Although the book emphasizes Electronic Management the text may be valuable to all engineering managers. Before I prepared this book I discovered there was no formal training or written material to create new Engineering Managers in industry. Generally, when an engineer is promoted from within a company, he's given no prior instructions on how to manage his new organization. This happened to me when I was promoted to manager a very sophisticated Electronic Design Department with no prior training. I was told, "You're now the Manager of the Avionics Design Department responsible for designing electronic black boxes for Lockheed's aircraft."
Designing electronics is one thing, but managing a large group of engineers who have as much experience as I have was not an easy task. It was no longer just technical ability and experience that allowed me to be the design leader but now I had to deal with personalities. Not only did I have to monitor the designs but I also had to be concerned with budgets, schedules, deliveries, purchasing, meetings, etc.
This book provides a different approach on a subject that has not been fully documented or thoroughly explained before. The method used here covers all aspects of Engineering Management mainly from an experienced point of view. Over the forty years in the electronic design business I have learned many management techniques, and by combining these experiences with my own ideas I believe I have created the ideal text that can be used to teach any engineer to become an Engineering Manager.
The book may be used by companies to assist upper-management to monitor their programs and to train potential supervisors in the basic art of managing a department. It can be used as a guide by the graduating student or for the entrepreneur who is interested in starting up a new company. As I mentioned, this comprehensive book can be used by all types of engineers and not exclusively in the field of electronics. The principles are basically the same. The military will find the information in this book an ideal text to train their personnel on how to monitor military programs and will help them in the process of selecting vendors and evaluating quotations.
Chapter I covers what I consider to be the proper structure of a design team. It consists of the Electronic Design Manager (EDM), Electronic Engineers, System Engineers, Mechanical Engineers, Software Engineers, Printed Circuit Engineers, and Technicians. I thoroughly explain the responsibilities of each of these positions. To illustrate the management design structure I walk the reader through the design procedure of an example black box step by step. I discuss the complete electronic design approach and its mechanical enclosure. I then introduce a unique budget tracking system showing man-hours spread charts that will assist the EDM to monitor all of his programs.
Chapter II covers the support organizations that are needed to make up the structure of a complete engineering company. It explains the relationship these organizations have with the EDM design team and with the Engineering Project Manager (EPM). Examples of some of these support organizations are Reliability, Maintainability, etc.
Chapter III covers the classical company structures of upper-management. It explains the different types of organizations such as Matrix and Projectize. It provides a complete Organizational Interface Chart and explains their relationship with upper-management. This chapter goes into explaining the duties of a Program Manager (PM) and the Engineering Project Manager and how they interface with the Design Manager. It covers the non-technical responsibilities of such organizations as Finance, Administrations, Contracts, Legal, and Purchasing. This book is essential for all managers to have in their possession.
Chapter IV provides examples of actual design practices. In my design approach, I do not use the classical approach because there are many text books available at Universities and Libraries that provide technical formulas in designs. The method used here is to provide several design examples using my own experiences I gathered over 40 years. This approach may help the prospective engineer when he comes across similar design problems.