Week 6
Week 6
University
N. Bacalso Avenue, Cebu City, Philippines COLLEGE
OF ENGINEERING AND ARCHITECTURE
Department of Industrial Engineering
COURSEWARE
ES034 | ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT
Week 6
Do you still remember the management process and managerial functions being covered in
Week 1? Can you name the first managerial function? If you can, you are set for Week 4!
For this week, we will cover the first managerial function. We will cover the importance of this
managerial function in an organization and even our personal lives. Also, we’ll get to know some
of the tools that will aid an organization in executing this first managerial function.
Sharing to you an ideal study guide that will help you through the week.
Again, if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me!
I hope you will enjoy and learn so much for this week! ☺
When it comes to planning, one of the first things that may come to mind is time. It is one of our most
precious resources and time management is an essential career skill. Some 77% of managers in one
survey said that the new digital age has increased the number of decisions they have to make. Not too
surprising perhaps. But what about this?
Forty-three percent said there was less time available to make these decisions.
And, who hasn’t complained or heard others complain “there’s just not enough hours in the day to get
everything done”? Don’t you wonder about the time you waste every day? —instant messages, voice
and text messages, drop in visitors, and more? Of course, you have to be careful in defining waste. It
isn’t a waste of time to occasionally relax, take a breather from work or daily affairs, and find humor and
pleasure in social interactions. Breaks help us gather and replenish energies. It is a waste to let
friends dominate your time so that you don’t work on a term paper until it is too late to write a really good
one, or delay a decision to apply for an internship until the deadline is passed.
Now, let’s have a quick check up on how well you manage your time. List down what is asked in the
following:
WHAT IS PLANNING?
Does it make sense to plan in a world typified by rapid and dramatic change? The answer is a resounding
“yes!”
✓ Planning programs identify what the organization wants to accomplish and how.
✓ Planning is a process that helps managers set objectives for the future and map out the activities
and means that will make it possible to achieve those objectives.
There are both formal and informal planning processes. Most organizational leaders prefer to develop a
formal written statement of future objectives and the approaches to reach them. The document can then
be shared with those responsible for the execution of the plan, thereby reducing ambiguities and creating
a common understanding. The written plan can be adjusted as necessary.
As shown in the figure below, there are four key elements to a plan: objectives, actions, resources, and
implementation.
Actions are the specific steps the firm intends to take to achieve the desired objectives. Example, return on
investment may be increased by downsizing, subcontracting some of the work, decreasing inventories, using
technology to increase productivity, or developing new products.
Planned actions cannot be carried out effectively without careful resource allocation. It is also the planning
step that determines where the resources will come from (for instance, borrowing versus internally generated
funds) and how the resources will be deployed to achieve the agreed-on objectives.
Finally, plans must be accompanied by implementation guidelines that show how the intended actions will
be carried out. Implementation involves dividing tasks among the different actors, specifying reporting
relationships, and establishing timelines.
The management process involves planning, organizing, leading, and controlling the use of resources
to achieve performance objectives.
The first of these functions, planning, sets the stage for the others by providing a sense of direction. It is a
process of setting objectives and determining how best to accomplish them.
Importance of Planning
When planning is done well it creates a solid platform for the other management functions. It helps with
organizing—allocating and arranging resources to accomplish tasks, leading—guiding the efforts of human
resources to ensure high levels of task accomplishment, and controlling—monitoring task accomplishments
and taking necessary corrective action.
Good planning makes organization (1) action oriented—keeping a results driven sense of direction; (2)
priority oriented—making sure the most important things get first attention; (3) Advantage oriented—
ensuring that all resources are used to best advantage; (4) Change oriented—anticipating problems and
opportunities so they can be best dealt with.
Planning at various management levels
1. Top management level – strategic planning
2. Middle management level – intermediate planning
3. Lower management level – operational planning
Strategic Planning
The term strategic planning refers to the process of determining the major goals of the organization and the
policies and strategies for obtaining and using resources to achieve those goals. Strategic plans outline the
firm's long-range (two to five years) organizational goals and set a course of action the firm will pursue to
reach its goals.
Intermediate Planning/Tactical Planning
Tactical action plans are developed at the division or department level. They specify the activities that must
be performed, when they must be completed, and the resources a division or department will need to
complete the portions of the strategic action plan under its purview. The primary criterion of effectiveness
for tactical action plans is the extent to which they contribute to the achievement of the company’s strategic
objectives. Tactical plans typically focus on departmental goals and cover a period of one to three years.
2. Developing strategies or tactics to reach goals - After determining the goals, the next task is to
devise some means to realize them. The ways to realize the goals are called strategies and these
will be the concern of top management. The middle and lower management will adapt their own
tactics to implement their plans. A strategy may be defined as "a course of action aimed at ensuring
that the organization will achieve its objectives." A tactic is a short-term action taken by
management to adjust to negative internal or external influences.
3. Determining Resources Needed – when the strategies or tactics have been devised, the engineer
manager will then determine the human and nonhuman resources required by such strategies or
tactics. To satisfy strategic requirements, a general statement of needed resources will suffice.
4. Setting standards – The standards for measuring performance may be set at the planning stage.
When actual performance does not match with the planned performance, corrections may be made
or reinforcements given. A standard may be defined as "a quantitative or qualitative measuring
device designed to help monitor the performances of people, capital goods, or processes."
TYPES OF PLANS
Plans are of different types. They may be classified in terms of functional areas, time and frequency of use.
Functional Area Plans
1. Marketing plan— this is the written document or blueprint for implementing and controlling an
organization's marketing activities related to a particular marketing strategy."
2. Production plan — this is a written document that states the quantity of output a company must
produce in broad terms and by product family.
2. Single-Use Plans. These plans are specifically developed to implement courses of action that are
relatively unique and are unlikely to be repeated. Single-use plans may be further classified as
follows:
a. Budget - according to Weston and Brigham, is "a plan which sets forth the projected expenses
for a certain activity and explains where the required funds will come from”.
b. Program - is a single-use plan designed to coordinate a large set of activities
c. Project - is a single-use plan that is usually more limited in scope than a program and is
sometimes pre-pared to support a program.
2. Mission Statements
Mission Statements are “enduring statements of purpose that distinguish one business from other
similar firms. A mission statement identifies the scope of a firm’s operations in product and market
terms.” It addresses the basic question that faces all strategists: “What is our business?”.
Mission statements helps managers inspire the support and respect of an organization’s
stakeholders. These are individuals and groups—including customers, shareholders, employees,
suppliers, creditors, community groups, and others—who are directly affected by the organization
and its accomplishments.
Figure below gives an example of how stakeholder interests can be linked with the mission of a
business firm.
Organizational values and culture should be analyzed in the strategic management process to
determine how well they align with the mission. Core values are broad beliefs about what is or is
not appropriate behavior.
The presence of core values helps build a clear organizational identity. It gives the organization a
sense of character as seen through the eyes of employees and external stakeholders. This
character is part of what we call the organizational culture or predominant value system of the
organization as a whole. A clear and strong organizational culture helps guide the behavior of
organization members in ways consistent with mission and core values.
4. Goals
1. Evaluate the Vision Statement of CIT – University through identifying a phrase from the Vision Statement that
clearly depicts the what the organization would like to achieve in the future.
2. Evaluate the Mission Statement of CIT –University through identifying a phrase from the Mission Statement that
highlights any of the stakeholder.
3. As a Technologian, what are your concrete actions showing that you truly inhibit each of the core values?
The following example will be used in making the Network Diagram, Critical Path Method and Gantt Chart.
Company ABC has an upcoming seminar to conduct in a specific barangay in Cebu City with the following
activity table. Create the network diagram, identify the critical path and Gantt chart. Project start date is on
January 8, 2020 exclusive of Sundays.
Activity Description Precedent Activity Time Estimates
A Project Team Planning NONE 2
B Consultation with Barangay Officials A 1
C Reservation of Guest Speakers A 2
D Estimation of Materials & Equipment Expenses B 1
E Fund Raising C, D 3
F Canvassing and Procurement of Materials E 1
G Renting of Sound Equipment E 1
H Printing of Certificates and Program F 1
I Information Dissemination G, H 3
A. Network Diagram
Network diagram is a visual representation of a project’s schedule. It is also well known useful for planning
and tracking the project from beginning to finish and it represents a project’s critical path as well as the
scope for the project.
These various nodes are connected from beginning to end with arrows to depict a logical progression
of the dependencies between the schedule activities.
Each node is coded with a letter or number that correlates to an activity on the project schedule and the
duration or length of the activity is shown above the nodes.
It is also designed to show which activities must be completed for other activities to commence. By
convention, all arrows run left to right.
Steps in making the Network Diagram:
1. Find all activities in the table that have no immediate predecessors — they can all start as soon as the
project will begin. In the example, only activity A has no immediate predecessors.
2. Find all activities that have the first activity as an immediate
predecessor. Activity B and C have activity A as an immediate
predecessor. Draw a circle or node to represent the activities and arrows
from activity A to activity B and C.
3. Indicate the duration or length of all the activities above the nodes.
A critical path is determined by identifying the longest stretch of dependent activities and measuring
the time required to complete them from start to finish.
To identify the critical path of the project, consider all the possible paths and the path with the longest
stretch of dependent activities is considered as the critical path. From the network diagram above,
the paths are the following:
Engineer managers should keep an eye on the activities on the critical path since any delay on those
activities will directly impact the completion date of the project.
C. Gantt Chart
Gantt charts convey this information visually. It outlines all of the tasks involved in a project, and their order,
shown against a timescale. This gives an instant overview of a project, its associated tasks, and when these
need to be finished.
Discovered by Henry Gantt in around 1910. His chart was designed to help manufacturing supervisors see
whether their work was on, ahead of, or behind schedule, and it formed the foundation of the tool we use
today.
and end date on the right. Duration of the critical path will
be the number of days in the timeline. From the example,
the project will start on January 8, 2020 exclusive of
Sundays.
4. Arrange bars for each phase and/or tasks within the timeline. Use a highlighter or colored bars to highlight
when each task starts and finishes within the timeline. Some bars may have overlapping dates, bars that
represent tasks that are dependent on other tasks will need to start after the dependent task is completed.
The time estimate for activity A
ACTIVITY 8 9 10 11 13 14 15 16 17 18 20 21 is 2 days so it will be done on
A January 8-9, 2020.
B Activity A is completed after
C January 9; activity B will then
start on January 10 since it is
D dependent to activity A.
E
Activity I is dependent to
F activity G and H. So it should
G start once BOTH activities are
completed which will be on Jan
H 18 – activity H just ended on
I Jan 17.
A (None) 8
B (None) 5
C (None) 6
D A 4
E A, B 6
F C 7
G A 5
H D, E, F 8
I C 9
J D, E, F 6
K G,H 4
L D, E,F 6
M I, J 4