The primary purpose of this module is to inform the student of the societal and business context in which they practice their engineering profession. This context includes the constraints imposed by the environment, health and safety and the ethical and professional standards expected of an engineer in society. The business and economic context includes an understanding of the role of business, entrepreneurship, business competitiveness and marketing. The subject also provides foundation skills for graduate engineers to manage their work in a modern engineering or manufacturing environment and to calculate the cost implications of engineering decisions.
Branches of engineering:
Functions & career paths for engineers. Responsibilities of professional engineer, engineering ethics.
Health and Safety management:
Legal framework and regulatory requirements, safety statement, hazard analysis, risk assessment, safety committees, consequences for engineers.
Environment in context:
Impacts of engineering on the environment. Environmental regulations. Environmental risk management.
Management of environmental performance:
Environmental auditing, environmental accounting
Engineering Management:
Planning, organising, control, communicating. Leadership, performance management and motivation. Change management and world class manufacturing.
Business environment:
Patterns of competitor behaviour. S.W.O.T. analysis. The marketing concept, target market and positioning, the marketing mix, pricing strategy.
New business development:
History of business start-up in Ireland. Mechanisms for business start-up. Preparation of a feasibility study. The business plan.
Stages of product development:
Sources of data, technical assistance, technology and consultants. Concurrent engineering approaches. Patents, Copyright, Domain Names, Trade Marks, Brand Names, Registered Designs, Secret Know How, Protection of Software.
Financial statements:
Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss Accounts. Cash flow.
Cost analysis:
Overheads and direct costs, cost allocation and accumulation, absorption costing. Calculating cost centre overhead rates. Product costing.
The budgeting process:
Procedure for developing budgets. Sales budgets, departmental budgets, master budgets, cash budgets.
Investment appraisal:
Discounted cash-flow analysis NPV, IRR and Payback
| Module Content & Assessment | |
|---|---|
| Assessment Breakdown | % |
| Other Assessment(s) | 40 |
| Formal Examination | 60 |