analytical techniques for fact-based decision making for the most challenging systems problems. Grounded in systems thinking and based on sound systems engineering principles, the systems decisions process (SDP) leverages multiple objective decision analysis, multiple attribute value theory, and value-focused thinking to define the problem, measure stakeholder value, design creative solutions, explore the decision trade off space in the presence of uncertainty, and structure successful solution implementation. In addition to classical systems engineering problems, this approach has been successfully applied to a wide range of challenges including personnel recruiting, retention, and management; strategic policy analysis; facilities design and management; resource allocation; information assurance; security systems design; and other settings whose structure can be conceptualized as a system.




Principles of Economics and Management for Manufacturing Engineering


Book Description

Principles of Economics and Management for Manufacturing Engineering combines key engineering economics principles and applications in one easy to use reference. Engineers, including design, mechanical, and manufacturing engineers are frequently involved in economics-related decisions, whether directly when selecting materials or indirectly when managers make order quantity decisions based on their work. Having a knowledge of the management and economic activities that touch on engineering work is a core part of most foundational engineering qualifications and becomes even more important in industry. Covering a wide range of management and economic topics from the point-of-view of an engineer in industry, this reference provides everything needed to understand the commercial context of engineering work. - Covers the full range of basic economic concepts as well as engineering economics topics - Includes end of chapter questions and chapter summaries that make this an ideal self-study resource - Provides step-by-step instructions for cost accounting for engineers




Financial Decision-Making for Engineers


Book Description

10.2.2 Individual decision-making skills -- 10.2.3 Group decision-making skills -- 10.2.4 Organizational-level attributes -- 10.3 Case studies to explore in teams -- 10.4 Case A: The team that wasn't -- 10.4.1 Background -- 10.4.2 Grand challenge -- 10.5 Case B: Disruptive innovation at Tonowanda -- 10.5.1 Background -- 10.5.2 Grand challenge -- 10.6 Case C: Die Cast Testing -- 10.6.1 Background -- 10.6.2 Grand challenge -- 10.7 Case D: Welcome to FR4 -- 10.7.1 Background -- 10.7.2 Grand challenge -- A: Problems and Problem-Solving -- A.1 Design process analogy -- A.2 Two basic categories of problems -- A.3 Organizational form -- A.4 Problem solution outcomes -- B: Mechanics of Accounting -- B.1 Learning objectives -- B.2 Accounting to support financial statements -- B.2.1 T-accounts -- B.2.2 Chart of accounts -- B.2.3 General journal -- B.2.4 General ledger -- B.2.5 Adjusting entries -- B.3 Problems to explore -- C: Reference Tables -- D: Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W




Decision Making in Engineering Design


Book Description

Whether you are an engineer facing decisions in product design, an instructor or student engaged in course work, or a researcher exploring new options and opportunities, you can turn to Decision Making in Engineering Design for: Foundations and fundamentals of making decisions in product design; Clear examples of effective application of Decision-Based Design; State-of-the-art theory and practice in Decision-Based Design; Thoughtful insights on validation, uncertainty, preferences, distributed design, demand modeling, and other issues; End-of-chapter exercise problems to facilitate learning. With this advanced text, you become current with research results on DBD developed since the inception of The Open Workshop on Decision-Based Design, a project funded by the National Science Foundation.




Performance Measurement and Management for Engineers


Book Description

Performance Measurement and Management for Engineers introduces key concepts in finance, accounting, and management to project managers who have engineering backgrounds. It focuses these basic concepts on issues of measuring and managing enterprise value. Thus, after defining enterprise value, the book begins by explaining the ways and means of measurement. It then takes up financial measurement, describing and analyzing the typologies of financial indicators while illustrating their advantages and disadvantages. After focusing on measuring enterprise value, the second section takes up managing that value. Like the first, it pursues a double view: using indicators for internal control while employing them to analyze other companies. If engineering project managers possess a source of quantitative and qualitative information about business management, Performance Measurement and Management for Engineers will help them increase their contributions to the business. - Explains how main performance indicators are related to the value of the company - Reveals how to assess the financial needs of companies in relation to their financial goals and mechanisms (e.g., equity, debt, and hybrid) - Describes key information and indicators for assessing the ability of enterprises to create value across time - Indicates the profitability sources of different business units




101 Things I Learned® in Engineering School


Book Description

Providing unique, accessible lessons on engineering, this title in the bestselling 101 Things I Learned® series is a perfect resource for students, recent graduates, general readers, and even seasoned professionals. An experienced civil engineer presents the physics and fundamentals underlying the many fields of engineering. Far from a dry, nuts-and-bolts exposition, 101 Things I Learned® in Engineering School uses real-world examples to show how the engineer's way of thinking can illuminate questions from the simple to the profound: Why shouldn't soldiers march across a bridge? Why do buildings want to float and cars want to fly? What is the difference between thinking systemically and thinking systematically? This informative resource will appeal to students, general readers, and even experienced engineers, who will discover within many provocative insights into familiar principles.




The Manager's Path


Book Description

Managing people is difficult wherever you work. But in the tech industry, where management is also a technical discipline, the learning curve can be brutal—especially when there are few tools, texts, and frameworks to help you. In this practical guide, author Camille Fournier (tech lead turned CTO) takes you through each stage in the journey from engineer to technical manager. From mentoring interns to working with senior staff, you’ll get actionable advice for approaching various obstacles in your path. This book is ideal whether you’re a new manager, a mentor, or a more experienced leader looking for fresh advice. Pick up this book and learn how to become a better manager and leader in your organization. Begin by exploring what you expect from a manager Understand what it takes to be a good mentor, and a good tech lead Learn how to manage individual members while remaining focused on the entire team Understand how to manage yourself and avoid common pitfalls that challenge many leaders Manage multiple teams and learn how to manage managers Learn how to build and bootstrap a unifying culture in teams




Engineering Project Management


Book Description

A hands-on guide for creating a winning engineering project Engineering Project Management is a practical, step-by-step guide to project management for engineers. The author – a successful, long-time practicing engineering project manager – describes the techniques and strategies for creating a successful engineering project. The book introduces engineering projects and their management, and then proceeds stage-by-stage through the engineering life-cycle project, from requirements, implementation, to phase-out. The book offers information for understanding the needs of the end user of a product and other stakeholders associated with a project, and is full of techniques based on real, hands-on management of engineering projects. The book starts by explaining how we perform the actual engineering on projects; the techniques for project management contained in the rest of the book use those engineering methods to create superior management techniques. Every topic – from developing a work-breakdown structure and an effective project plan, to creating credible predictions for schedules and costs, through monitoring the progress of your engineering project – is infused with actual engineering techniques, thereby vastly increasing the effectivity and credibility of those management techniques. The book also teaches you how to draw the right conclusions from numeric data and calculations, avoiding the mistakes that often cause managers to make incorrect decisions. The book also provides valuable insight about what the author calls the social aspects of engineering project management: aligning and motivating people, interacting successfully with your stakeholders, and many other important people-oriented topics. The book ends with a section on ethics in engineering. This important book: Offers a hands-on guide for developing and implementing a project management plan Includes background information, strategies, and techniques on project management designed for engineers Takes an easy-to-understand, step-by-step approach to project management Contains ideas for launching a project, managing large amount of software, and tips for ending a project Structured to support both undergraduate and graduate courses in engineering project management, Engineering Project Management is an essential guide for managing a successful project from the idea phase to the completion of the project.