Running Head: MEM 6110 ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT I
MidTerm Exam
Jose E. Ferrer
MEM 6110 Engineering Management I
Polytechnic University
Jose O. Rivera-Rivera, Ph. D., Candidate
March 27th, 2018
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MEM 6110 ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT I
Mid Term Exam
1._ Explain what engineering management is. What skills do engineering managers need to
be effective in the new millennium?
Engineering management is a complete human process developed by professionals with skills
and techniques, to support the operations of a system. The people responsible for the engineering
management needs to engage tasks that focus the management of business operations, stimulates
the human resources factor, create marketing techniques, and research new technologies and
development models.
The required skills among engineering managers are, but not limited to:
Technological control over tools to control projects in order to minimize mistakes, raise profit
percentage and deliver the product on time without problems.
Leadership in the team but not over the team. Nowadays is a priority to show control over a team
by having great leadership skills.
Knowledge of the process and constant research and development in the business area.
Innovation, networking, use of social media, communications and conflictive solutionist.
Able to create subteams and demonstrate how the goals can be achieved with less use of energy,
time, and expenses.
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MEM 6110 ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT I
2._ Describe each of the three strategic planning methods discussed in ithe textbook. What
are the purposes and advantages of each?
Based on data collected from transactions done in the past, the managers use economic principles
in order to make a deduction for a specific situation and take balanced conclusions. The main
purpose is to determine based on a deduction following market tendencies for a product, and it is
very useful for growth industries.
The well-known trial and error. Every human being tries to trial and error at some point in its
life. The purpose of this planning method is to determine what option is good enough, what are
the hidden pros and cons of a specific product or situation. It can be tested on several activities
and the results will give an exact conclusion of options to take.
Managers need decision-making skills and abilities in order to progress well into their planning
phase. Analogies tend to create a similar situation, a new situation applied if the conditions met.
An analogy can be created fast, but the conditions to use this planning method must be clear and
almost perfect.
3._ Why is product life cycle analysis so important? Describe the four stages of a product's
life cycle an d identify some of the tools used for operational planning.
When a product life-cycle analysis is done properly, it will help products update and new
products to be developed and launch by the company at the exact and perfect time in order to
maintain the profit created by this product into the company.
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MEM 6110 ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT I
The stages of a product's life cycle are initiation, where the product is presented to the market
and customers start to know the product.
Growth, when the product becomes an effective market target for acquisition and continues to
generate profit for the company.
Market saturation is the phase of a product life cycle where the product number is stock in the
number of production versus sales. At this time, the company should know that the product needs
a major update or a better product.
And decline, where the sales volume for the product decreases and it becomes a loss for the
company. The product is no longer competitive in the market and/or against other firms.
Operational planning tools might be included but not limited to CPM and PERT, Microsoft
Project, QuickBase, Enterprise Project Management and Basecamp3.
4._ Explain the differences between functional, discipline-based, product, region-based,
matrix, team, and network organization.
Basically developing an organizational structure it will always help to reach the goals and better
results within a company. The difference between the organizational structure will depend on the
company service, technical, management, and operational factors. Companies large enough, like
Epson, might use different types of organizational structure in order to achieve the mission and
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MEM 6110 ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT I
goals of the company in different departments. Companies like Amway are based on a network
organization in order to reach far horizons into their own organization and control their best
assets. A construction company will work better under a Team organization for job sites projects
than a product/region-based organization, but when it comes to operating in different countries
they might have to switch or create another department that works under a region-based
organization. It is not the same applying a discipline-based organization to a storage company,
instead of applying a functional organization or a team organization.
5._ Why is planning a major function for engineering management?
Under the planning phase, in engineering management, the accomplishment of goals into
a company depends on generating plans for the future and applying immediate operational plans
to assure wellness for the company at every occasion.
6._ Explain what cross-functional teams are. What are the advantages of using crossfunctional teams for an organization?
There are too many good reasons to use cross-functional teams, and the first one is the diversity
that a cross-functional team represent itself. It will bring people into the team from different
areas or departments like accounting, marketing, engineering, human resources, mechanical, it
depends on the company activity. These teams may work and have the power to work as a whole
to maintain a company main mission, vision, and goals, or may work as separate departments
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MEM 6110 ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT I
without stopping being a cross-functional team. Many organizations use cross-functional teams
without knowing it, but they lack leadership and organization, turning these teams in just simple
and conventional workforce teams.
7._ Discuss the concept of delegating and it benefits to an organization.
Delegating is one of the most powerful organizing tools in engineering management. By divide
tasks into subtasks and activities, the engineering manager has more control and time to continue
planning for the present and the future. The benefits of delegating stands over the cons of this
activity. There is a major chance of dividing the tasks effectively among all the team players, the
acquisition of leadership techniques for the supervisors and managers, enhance time scheduling
in the involved departments, promotes team interaction, provides increased communication
among team players, and promote growth for the chain of command into the organization.
8._ Explain why technology forecasting is critical for organizations in the New Millenium.
Organizations in the New Millenium are involved with the day off tomorrows technology.
Technology forecasting will be the first tool in planning for a company under this circumstances.
The operations, the information, the raw materials that use for their production and all the final
products that are tied to the everyday review of a thousand customers, people that invest hours
into the internet, to talk about a technological advance that this company is providing with this
new product or new update. The market is vast and the products from other companies are on a
day-by-day run after the best quality and quantity production using technology forecasting to
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MEM 6110 ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT I
foresee what will be the next step to get to thousands of consumers that will like a new
technological advance product.
9._ Explain why engineering managers need to learn how to effectively resolve conflicts.
Elaborate on some key conflict resolution techniques that engineering managers could use
in the workplace.
Conflicts are very difficult to evade. Engineering managers should have skills on how to
effectively resolve conflicts on time, to prevent different types of loss. Conflicts will happen and
it will be good to be ready because nobody knows when a conflict may arise. In different
scenarios, key conflict solution techniques involve dominance, compromise, and
collaboration. This process need always to try a win-win solution, however, a conflict could end
against one opinion or another one. Managers always have to encourage common sense, respect,
communication and commitment to the company, leaving behind personal matters, not to
mention religious, political, or critical thinking biases.
10._ Why is organizing a critical function for engineering management?
Managers need to make decisions, based on organization, on critical times and paths. Managers
need to know resources, that can be obtained because of the organization. Managers need to
know tasks and goals of the company, that can be decided after the organization process occurs.
It is important that organizing be accurate in order to help the engineering management to work
properly, efficiently and on time. With the right organization, a manager has the power to the
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MEM 6110 ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT I
knowledge and can continue assembling teams in order to assign responsibilities to get the job
done easier, faster and in an organized way. An engineer manager lacking of the skills to
organize a company is a short-term job position.
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MEM 6110 ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT I
References
Chang, C. M. (2016). Engineering Management (2 ed.) (pp. 23-47). CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL:
Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
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MEM 6110
Engineering Management I
Final Exam
1. What are the five needs that comprise Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs? How might this
hierarchy be useful for engineering managers?
After reading Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs by Saul McLeod, updated May 21, 2018
at https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html I can say that Maslow's human needs
are the following:





Self-actualization: Es en pocas palabras un deseo de "llegar a ser todo lo que uno es
capaz de ser" (Maslow, 1987, page 64).
Esteem needs: This need is defined in two, one is the esteem for oneself that
includes domination and independence, and the second is the desire for respect on the part
of other people that is nothing more than status and self-esteem.
Belongingness and love needs: After the basic needs for the survival of the human
being, it could be said that this is one of the following in importance along with the need for
security, this is because every human being needs to socialize and this implies that it
involves feelings especially In interpersonal relationships is to say friendships, intimate
relationships are very important for a person.
Safety needs: Feel the necessary protection to not feel fear
Physiological needs. This is shaped by the basic requirements necessary for human survival
(food, drink, clothing, among other things). This is because if these needs are not met the human body
could not work and that is why this need is considered the most important and thanks to this when you
read about Maslow you will find it at the base of the pyramid as many they describe it or always first on
the list.
Thanks to this hierarchy, engineering directors have an easier way to understand the needs of the human
being and how to use each one of them for the welfare of their employees and workplace.
2. Explain what motivation is. Why engineering managers need to be concerned about it?
According to the business dictionary on its website
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/motivation.html define the
motivation as the internal and external factors that stimulate the desire and
energy in people to continually stay interested and committed to your work, role,
or some topic, or make the effort to achieve an objective.
In summary, I could say that the motivation It is the force that inspires you to do
everything that you propose in your life, that is why engineering managers must
do everything to keep their employees motivated and so they can always get
good results from them. A good way to motivate employees is by offering a
reward that is of interest to them.
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3. Benchmarking is accomplished with a set of performance metrics that are used to study the
competitor’s best practices in order to include them in your organization strategies. List and
describe at least 10 performance metrics used in this process.
Based on the list listed by C. M. Chang on page 124 of his book Engineering Management
published in 2016, he named 10 performance metrics used in this benchmarking process:
1. ROI: Are the acronyms used for return on investment, is the most used profitability ratio in the
market and to obtain the ROI, the net profit is divided among the total assets of the company.
2. ROA: Are the acronyms used to return on assets, It is the net income of the company divided
by the total assets that it owns, with this the percentage of profit it has in relation with the
resources it has been expressed.
3. Profit per unit of production: Is the profit obtained for each product sold, for this you must
first calculate the value of the product and then subtract the value at which it is sold and the
value obtained is what is called profit per unit of production.
4. Break-even volume: is the total amount of products that must be sold to be in what many
people also call point 0 after selling that amount is when they start to have profits, for example if
your break even point is when you sell 20 units, what that means that number 21 is when the
profits begin, before that only the necessary expenses for the production were obtained.
5. Debt-to-equity ratio: this indicates the relative share of shareholder capital and the debt used
to finance the assets of a company.
6. Sales per employees: It is used to identify the efficiency with which the company generates
income through its personnel.
7. Number of inventory turns each year: This depends on the amount of sales you have, is
usually done once or twice in a year to know if there are losses, as well as if you have larger
quantities of products compared to the sales they have.
8. Assembly process used in production: It is a process in which it is manufactured in sequence,
each person that works in the production line is stably followed by the other in a position where
it will always perform the same step, during this type of production process what is the product
from one person to the other or from one machine to another.
9. ROS: Are the acronyms used to return on sales, it is used for the evaluation of the operational
performance of the company, here the profit is obtained for each sale made.
10. work in process in the plant: it is all that is in the process or production line, that is,
everything that came out of the initial inventory but is not yet accounted for as a final product or
is not part of the finished product inventory
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4. Solve the following problem: You borrow $200 from a family member and agree to pay it back in
six months. Because you are part of the family, you are only being charged simple interest at the
rate of 1% per month. How much you will owe after six months? How much of this is interest?
Future Value (FV)= Present Value(PV) + (PV * interest rate (i) * period of tine(n))
PV= $ 200
i= 1% = 0.01
n= 6
FV=200+( 200*0.01*6 )
FV= 200+12
FV= 212
after 6 month you will owe $ 212.
i= FV ­ PV
i= $ 212 ­ $ 200
i= $ 12
you going to pay $12 in interest.
5. Solve the following problem: A laser surgical tool has a cost of $200,000 and a five-year
depreciable life. The estimated salvage value of the laser is $20,000 at the end of five years.
Determine the annual depreciation amounts using the Straight-Line Depreciation Method.
Tabulate the annual depreciation amounts and the book value of the laser at the end of each
year.
annual depreciation = (Initial cost - salvage value) / depreciable life
annual depreciation = ($ 200,000 - $ 20,000) / 5
annual depreciation = $ 180,000 / 5
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annual depreciation = $ 36,000
Years
0
1
2
3
annual depreciation
0
$ 36,000
$ 36,000
$ 36,000
accumulated annual depreciation
0
$ 36,000
$ 72,000
$ 108,000
Net cost
$ 200,000
$ 164,000
$ 128,000
$ 92,000
4
$ 36,000
$ 144,000
$ 56,000
5
$ 36,000
$ 180,000
$ 20,000
6. Explain how balance sheets and income statements are used to express the status of a company
at any given time. What do they communicate?
After reading The Purpose of a Balance Sheet & Income Statementby Laurie Brenner at
the following website http://smallbusiness.chron.com/purpose­balance­sheet­income­
statement­61847.html, I can say that the balance sheet is used to obtain the financial
balance of the company, that is to say that in it you can find all the passive and active
assets that the company owns, as well as all the debts that it may have. It is also used
to know the accounting capital that is left to each of the partners or owners of the
company, to obtain this information you should only do a small calculation that consists
of subtracting the passive assets minus the active assets that the company owns, while
income statements are used to obtain the company's profitability during a specific period
of time, normally these periods are defined by the company and this can vary between
one company and another, that is, it is not stipulated by law, The income statement is
also used to know if the company was profitable or not during that period that is
indicated, for this the difference between the income and expenditures during the period
is calculated.
In summary, the real use for these two documents is that the person in charge is the
manager can analyze them and based on them make the necessary changes to
increase profits and if the company needs a loan, the lender will analyze these financial
statements to take the final decision.
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