Industrial Engineering Chapter 2 Historical Development Engineering Management Discussion Questions The Practice Management Ancient But

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Chapter 2

Historical Development of Engineering Management

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

2-1. Q: The practice of management is ancient, but the formal study of the body of management

knowledge is relatively new. Why is this?

2-2. Q: Stones for the pyramids were quarried far to the south (upstream on the Nile River) and were

brought downstream on rafts only during the spring flood of the Nile. Discuss some of the planning

and organizational implications of this immense logistic effort.

2-3. Q: You are the production manager for a new start-up where the production floor has been up and

running for six months. Things are not going smoothly. Quality is not meeting expectations and

productivity issues are leading to substantial overtime work and cost overruns. Explain how the

work of the Gilbreths could be applied to understand and solve these problems.

2-4. Q: The development of cotton and woolen mills in the mill cities of England, and later New

England, caused tremendous sociological change as potential workers (especially women) swarmed

from rural areas to the growing industrial cities. Cite examples of similar occurrences in more recent

times in developing countries.

A: A senior/graduate class of 17 students, about half international, suggested the following:

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The percentage of Taiwan’s population working in agriculture has decreased “to recent low 20’s

from original high 80’s in less than four decades,” creating the same urban problems cited for the

Philippines.

Indian villagers have swelled Bombay and Calcutta to populations above 15 million. “A few are

successful in finding low paying jobs but a large number turn to other forms of income such as

begging and crime.”

Even in the remote country of Bhutan (North of India) rural people are now flocking into the

towns, powered looms in the ‘‘weaving centers” are replacing obsolete hand/foot driven machines,

and workers from India have migrated in to provide needed trained manpower and technicians to

work with unskilled Bhutanese in the factories.

2-5. Q: How did Henri Fayol’s approach to management compare with Weber’s? How did Fayol’s

solutions differ? Describe Fayol’s assumptions and the components of his theory of management.

What remnants of Fayol’s ideas exist today in management practice?

2-6. Q: Matsushita emphasized the residual disadvantages to the United States of the teachings of

Frederick Taylor. Discuss the positive contributions Taylor and his contemporaries in the scientific

management movement made.

A: Taylor and his followers developed methods of work measurement and work design that provided

2-8. Q: The essence of the Relay Assembly Test Room Experiments at the Hawthorne Works was that

expected correlations between productivity and physical factors such as illumination and rest periods

were not demonstrated. What other factors could explain the regular productivity increases observed

in these experiments?

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2-9. Q: Schermerhorn defines management as the activity which “performs certain functions in order to

obtain the effective acquisition, allocation, and utilization of human efforts and physical resources in

order to accomplish some goal.” Provide some examples of how ancient cultures met this definition.

2-10. Q: As made clear in this chapter, engineers and engineer managers have made strong contributions

to management theory and practice. List the engineers and engineer managers identified in this

chapter, together with their contributions, and add any others you may know of.

A: Craftsmen inventors such as Hargreaves, Arkwright, Crompton, Cartwright, and Maudslay made