Performance assessments of engineering departments: An empirical study

Abstract

This contribution presents the results of an empirical study about assessments of performance of engineering departments in the German plant manufacturing industry. Engineering plays a central role in the industrial value chain. However, its multiple impact is not considered in an adequate way by current assessments. For instance, economic considerations have a strong focus on costs and consider the engineering department only in an isolated way. Since there is little literature about this topic -existing publications analyze performance from a technical-functional perspective or focus on design aspects -this study aims to evaluate performance criteria and challenges for performance assessments. 36 experts in the domain of plant engineering have been asked in an online survey and personal interviews. A lack of common understanding of engineering performance and the difficulty to quantify the impact of engineering turned out to be the main challenges besides a strong cost focus in the plant manufacturing business. Finally 13 challenges were identified which oppose comprehensive assessments of engineering performance. If recognized, these challenges can help plant manufacturing companies to minimize the ill effects of current economic considerations and to improve their engineering departments more effectively.

Challenges of performance assessments for engineering departments: Empirical study and further results

“…Research question one to three have been described in detail by [10]. However, to provide a better understanding of this field, an overview of the study results is given first, before the results of the root cause analysis are discussed.…”

“…Silo thinking: The communication and cooperation between value-add phases is limited. 10. Underestimation of engineering impact: Impact of engineering on business success is neglected or underestimated by management compared to the impact of other business functions.…”

Why Engineer-to-Order Portfolio Rationalization Stalls: Challenges in Standardization, Modularization, Platform Design and Mass Customization

“…Product family design offers reduction of complexity and risk while improving development and production flexibility (Sawhney, 1998). The overall organization can also become more efficient with more effective processes (Gepp et al, 2013a(Gepp et al, , 2013b. Various approaches (methods, tools, frameworks, etc.)…”