Does anyone have a simple model for engineering projects?

First idea that comes to mind is, does she sew? If so, what about an analogy to

beginning with the idea of sewing a garment. Granted, the comparison isn't tight,

but there is enough to roughly illustrate the concepts.

Hi.....

is there any vacancy for mechanical engineer in your organisation.

Pls reply.

I am currently working in singapore for a leading MNC EPCM consultancy.

Pls reply at my id vng1983@yahoo.co.in

Thanks in advance

regards

The other contributor has a good idea, but you can use almost any routine topic as a teaching tool. Basically, it comes down to defining the steps, or milestones, in any endeavor, then showing how they are linked as to "one can't happen until the previous step happens", and such. Once you teach the basics of how 'any' task can be broken down into such steps, it is an easier task then to make it relevant to what you are doing professionally.

Remember the KISS concept ... "keep it simple, stupid" . There's no need to bury a new person in too many details in the beginning. I suggest just starting with the major milestones, then as those are learned, begin to elaborate with more of the details in between.

Teach were are the key points and "show stoppers". Most project management is 'stage gate' in some fashion, although we don't necessarily call it that. Teach the key areas that can be show-stoppers, because as your assistant, these are the ones she needs to keep you informed of first.

In my own field, we develop and manufacture products, so my milestones are a little different from yours, but here is a simplified list I created for my assistant to give her some insights to at least what all was involved to get form "hey, I'd like ____", to "your first shipment has been made".

Good luck and kind regards ...

I have recently had a lot of problems with people following process 'models'. I found they never actually learned the process itself or WHY one thing was before or after another. This made there work very hard to understand, and they found it impossible to understand what they had done wrong.

I suggest you take the model you just gave us and elaborate a definition of each item. you can then illustrate each point by referring to the part of past and present projects she is working with. She will then not only learn the sequence and doctrine but also the theory behind the structure as this will become apparent. For example it isn't hard to work out the difference between Design Phase and Scoping Phase once you see some examples whereas by themselves they sound quite similar even by definition.

Appoint an Engineering consultant and also train her in primavera package .Till she picks up you require some body experienced in projects. Do not fire her, as you can enjoy her beautiful face always.You will get relaxed by looking at her !!

Regards,

P.G.Panikkar

www.engineeringconsultancy.info

i think that in adobe have a solution to your problem,google have a program with the same objective

A few years ago there was in South Carolina_ USA an excellent multidisciplinary educational project/major called ATE with list of the hands-on + calculations+ selection simple example for the students in technical education. Involved were colleges in Florence, Greenwood and in Aiken. Mr. Roy Jones still works in Aiken Technical College. He was the excellent instructor in this state founded program.
Students on first semester w/o technical background learned realization of the project exactly according to your schem, i.e. step-by-step with feedback loops when errors happened.

Good luck - you do signal serious topic in education and training!

I have many years experience (sometimes too many) in helping new ones come up to speed in engineering or in specific projects.

The single biggest thing that needs gained is understanding of what the lines on the planning document or sequence/branch chart or whatever you are using means. This takes study, oftentimes in the field, to understand the coming tasks. Without this understanding the line items are just words that the person is trying to commit to memory instead of recognized tasks that proceed in a logical order.

The help you are looking for may be purely administrative so technical understanding is not needed but if the job calls for an engineer, hire an engineer, help them learn the background then reap future benefits of someone who can soon operate with only general oversight.

Good statement DaveB. Sorry if they are in disagreement, but that's the true. If you need to go in a hurry into the job , hire an engineer!!. Engineers study to understand processes, tasks, resources, (system aproach).

Contact one of the engineering societies such as SME, and inquire about and purchase a training or relevant video showing at least all the tasks as near related to your industry as possible.

If a picture is a thousand words, then how much more information is in a film?

As everyones brain operates differently, a film gives the potential for pulling ques as they are understood. Of course a guideline of main milestones for your line of work is a must, go away from using the acronyms when speaking to her regarding projects at first, let her draw the paralles at meetings, etc.

An analogy to tasks that she is familiar with, paralleling events in the film may be required.

Regardless, first find out how much she want`s to understand it.

Good Luck,

Regards, Mirco.

Try CADENCE project management training. There are a number of the management training sequences that you can pick up for this. However, I would suggest that all your staff including you conform to the same training system. There is also the QMS system that you can tag for this.

Also, this is not a new issue. Most new grads and some experienced engineers have never been introduced to project management. It takes time to get a full handle on this area for most engineers without 5 to 10 years at a major company.

There is a good book I have been using for 20 years.

"Checklist for Management, Engineering, Manufacturing and Product Assurance".

W.B Rossnagel -- Spartan Books 1971

Its simple --to the point and it is in a checklist format. A good reference for everyone.

Hello MsEng:

Forgive me for say 'her', but I do not know her name.

Give her a book to make notes and, on the first page or inside front cover write just what you did above. All the synonyms going down the left margin, vertically, with the word it stands for in lower-case on the usual lines as you go across the page..

This can be a reminder. She will not have to keep worrying and asking the same questions over and again. Just look at the first page. She can also make a copy and tick each one as it is achieved for each job. She will then know where she is, which, if she was working on several jobs at once could get confusing. She will know where she is instead of having to recall quite so much stuff.

Of course as she goes on and has experience it will become second nature.

She has to get used to your way of working. Those steps you outlined with the synonyms will gradually sink in as she gets experienced. The synonyms will mean nothing at first, but, when linked to an action like a phone call for an estimate, or check the drawings, expect delivery of raw steel, or whatever, it will not induce panic at certain points.

It was 'DCAD' who wrote the list of work stages, there looks like an awful lot of 'points' to get right. But 4 or 5 of those point may be achieved in a day, on the phone, or email for instance. Other points can be weeks, months or years down the road.

Wish her good luck from us all!

Try looking at the information found in the Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK) The information IS focused on how to manage projects and the science of Project Management. There are an infinite number of ways to describe the tasks and deliverables involved in any complex project. Starting with very simple projects will illustrate the techniques.

A picture is worth much more than a thousand words in this case. I suggest you find and make a 3'x5' copy of the CPM flow chart for a small project in your organization. Put it up on the wall your secretary faces most often. That will provide her visual reference of where any major activity fits in the time line of the project.

Also provide the Work Breakdown Schedule (WBS) appropriate for the level of detail in the CPM chart. Later you can add more details to everything as her knowledge base grows, It IS NOT a trivial undertaking you face.

I work as a Project Engineer in one of the oil and gas companies producing gas generators which are nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen. I did some documentations and familiar with the Gantt Chart using the Microsoft Project. All of that I did learn by myself which my supervisor just give me a simple and basic information about it. All of these documentations and program which need to be carry on the project flow is quite very easy to compute and understand. I say like this because I can easily understand the flow while doing one by one step that my supervisor had yold me. Conclusion is it is simple but needs an effort to understand this project flow. But I am really dissapointed in my company because they did not give me a chance to do all these thing by myself and not giving me any relevant training like most of you guys did to your trainee or empoyee. I am so impressed with the effort of you guys in helping your assistant to develop themselves. I hope my supervisor can realize this. So now am going to search for a new job that will make me stand by myself and experiencing the real professional environment that I should be in.