Management Skills for Industrial Engineers - For Managing IE Projects, Department and Function

Industrial engineering moulded itself into a techno-managerial  function concerned with design, installation and improvement of human effort, work places with respect to human factors, efficient work systems (efficient utilisation of resources), and  efficient planning and control systems. Industrial engineers (IEs) also aspire to manage the design of systems, installation of systems and improvement of systems.

In their curriculums, IEs do need to have inputs regarding generic IE techniques and also inputs in various innovative solutions that IE has developed in various production and service processes. They also need inputs in the production and service processes so that they can understand the functional designs and the present state of a process to carry out efficiency evaluation and improve its efficiency.

IE curriculum also needs to have inputs to develop managerial skills in IEs in the area of managing their projects and studies to successful and fruitful completion. They need concepts and skills that help them in managing the IE departments at corporate levels as well as division and even plant level. Sometimes individual IE can be attached to a design team to make the design efficient as a part of the team.

IE is now rightly being viewed as a function to be carried out by managers, supervisors and  even operators as a part of their production or other activity. IEs need managerial skills to manage this enterprise-wide IE activity and provide specialist staff inputs to projects initiated by line managers.

"Industrial Engineer" magazine is publishing various articles on management to provide inputs in the area of management to students as well as practitioners of industrial engineering. This knol will highlight some of the articles published in the magazine apart from the ideas from IE handbooks and as well as textbooks.

Price of atrophy by Kevin McManus (IE, August 2009) highlights that skills get atrophied when not used. Managers of IE departments have to ensure that the skills of IEs are not atrophied prematurely by giving appropriate assignments to their staff members so that important skills are used periodically. 

To be continued with posting periodically.

Original knol - http://knol.google.com/k/narayana-rao/management-skills-for-industrial/2utb2lsm2k7a/ 2025

Ud. 3.12.2024

Pub. 10.4.2012

Business Transformations - Success Factors

 

Business transformations are designed to boost overall performance through increased revenue through better customer satisfaction, and  lower operating costs through total factor productivity.

https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-explainers/what-is-business-transformation

The CEO helps a transformation succeed by communicating its significance, modeling the desired changes, building a strong top team, and getting personally involved.

The chief transformation officer (CTO), a C-suite role  is the high-level orchestrator of the transformation process. The CTO should be an extension of the CEO, with the mandate and authority to make decisions about personnel, investments, and operations. The CTO may be in charge of hundreds of initiatives related to the transformation, but responsibility for making day-to-day decisions and implementing those initiatives lies with line leaders, transformation managers, and others.

Transformations with at least 7 percent of employees owning part of the transformation are twice as likely to deliver better total shareholder returns. While 7 percent may seem like a small number, even at a medium-size organization that can mean hundreds of employees.

The most successful transformations turn ideas into specific projects with detailed business plans with trackable, time-bound metrics to measure outcomes. These pilot projects  should result in value creation, cost savings, growth opportunities, and other improvements. Then they are embedded into regular commercial activities by scaling. As they succeed in the annual plan, they become part of the regular annual plans.

Many transformations are enabled by a central transformation office (TO), with the CTO at the helm. The TO  models new ways of working, and ensures that the overall program and specific work streams stay on track. It also offers a repository for leaders to get help when faced with difficulties and to develop new skills.

TO helps to ensure that the organization changes the way it works over the long term, so that the company doesn’t revert to old ways as transformation initiatives are completed.

Three core actions are especially predictive of transformations that capture the most value:

Using an objective fact base to identify opportunities for improvement. 

Communicating a compelling reason for why a transformation is necessary.

Utilizing the company’s best talent to its most crucial initiatives.

When it comes to widespread results, generous and specific financial incentives are one of the most effective tools to motivate employees. According to McKinsey analysis, companies that implemented financial incentives tied directly to transformation outcomes achieved almost a fivefold increase in total shareholder returns compared with companies without similar programs. In tandem, a well-crafted program of nonfinancial incentives is also required and can create a higher level of energy and excitement across the organization and boost employees’ discretionary efforts.

Several additional behaviors can put a transformation at risk:

Declaring victory too early.

Not establishing clarity on resources. 

Failing to refine as they go.

Marketing "Industrial Engineering"

Why industrial engineers have to study marketing management?

Industrial engineers have to study marketing because they have to market "Industrial Engineering."  Because they have to market industrial engineering services.  They can create demand for their services only by marketing them.

What is marketing? One view


Definition of American Marketing Association

Marketing (Management) is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational goals.

According to the definition marketing is applicable to ideas, goods and services. What is industrial engineering?  Is it an idea or a bundle of services? Whether it is an idea or bundle of services marketing is applicable to it.

Does industrial engineering satisfy needs, wants and goals of individuals or organization?

The answer has to be yes from you. Do you agree or not?

The definition says marketing plans the conception of the idea or service.  So to develop the idea or service of industrial engineering on an ongoing basis requires the support of marketing or marketing knowledge.

What can you get as a return for your industrial engineering services? Marketing helps you in giving an answer or getting an answer.

How do you promote industrial engineering services in your target market segment? Marketing helps you in finding the answer.

Do you know? What is the target segment of F.W. Taylor when he first presented his paper "Piece Rate System" in 1895?

How do you solicit customers for IE services? Marketing will provide the support.

Do you know there is an idea called internal marketing? How to market "industrial engineering" internally in an organization? Marketing may provide the answer.

While the above description relates to marketing "industrial engineering" services, productivity engineering has customer orientation right from the beginning. Productivity engineering has linked its growth to the marketing of goods and services and therefore productivity engineers have to understand marketing implications of their productivity efforts through interaction and interface with marketing persons.


Read in more detail

The Marketing Concept - Kotler
Marketing Management Revision Article Series

Management Module for Industrial Engineers

The management module to be taught to IE students must have the following components.

Management of Industrial Engineering Projects

Customer interaction
Project Plan
Project organization
Project Staffing
Execution and Direction
Project Control


Management of IE Department


Transition from Industrial Engineering Manager to Operating Managers



Becoming a Profit Center Manager


Becoming a CEO

Line has to keep Staff Informed and Staff Has to Keep Abreast of Relevant Context - Application to Industrial Engineering

Koontz and O'Donnell, authors of the famous and popular management text, Principles of Management devoted a chapter to the working of staff specialist in their book. It shows the importance of staff specialists in the management process.

They advocated the practice of keeping staff informed. Line has to keep its staff informed of various events in the organization so that when their help is sought, they are in the know of things and do not take up a problem as people without knowledge of the organization issues. Line managers have to continuously communicate to its staff the relevant information of events happening in the organization.

Staff also have the responsibility of knowing proactively what is happening in the organization so that when required they can apply their special tools of analysis on company specific processes. So staff have to update their discipline tools as well as organization processes.

What does it mean for industrial engineering practice?

As an organization adopts new technology, business processes or managerial processes, it has to inform its industrial engineers and train them also in these new processes. Industrial engineers have to take interest and learn relevant aspects of these new processes so that they industrial-engineer these processes as and when their services are sought for redesigning the new processes.


An interesting comment on the note by Scott Sink in Linkedin Community

Scott

Scott Sink

Executive Director, Integrated LeanSigma Certification, College of Engineering, ISE, Ohio State University

Narayna, I know Koontz and O'Donnell well. I'd suggest you read a seminal piece of work by James Thompson, Organizations in Action. and that you think about types of technology and interdependencies. In general, I think that communication to ensure coordination is valuable, absolutely. And at same time it depends on the level and type of interdependency.

Industrial Engineering is a Management Function

Authors

• Narayana Rao

Published

All Rights Reserved

Version 4

Last edited: 04 Mar 2010

Exported: 26 Nov 2011

Original URL: http://knol.google.com/k/-/-/2utb2lsm2k7a/2353

Industrial engineering (IE) discipline emerged out of the involvement of engineers in management of engineering departments. It is management function. Within the management functions its focus is on the design of work done by operators and improvement of efficiency of systems and processes.

In certain companies, IE department was made a part of management services department which was appropriate. Management accounting, Management controls, Management audit, Industrial engineering and some more such similar functions can be organized under management services departments. Such a departmentation clearly recognizes that these sections or functions are functions of management assisting management in planning, organizing and directing resources.

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Management Services Departments

http://dms.myflorida.com/

http://www.msd.gov.bn/  (Malaysia)

http://www.ci.burbank.ca.us/index.aspx?page=218 (City of burbank)

Management Services Department, Government of Uganda
http://www.publicservice.go.ug/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=64&Itemid=122


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Management services department seems to be in existence in many government departments and industrial engineering is mentioned as a service in some of these departments. It is worth collecting some more links to management service departments and examine the activities of them and the role of IE in them.

Comments

Srinivas M, Student NITIE

Sir, I am sure that all Industrial Engineers will know their fit in the industry.Sir Please elaborate on why Industrial engineers are recruited across the board in differrent roles the industry.

Anonymous - 11 Sep 2010

You mean central government and state government jobs.

In Railways there are work study departments.
In defence also there is work study activity.
In office work there are O&M departments.

Narayana Rao - 11 Sep 2010

Sir, as IE is widely used in all sectors why there is a deficiency of government sectors job for IE graduates ?

Adarsh Malu - 11 Sep 2010

The demand is those departments is high and supply of persons in those disciplines is less.

I personally feel, IE discipline has not clarified its tool kit properly and then trained its graduates intensively in the tool kit. Hence many IEs are drifting into departments they understand better instead of IE which they do not understand adequately. They are also not trained adequately.

The opinion is controversial and we may need to do a survey on this opinion. If you and Devendra come forward we can take up a survey on our students regarding their assessment of IE and their preference for careers and the reasons for that preference.

Narayana Rao - 22 Aug 2010

Management and Industrial Engineering

Industrial Engineering (IE) is a service to management and MBA curriculums must include IE as a subject to appreciate its role in proper management of the organizations.
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Management Definition

Management of an organization is the process of establishing objectives and goals of the organization periodically, designing the work system and the organization structure, and maintaining an environment in which individuals, working together in groups, accomplish their aims and objectives and goals of the organization effectively and efficiently (Narayana Rao).

The above definition was developed by me by modifying the definition given by Koontz and O'Donnell.

The definition implies the following.

(i) Management is a process.
(ii) Management applies to every kind of organization, government, profit making, or nonprofit making.
(iii) It applies to managers at all levels in the organization.
(iv) Management is concerned with effectiveness and efficiency.

Effectiveness and efficiency when combined are explained as productivity by Koontz and O'Donnell.

 

Weihrich and Koontz defined Management and explained it as follows in the tenth edition of their book Management: A Global Perspective (p.4).

 

"Management is the process of designing and maintaining an environment in which individuals, working together in groups, efficiently and accomplish selected aims." This definition needs to be expanded:

 

1. As managers, people carry out the managerial functions of planning, organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling.

2. Management applies to any kind of organization.

3. It applies to managers at all organizational levels.

4. The aim of all managers is the same: to create a surplus.

5. Managing is concerned with productivity; this implies effectiveness and efficiency.

Industrial engineering is a discipline that evolved out of the involvement of engineers in managing engineering departments of enterprises. Frederick Taylor and Frank Gilbreth are pioneers of this branch - which is a hybrid  of engineering and management and  is a service to management.

Narayana Rao defined industrial engineering as: "Industrial Engineering is Human Effort Engineering and System Efficiency Engineering. It is an engineering discipline that deals with the design of human effort and system efficiency in all occupations: agricultural, manufacturing and service. The objectives of Industrial Engineering are optimization of productivity of work-systems and occupational comfort, health, safety and income of persons involved." (  Industrial Engineering )

The statement "Industrial Engineering is Human Effort Engineering and System Efficiency Engineering" appeared in the Industrial Engineer (March 2010 issue), magazine of Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE), which is the global association of Productivity and Efficiency professionals.

When both the definitions are examined together, one can easily conclude that industrial engineering is a service to management focusing on the efficiency aspect, which is a function of the management. Managers whenever they require a specialist looking after efficiency, in the division of labor based work organization, employ the services of industrial engineers.

Industrial engineering techniques and tools build efficiency into systems. Production management texts do cover some of the techniques of industrial engineering. Design professionals get some inputs in value engineering. A better system would be to introduce a course on industrial engineering in business curriculums so that business school graduates understand the profession and discipline of industrial engineering appropriately and make use of the services of IE departments in various functions of management.

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Bibliography

Industrial Engineering
Industrial Engineering - Knols of Narayana Rao K V S S


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Original knol - http://knol.google.com/k/narayana-rao/management-and-industrial-engineering/ 2utb2lsm2k7a/ 2380