The Offshoring Of Engineering

The engineering enterprise is a pillar of U.S. national and homeland security, economic vitality, and innovation. But many engineering tasks can now be performed anywhere in the world. The emergence of "offshoring"- the transfer of work from the United States to affiliated and unaffiliated entities abroad - has raised concerns about the impacts of globalization. The Offshoring of Engineering helps to answer many questions about the scope, composition, and motivation for offshoring and considers the implications for the future of U.S. engineering practice, labor markets, education, and research. This book examines trends and impacts from a broad perspective and in six specific industries - software, semiconductors, personal computer manufacturing, construction engineering and services, automobiles, and pharmaceuticals. The Offshoring of Engineering will be of great interest to engineers, engineering professors and deans, and policy makers, as well as people outside the engineering community who are concerned with sustaining and strengthening U.S. engineering capabilities in support of homeland security, economic vitality, and innovation.

Project Management for Engineers, as the title suggests, is a direct attempt at addressing the ever-increasing and specific needs for better project management of engineering students, practicing engineers and managers in the industry. It aims not only to present the principles and techniques of Project Management, but also to discuss project management standards, processes and requirements, such as PMBOK, IEEE and PRINCE. Each chapter begins with the basics of the theme being developed at a level understandable to an undergraduate, before more complex topics are introduced at the end of each section that are suitable for graduate students. For the practicing professionals or managers in the industry, the book also provides many real illustrations of practical application of the principles of Project Management. Through a realistic blend of theory and practical examples, as well as an integration of the engineering technical issues with business issues, this book seeks to remove the veil of mystery that has shrouded the profession from its very beginning.

Engineering skills and knowledge are foundational to technological innovation and development that drive long-term economic growth and help solve societal challenges. Therefore, to ensure national competitiveness and quality of life it is important to understand and to continuously adapt and improve the educational and career pathways of engineers in the United States. To gather this understanding it is necessary to study the people with the engineering skills and knowledge as well as the evolving system of institutions, policies, markets, people, and other resources that together prepare, deploy, and replenish the nation's engineering workforce. This report explores the characteristics and career choices of engineering graduates, particularly those with a BS or MS degree, who constitute the vast majority of degreed engineers, as well as the characteristics of those with non-engineering degrees who are employed as engineers in the United States. It provides insight into their educational and career pathways and related decision making, the forces that influence their decisions, and the implications for major elements of engineering education-to-workforce pathways.

The continuous search for efficiency gains and the goal of attaining a sustainable competitive advantage have steadily increased the volume of goods and services procured globally from third party vendors. In this context, named as “the next wave of globalization”, the offshoring phenomenon has stimulated research and political debates. With the rise of services offshoring, international value chain disaggregation for services has reached a formerly unknown scale. Also, it is increasingly complex transactions, requiring a higher degree of qualification, which are becoming subject to offshoring as well. The Offshoring Challenge: Strategic Design and Innovation for Tomorrow’s Organization features selected chapters by an international research community on the topic of offshoring. All potential business models from offshore outsourcing to third party providers are covered, from cooperative arrangements to internal organizational set-ups including captive offshore centers. Contributions have significant insights regarding: the increasing offshoring of knowledge-intensive services; the offshoring process; business models incorporating offshoring; the hidden costs of offshoring; and the administration of offshoring activities within firms The book is aimed at a broad audience of scholars, students and practitioners in the fields of strategy, international business and operations management.

Can the United States continue to lead the world in innovation? The answer may hinge in part on how well the public understands engineering, a key component of the 'innovation engine'. A related concern is how to encourage young people-particularly girls and under-represented minorities-to consider engineering as a career option. Changing the Conversation provides actionable strategies and market-tested messages for presenting a richer, more positive image of engineering. This book presents and discusses in detail market research about what the public finds most appealing about engineering-as well as what turns the public off. Changing the Conversation is a vital tool for improving the public image of engineering and outreach efforts related to engineering. It will be used by engineers in professional and academic settings including informal learning environments (such as museums and science centers), engineering schools, national engineering societies, technology-based corporations that support education and other outreach to schools and communities, and federal and state agencies and labs that do or promote engineering, technology, and science.

This book aims to shed light on the potentially innovative ICT (information and communication technology) architectures from an East Asian regional perspective. The business environment brought about by the development of ICT intensified global competition and caused dramatic changes in the industrial architecture. Firms that are involved in manufacturing and maintenance of ICT hardware and that offer services for software development are continuously being created, giving rise to the provision of new and diverse services to an increasingly growing East Asian regional market. Such industrial activities are advancing the shift from an old to a new industrial architecture. Some parts of emerging economies have grasped this edge on economic globalization and informatization and have adopted business models that enable them to enter the world economy. Entering this century, China, the Philippines, and Vietnam in East Asia have been rapidly expanding their ICT-BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) businesses as destinations of offshoring of service activities by firms in the advanced economies, following India’s example. Policy makers and firms in those countries are also meeting the challenge of catching up with advanced economies through the development of such industries. It has enabled those economies to exploit new possibilities of further development, which may mean a new stage of manufacturing cum services in an ICT- and knowledge-based economy.

Holistic Engineering Education: Beyond Technology is a compilation of coordinated and focused essays from world leaders in the engineering profession who are dedicated to a transformation of engineering education and practice. The contributors define a new and holistic approach to education and practice that captures the creativity, interdisciplinarity, complexity, and adaptability required for the profession to grow and truly serve global needs. With few exceptions today, engineering students and professionals continue to receive a traditional, technically-based education and training using curriculum models developed for early 20th century manufacturing and machining. While this educational paradigm has served engineering well, helping engineers create awe-inspiring machines and technologies for society, the coursework and expectations of most engineering programs eschew breadth and intellectual exploration to focus on consistent technological precision and study. Why this dichotomy? While engineering will always need precise technological skill, the 21st century innovation economy demands a new professional perspective that recognizes the value of complex systems thinking, cross-disciplinary collaborations, economic and environmental impacts (sustainability), and effective communication to global and community leaders, thus enabling engineers to consider "the whole patient" of society's needs. The goal of this book is to inspire, lead, and guide this critically needed transformation of engineering education. "Holistic Engineering Education: Beyond Technology points the way to a transformation of engineering education and practice that will be sufficiently robust, flexible, and systems-oriented to meet the grand challenges of the 21st century with their ever-increasing scale, complexity, and transdisciplinary nature." -- Charles Vest, President, National Academy of Engineering; President Emeritus, MIT "This collection of essays provides compelling arguments for the need of an engineering education that prepares engineers for the problems of the 21st century. Following the National Academy’s report on the Engineer of 2020, this book brings together experts who make the case for an engineering profession that looks beyond developing just cool technologies and more into creating solutions that can address important problems to benefit real people." -- Linda Katehi, Chancellor, University of California at Davis "This superb volume offers a provocative portrait of the exciting future of engineering education...A dramatically new form of engineering education is needed that recognizes this field as a liberal art, as a profession that combines equal parts technical rigor and creative design...The authors challenge the next generation to engineering educators to imagine, think and act in new ways. " -- Lee S. Shulman, President Emeritus, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education Emeritus, Stanford University