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Engineering's own world In addition to those problems facing the Engineering VP, which are common to all top managers, the Engineering VP also faces some problems that are specific to the Engineering Department. Engineers are often highly educated, under-utilized, under-respected and under-paid. For years, they do their job well and see little reward, whereas colleagues in other departments rise rapidly up the corporate hierarchy. As functional organizations give engineers little chance to expand their skills horizontally by working in other departments, they eventually become isolated, highly focused on their own engineering skills, and somewhat resentful of other departments. They see Marketing as over-indulged and over-paid in view of the poor product specifications it produces. They look down on the poor old Manufacturing function, which is incapable of handling even the simplest design. As for the bean-counters in the Finance Department, who understand neither products nor processes, it is best to say nothing about them as in spite of their apparent ignorance they generally finish up at the top of the corporate tree. The IS function is seen as an appendage to the Finance Department, with absolutely no idea about the way to use computers in the Engineering Department. With such a background, it may not be easy to convince the Engineering Department that EDM/PDM is either helpful or necessary. After all, the inhabitants of the Department are indisputably highly skilled engineers, not computer programmers, and it is not always obvious to them that a data management program can increase their skills. The potential implementers of EDM/PDM will need to find some good arguments. The IS view As EDM/PDM systems are computer-based, it might be expected that the IS function would support their introduction. However, this is rarely the case. It is more likely that the IS staff will never have worked with such systems, not understand what they are, and will find it particularly difficult to address the workflow issues. Initially the IS group may try to claim EDM/PDM ownership by comparing EDM/PDM with ERP and data base systems used by the F&A function, but it will soon be realized that there are too many differences. Another technological feature that may attract IS is the computer networking that will be needed to support communication of information. In the past, the IS function has focused on supporting the Finance function, providing so-called 'business systems'. (It is interesting to note that the term 'business systems' often does not include computer systems concerned with engineering information. It's almost as if users of engineering systems are not part of the business). Since IS staff may have little experience or understanding of the product life cycle, it is unlikely that they will be strong supporters of EDM/PDM. On the contrary, they may even take a somewhat negative attitude, upset that people who are not IS specialists are proposing a new application for computers. If the IS function can be convinced of the benefits of EDM/PDM, its close links to the Finance VP may provide a useful point of support for EDM/PDM. On the other hand, if they can not be convinced, their lack of support may be interpreted by top management as meaning that EDM/PDM is of little value. |