Management Concepts - 2019 entry

As engineering students, becoming engineering managers may not be your final objective of your career development but will be a milestone during your career life after graduation. In this sense, a sound knowledge base with good understandings of both mature and advanced management methods and tools is an important quality driver for you to effectively manage and control an engineering project or company. This module will provide you with such a knowledge base, as well as standing you in good stead should you aspire to an engineering management position in the future.

In this module, we will lead you to the interior of a manufacturing/engineering company so as to provide you with a working knowledge base, by which you can easily realise and locate where you are working, what you are working for, how you can work effectively, and who you can liaise with in your work. This knowledge base includes organisational structure, business functions and processes, strategic management, operations management, total quality management, and methods and practices for business operations. Furthermore, you will have the invaluable opportunity to learn about essentials of human resource management, as well as the legal framework in which business operates.

By the end of this module, you should have a strong and comprehensive grasp of manufacturing/engineering business functions, processes and operations, understand why a good strategy is vital for such businesses and how to operate a business towards a well-defined strategy consistently. You will be equipped with the knowledge and attributes of total quality and be competent to apply appropriate methods to proactively identify potential quality problems within a business and use relevant tools to make continuous improvement. Furthermore, you will have strengthened communication and presentation skills and gain practical experience of stacks.

This module is designed for potential engineering managers and leaders, aiming to provide you with a knowledge base equipped with comprehensive engineering business management methods and practices so as to stand you in good stead should you aspire to an engineering management position in the future. When participating in or leading the management and control of an engineering company, we expect you to be able to use this knowledge base to understand the business natures, functions and processes, define appropriate strategy for business development, design and control business operations by using relevant management methods to achieve the strategy, and apply appropriate management concepts and tools to continuously improve your business operations and hence performance and competitiveness.

This is a constituent module of one or more degree programmes which are accredited by a professional engineering institution under licence from the Engineering
Council. The learning outcomes for this module have been mapped to the output standards required for an accredited programme, as listed in the current version
of the Engineering Council’s ‘Accreditation of Higher Education Programmes’ document (AHEP-V3).

This module contributes to learning outcomes: SM1m, SM2m, SM6m, SM1fl, SM3fl, EA6m, EA3fl, ET1m, ET2m, ET3m, ET5m, ET7m, ET1fl, ET2fl, ET3fl, ET5fl, EP1m, EP4m, EP5m, EP7m, EP11m, EP4fl, G1m, G4m, G1fl, G4fl

A full list of the referenced outcomes is provided online: http://intranet.exeter.ac.uk/emps/subjects/engineering/accreditation/

The AHEP document can be viewed in full on the Engineering Council’s website, at http://www.engc.org.uk/

On successful completion of this module, you should be able to:

Module Specific Skills and Knowledge: SM1m, SM2m, SM6m, SM1fl, SM3fl, EA6m, EA3fl, ET1m, ET2m, ET3m, ET7m, ET1fl ET2fl, ET3fl, EP1m, EP7m, EP11m, EP4fl
 

1. Understand the various business types and typical organisational structures.

2. Appreciate corporate strategy and its management and realise why strategy is vital for manufacturing organisations in sustaining competitiveness.

3. Grasp the key business functions and processes and be able to IDEF0 tool to depict a business process flow and its hierarchy.

4. Understand operations management, including what business functions are directly concerned with operations management and what decisions are mainly involved in operations management.

5. Comprehensively understand the principles of Total Quality Management (TQM) and be able to apply the TQM methods and tools to identify and locate existing and potential problems within a manufacturing system so as to achieve continuous improvement.

6. Comprehend Statistical Process Control (SPC) and be able to apply SPC tools, e.g., control charts and process capability ratio, to monitor and evaluate a business process.

7. Appreciate the principles of Human Resource Management (HRM) and know the procedures of labour recruitment, selection, reward and motivation.

Discipline specific skills and knowledge: ET1m, ET1fl, ET5m, ET5fl, EP4m, and EP5m

8. Have a thorough understanding about employment law matters and know where to find further information.
 

Personal and key transferable/employment skills and knowledge: G1m, G4m, G1fl, G4fl

9. Apply enhanced problem solving ability

10. Develop communication skills

11. Demonstrate report writing skills, project management and organizational skills.

Introduction to companies and organisational structure

Corporate strategy and strategic management

Operations Management

Business functions and introduction to operations management

Business processes

Technology and society

Introduction to TQM

TQM approaches and tools

Introduction to SPC, control charts and process capability

Introduction to HRM and major procedures in recruitment, selection, contracts and motivation in HRM

Performance management in HRM and employment laws and discrimination

If a module is normally assessed entirely by coursework, all referred/deferred assessments will normally be by assignment.

If a module is normally assessed by examination or examination plus coursework, referred and deferred assessment will normally be by examination. For referrals, only the examination will count, a mark of 50% being awarded if the examination is passed. For deferrals, candidates will be awarded the higher of the deferred examination mark or the deferred examination mark combined with the original coursework mark.

Basic reading:

ELE: http://vle.exeter.ac.uk

Web based and Electronic Resources:

Other Resources:

Reading list for this module: