Global Engineering Project Management

Imagine the dynamics of an international engineering project such as this one: a U.S. group designs, prototypes, and qualifies disk drive heads; wafers for the drive heads are manufactured in the U.S. and sent to Malaysia for subassembly; a South Korean firm assembles these components; the final product, a fully automated disk drive, is completed in Japan. In addition to the global complexities of the project, there are a host of issues in leading the project team spread across continents. Global Engineering Project Management aligns real-world experiences in managing global projects with practical project management principles. The author demonstrates how to anticipate issues, covering everything from start-up planning and supply management to cost containment, post-project evaluation and protecting intellectual property. He explores technologies, virtual teams, traditions, economics, politics, and legal issues in the context of international projects, as well as compares the differences with domestic projects. He also highlights the complications of international bidding, the extra time and effort needed for multi-national team formation and management, and often overlooked project closure tasks. As the world goes global, engineering projects increasingly involve multiple countries, each having unique politics, cultures, and standards that all add layers of complexity to project management. These variables multiply fast and consequently a project manager's responsibilities multiply faster. Examining these challenges from start to finish, the book provides practical advice on how to navigate the issues unique to global engineering project management.

PROVEN STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESSFULLY MANAGING HIGH-TECH ENGINEERING PROJECTS Engineering Project Management for the Global High-Technology Industry describes how to effectively implement a wide array of project management tools and techniques and covers comprehensive details on the entire product development lifecycle. Technology management--from research to advanced development to adoption in new products--is explained with examples of organizational structure and required timelines. This practical guide discusses key topics such as creating a business plan, performing economic analysis, leveraging internal resources and the supply chain, planning project development, controlling projects, tracking progress, managing risk, and reporting to management. Skills essential to the successful project manager, including communication, leadership, and teamwork, are also addressed. Real-world case studies from top global technology companies illustrate the concepts presented in the book. COVERAGE INCLUDES: Project lifecycle and development of engineering project management tools and techniques Product stages and project management structures for developing them Project inception: benchmarking, IP, and voice of the customer (VoC) VoC case study Project justification and engineering economic analysis Make or buy: subcontracting and managing the supply chain Engineering project planning and execution Project phases, control, risk analysis, and team leadership Project monitoring and control case study Engineering project communications Engineering project and product costing Building and managing teams

The essential manual for managing global engineering and construction projects and working with multinational project teams The first book written for operations-level engineers, constructors, and students, Global Engineering and Construction is an essential manual for navigating the confusing world of engineering and construction in the global arena and for working on multinational teams. From project management to finance, global construction to alliances, international standards to competitiveness, this book contains country- and region-specific information on cultural issues, legal systems, bid estimates, scheduling, business practices, productivity improvement, and tips for successfully working on and managing global projects. This book also provides a useful glossary and numerous case studies illustrating practices in the real world. Global Engineering and Construction features the latest coverage on such topics as: Project management Engineering design Designing for terrorism Kidnapping protection Construction failures Preparing to work globally Safety Issues Legal Issues Technical and quality standards Environmental issues Productivity improvement Planning and engineering delays and mitigation strategies Concepts of culture and global issues Global competitiveness Global engineering and construction alliances Global financing techniques Country-specific information

In today's global business environment with high speed interactions, engineering organizations are evolving continuously. Engineering Management in a Global Environment: Guidelines and Procedures provides guidelines for changing roles of engineering managers in the international arena. The book covers global, multidisciplinary, and flat engineering organizations. Recommended procedures for hiring, mentoring, work assignments, and meetings in the global arena are detailed. Guidelines for keeping up with technology and with the changing world, performance reviews, layoffs, necessary engineering tools, and work atmosphere are discussed. Procedures for engineering team building and for having good relationships with upper management, customers, subcontractors, and regulatory agencies are provided. Each chapter ends with a checklist summarizing engineering managerial guidelines in that chapter.

As the world becomes increasingly globalized, today’s companies expect to hire engineers who are effective in a global business environment. Although you can find many books covering globalization, most of them are aimed at business, management, or social sciences. Developed with engineers in mind, Global Engineering: Design, Decision Making, and Communication covers the theory, models, and decision making tools for incorporating globalization into engineering work. Written by a multidisciplinary team of experts in industrial, mechanical, and manufacturing engineering and organizational communications, this book is a primer on how to improve designs, make better decisions, and communicate more effectively in an international working environment. The contents of the book reflect the authors’ multidisciplinary perspective and their experience in working on projects around the world. The book presents globalization as a phenomenon affecting the way companies operate and their engineering functions. It uses a case study format based on system improvement projects and real industrial projects, ranging from design to supply chain and logistics problems. This case study format allows for a natural presentation of critical technical and non-technical concepts and their complex interactions. The challenge that engineers face in a global environment results from the need to be aware of interdependencies and to be able to determine which ones are most important in each situation. Unique in its focus on engineering, this book provides a framework for how to better design, make decisions, and communicate in the new era of global competition.

Project managers who lead globally dispersed teams face unique challenges in managing project stakeholders, scope, knowledge sharing, schedules, resources, and above all team execution in a global business environment. Finding timely solutions to challenging events becomes more difficult in a global project environment. This book presents more than 80 case studies designed to help project managers craft solutions to the typical problems that can occur in global projects. The author describes surprising, unexpected, and catastrophic cases that he encountered during his 35 years of project management experience in the global arena. The author details the background of each challenging case and then explains how he remedied the issue at hand. Some cases involve a logical step-by-step approach toward a solution, while others require unorthodox steps to get the project on the right track. The book includes lessons learned after every case. This book is designed to help global project managers become more proactive, careful, disciplined, and ready for sudden surprises that can affect their projects. The project cases detailed in this book support and guide the strategizing process that occurs during the execution of global projects. The book emphasizes the importance of documenting lessons learned after each project to prevent making the same mistakes in the future.

An engineering-focused approach to project management techniques and strategies Engineering projects are vital for modern society and global human survival, but many engineering projects fail, in large part due to poor and/or ineffective management. These failures have led to a desire to identify those techniques and mindsets that can lead consistently to successful engineering projects. The first edition of this book, Engineering Project Management, has served as the essential overview to engineering-based project management methods, tools, processes, and mind-sets. Offering a practical, step-by-step guide to applying project management techniques in engineering settings, it draws upon active learning approaches and the author's extensive experience to create a thorough and cutting-edge guide. This second edition is now updated to reflect transformative recent developments in both technology and project management, and remains an indispensable tool for project managers and engineers alike. Readers of this second edition of Engineering Project Management will also find: Updated coverage of the social aspects of project management, along with other soft skills, throughout the volume Detailed discussion of topics including project life-cycle, identification and management of stakeholders, cost estimation, schedule estimation, monitoring of your project, engineering economics, engineering ethics, and many more A structure that aligns perfectly with a single-semester course, alternating lecture and facilitated lab sessions Engineering Project Management is ideal for advanced undergraduate, graduate students, and instructors in courses in Engineering Project Management, as well as professional engineering and early career practitioners who need to brush up on their project management skills.

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.