对工程师的建议

在7月15日至18日在波士顿举行的2007年北美Foxboro用户团体会议上，主题演讲者Peter G. Martin画了一个新世界的照片，该图片同时令人震惊和鼓舞人心。

马丁将寒意定义为趋势的融合。其中包括简短的执行任期（普通首席执行官现在持续不到三年），甚至较短的执行缓刑期（少于一年），以及信息技术和制造业的融合提出的新威胁 - 幽灵（幽灵）裁员。他说：“它最缩小了，其次是工程学。”

他说：“然而，工程学是企业中最有价值的活动。您可以选择：成为继续缩小规模的一部分，或将您的功能转换为增值业务组织的功能。”

马丁，博士在工业工程中，是Invensys Process Systems的副总裁兼绩效管理经理，但他的主要作用是作为制造业的催化剂。他是工具，系统和自动化协会（ISA）的50个最具影响力的创新者之一，也是《财富》杂志的美国制造业英雄之一。

推动业务

Later in a private interview with Automation World, Martin emphasized his point: “Nobody is going to save you but you. If you reduce engineering to its basic role, it is to maximize work, and you have to always ask, what is the work that drives your business?”

他告诉该集团：“首席执行官（CEO）和首席财务官（CFO）不知道您的价值，因为会计快照未能查看正确的事情。”“不幸的是，工厂地板上的每项财务措施都是负面的。”

Return on investment, the most common measure, focuses on the initial cost of a manufacturing innovation or change, then stops measuring when break-even occurs. Further, a cash-flow view of manufacturing highlights only outflow—there is no way to account for inflows that might accrue to increased profits. “Yet, there can be huge returns from innovation, for years after the initial investment is recouped. And there can be highly-leveraged cash flows from effective automation projects—hugely leveraged,” Martin pointed out. “Executives don’t see these because the business indicators are not measured, and the execs don’t have a clue about what you really do.”

说C级

工程师可以更改此图片，但是他们需要学习C级套件中使用的语言。马丁后来解释说：“工程师很乐意谈论动作，数字和公式。”“If a CEO asks average engineers what they did to cut manufacturing costs, they are likely to say, ‘We upgraded the DIN rail cabinets by swapping the RS-232 controllers out to multipoint ZDV-2750s.’ It would be better to express the result of that swap—‘We gained 3 percent faster production, at exactly the same quality, with a 5 percent reduction in materials waste.’ If you go to Paris, you learn French. If you get into the executive suite, learn the vocabulary.”

But how does engineering break into the executive suite? “Get an MBA,” Martin said during the interview. “Not to learn finance, not to learn accounting, but to learn what business is really about. Left to themselves, engineers love to make processes more elegant and efficient, but you really need elegance and efficiency only on the processes that count. What are the ones that count? The ones that drive the business.”

团队获胜

在演讲中，马丁画了与自动赛车平行的。留给自己，驾驶员总是希望参加课程，尽可能快地开车。距离自己，维修人员会在每一圈打电话给驾驶员，以调整并调整汽车。他说：“以我们的类比，驾驶员是工程师，维修人员正在维护。”“当他们作为一个团队合作时，他们可以专注于正确的目标：在汽车上足够快地走得足够快，足够长以获胜。这与尽可能快的驾驶和破坏东西不同，这与在比赛中准备最好但最不可能的汽车不同。”

行政套件可以帮助开发任何自上而下的事情来发展商业意识的工程组吗？“绝对，”马丁告诉我们。“高级管理人员可以与为您提供最佳工程师的大学建立关系，并确保业务培训对于他们的课程不可或缺。您的新员工将知道他们的价值，您将知道他们的价值，而您和您的新员工将从一开始就可以富有成效地交谈。”

马丁在包裹中说：“当它和制造业融合时，您有能力将财务和工程专业知识的专业知识相结合以促进业务需求。超越工具，工具和计算机，然后使用它们向您的公司传递业务信息。这样，您就可以担任所获得的领导职务。”


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