Origins Of Engineering

Engineering is a kind of discipline that aims to abtain and apply scientific and technical knowledge to the design analysis and construction of variety of works for practical purposes. The broad discipline of engineering encompasses a range of specialised subdisciplines that focus on the issues associated with developing a specific kind of product, or using a specific type of technology. In prehistoric times, men and women had to be ingenious in order to survive hunger, enemies, climate and, later, the tyrrany of distance. So there have always been 'engineers' around, many of whom were involved in activities we would not associate with engineering today but, rather, with hunting, farming, fishing, fighting, implement- and tool-making, transportation and many other things. Engineering can be considered as the combination of science and design in oredert o invent practical objects.In the earliest times, engineering started with the invention of the basic things such as wheel, pulley etc. At early times engineering was seperated in to two main branches (military and non- military (civil) engineering). By the rise of the industrial revolution and development of the sophisticated machines and tools during the revolution, mechanical engineering was emerged and after the nineteenth century, engineering were started to be applied to science and mathematics. In a similar manner, besides civil and military engineering mechanical engineering was added a a new branch of engineering. The new experiments and developments and revolution give rise different approaches and branches to engineering.

Beginning Of Engineering Education

Before people’s being starded to be educated as engineers to build things, inventors and engineers worked without formal education. For example James Watt (Who has an extremely important role in the development of industrial engineering) only passed one year at London as an apprentice instrument maker for the rest he gained the knowledge by reading and by his own inventions.

After the fast grown of artillery and fortifications complexity increased and officers were started to be training in mathematics and mechanics.Then this trend was gradually started to be applied for civil engineering.(Three year program School of Bridges and Highways in France was founded).Actual history of engineering education was emerged in America. BEfore the foundation of military academi, military engineering was started to be taught.Then cıontinued by taking the engineering education in France as a model.

Especially after the II. World War, and The explosion of engineering research was exploded and the importance of engineering education increased. By the help of sophisticated Technologies, engineers upgraded themselves by reforming engineering education and research.

Engineering As A Profession

The engineering profession is considered to be self-regulating because engineers themselves have been given the authority by law to set and enforce standards for licensing and practice. Actually, engineering as a profession is the occupation which means the operation of service given to people in terms of creating and inventing new things and introduce the production by planning, designing and managing.

What Engineers Do?

Engineers are both problem solvers and designers. They combine technology and science in order to solve and create. Everything around us wheather less or more visible is the product of engineering. For example the buildings around us created by civil engineers are obvious, while designing, planning and controlling a manufacturing process made by industrial engineers which does not seem so obvious are all products of engineering.The fact that engineers mostly work in teams requires engineers to be responsible for communication, understanding, planning, creating, and testing.Engineers should follow the changes both in the technology and science in order to respond the people’s need. Creativity, acedemic knowledge, efficiency are the core values of the engineerig in order to satisfy the people’s demands.

Types Of Engineers

• Aeronautical or Astronautical engineers-

Study jet engines and aircraft design. They may also work on applications for space missions.

• Agricultural engineers-

Design farm equipment, animal shelters, crop systems, and product processing systems.

• Chemical Engineers

Develop processes and products made with chemicals perhaps in the food, petroleum, or pharmaceutical industries.

• Civil engineers-

Design roads, buildings, transportation systems, and other large-scale construction projects. Categories within this area may include structural, environmental, geological, hydraulic, transportation and construction engineering.

• electrical and computer engineers-

Design, construct, and maintain electronic systems, which may include working with computer chips, circuits and electronic communications.

• Geological engineers-

Solves earth related technical problems while at the same time protecting the environment.

• Industrial engineers-

Plan and design industrial and business facilities for the best product quality and employee working conditions.

• Materials engineers-

Study metals, ceramics, plastics, and composites to design materials for applications that may involve transportation, communication or power production.

• Mechanical engineers-

Create machines and may work on transportation systems, power production or performance analysis.

• Nuclear engineers-

Work with nuclear reactors, fusion and radiation applications.

Indusrtial engineers control, plan, test many types of the manufacturing systems and service sectors.Not only procuding a product is sufficent to be named as a production but also introducing this product as a service to the people’s demand is necessary. Many of the things that are produced by the other branches of the engineering are turned into services by both engineering knowledge and business information that belong to indusrtial engineers.

References:
1-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineering
2-http://www.new-sng.com/history.cfm
3-http://www.creatingtechnology.org/history3.htm
4-ace.acadiau.ca/apsc/Prospective%20students/profession_of_engineering.htm
5-http://appsci.queensu.ca/prospective/engineering/info/
6-http://www.ie.psu.edu/Academics/Undergraduate/IEIntro/Questions/Q2.htm
7http://www.madison.k12.wi.us/toki/teched/vtypes.htm

If I were prefer to be one of these people I would prefer Abraham Maslow because Maslow’s idea is really realistic in the way that people’ neeeds are distributed in terms of hierarchy. When people actualized their basic needs then they will be able to consider about the other and needs that are mostly related to to the personal improvement of the people. This idea can easily be adapted to the management policies. This idea would be very usefull for directors and managers in termsof administering workers’ improvements. Although this will be an indirect way, this idea could be the basis for the development of the production techniques in terms of labor.

Some Relations can be considered between these 6 VIP people:

Henry Ford and Frederick Winslow Taylor can be considered in some common ways. After the adaptation of the T- model cars to the market, the popularity of the car increased and Ford started to think about satisfaying the demands in a more practical way by developing a different way of production. He used the the idea of Taylor which means that Every employee is work for the one part of the product, in other words each employee will concentrate on one part of the work so the productivity of labor.

Also this division of labor principle was supported by the time studies which are performed by the pair of Ford and Taylor in order to decrease the waste effort of the workers.

The other relationship can be constructed between Taylor and Gilbreths (Frank Bunker GILBRETH- Lillian Moller GILBRETH) but this time in terms of difference. Taylor perception about yhe labor efficiency was a little bit mechanic, Taylor only considered about the time of the production process without taking the workers physchological situation of the employees. When we considered about Gilbreths they also work on the time and amount of the motion during the production process but by the effect of Lillian Moller Gilbreth’s being a psycholog caused the difference. While their motion and time studies they also thought about the psychological sides of the workers in order to increase the efficieny and productivity.

Abraham MASLOW

"Human nature is not nearly as bad as it has been thought to be."

“I was awfully curious to find out why I didn't go insane”

Abraham Maslow

Abraham Maslow who was born in Brooklyn is one of the founders of the humanistic psychology.After his college years at Wisconsin where he conducted researches about primate doöinance and sexuality,continued his studies in similar area at Columbia University by taking Alfred Adler as a mentor.

During his years in Brooklyn, he found two mentors anthropologist Ruth Benedict and Gestalt psychologist Max Wertheimer who were admired by Maslow professionaly and personaly.Maslow started two take notes about both these two people and their behaviours.This would be the basis of his lonflife research.He developed his researches on concepts of a heirarchy of needs, metaneeds, self-actualizing persons, and peak experiences, by using other psychologists and making significant addings to them.

According to Maslow human being’s needs are arrenged by means of importance degree.Starting from the bottom,first part is physical needs (air, water, food ,sex) the secon part includes safety needs(security, stability) and the third and the fourth are pyschological and social needsrespectively.The top is invaded by the self-actualizing needs -- the need to fulfill oneself, to become all that one is capable of becoming.According to Maslow if a person can not obtaim all of his needs in the lower part. Then the person do not care about the needs which are located in the next part. To illustrate, Someone dying of thirst quickly forgets their thirst when they have no oxygen.Moreover people who deals with the higher needs are self-actuazing people who can focus on outside of themselves and can clearly understand what is true, are very creative and aren’t bounded by social conventions.Maslow thought that when a person made real all of his needs in the first importance degree then he would start to think of the other needs in higher degree and for a person to obtain the needs in the basic category would help him to develop his personal properties in a higher degree and as a result of this by improving his personality he would be get closer to the peak degree( self acturazing).

References:
1- tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow_teorisi
2- http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/bhmasl.html
3-http://www.businessballs.com/images/maslow's_hierarchy_businessballs.jpg

Max WEBER

Max Weber is best known as one of the leading scholars and founders of modern sociology and also an economist. He dealed with sociology of religion in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism and continued with the analysis of The Religion of China: Confucianism and Taoism, The Religion of India: The Sociology of Hinduism and Buddhism, and Ancient Judaism. After his analysis on religions Weber mentioned that Calvinist (Protestan) religious ideas had had an important affects in developing social innovations and economic system of Europe and U.S. by stating that they are not the only factors in this improvement. His had studies about sociology of politics and government also.He seperated three types of political leadership, domination and authority: charismatic domination (familial and religious), traditional domination (patriarchs, patrimonalism, feudalism), and legal domination (modern law and state, bureaucracy.

While Max Weber is best known and recognised today as one of the leading scholars and founders of modern sociology, he also accomplished much in other fields, notably economics, although this is largely forgotten today among orthodox economists, who pay very little attention to his works. The view that Weber is at all influential to modern economists comes largely from non-economists and economic critics with sociology backgrounds. During his life distinctions between the social sciences were less clear than they are now, and Weber considered himself a historian and an economist first, sociologist distant second.From the view poin tof the economists Weber is thought to be a German historical school of economics. The one of the most important studies of Weber was the essay named “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism” in this essay he discussed the difference between different religions and the relative wealth of their followers.The other important study of him was The theories about Verstehen (interprative sociology) and antipositivism (humanistic socilogy).

Max Weber formulated a three-component theory of stratification, with Social class, Social status and party (or politicals) as conceptually distinct elements

Social class: includes the relatioship (economical) with the market.(owner renter employee)

Status: noneconomical qualities (honur,prestige and religion)

Party: includes the political elements

Weber's other contributions to economics were several: these include a (seriously researched) economic history of Roman agrarian society, his work on the roles of idealism and materialism in the history of capitalism in his Economy and Society (1914) which present Weber's criticisms (or according to some, revisions) of some aspects of Marxism. Finally, his thoroughly researched General Economic History (1923) can be considered the Historical School at its empirical best.

References:
1-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Weber
2-ansiklopedi.turkcebilgi.com/Max_Weber

Henry FAYOL

Henry Fayol was born in İstanbul, he was a French management theorist and an engineer (mine director).He has taken place in English literature after his studies were translated in to English.He is one of the most important contributors of the concept of scientific management and he has proposed 5 functions of managements: 1) planning, 2) organizing, 3) commanding, 4) coordinating and 5) controlling.His book named “General and Industrial Management” is an extraordinary book that offers the first theory of general management.

According to Fayol management is a human activity which requires the same behaviour that is necessary to manage a person’s own family.Some writers associated Fayol with Taylor but Fayol states about his difference by mentioning that ” Taylor's approach differs from the one we have outlined in that he examines the firm from the "bottom up."According to Fayol “the most marked outward characteristics of functional management lies in the fact that each workman, instead of coming in direct contact with the management at one point only, … receives his daily orders and help from eight different bosses…(Fayol, 1949, p. 68.)”
1- Division of work. This principle is the same as Adam Smith's 'division of labour. Specialisation increases output by making employees more efficient.
2- Authority. Managers must be able to give orders. Authority gives them this right. Note that responsibility arises wherever authority is exercised.
3- Discipline. Employees must obey and respect the rules that govern the organisation. Good discipline is the result of effective leadership, a clear understanding between management and workers regarding the organisation's rules,
4- Unity of command. Every employee should receive orders from only one superior.
5- Unity of direction. Each group of organisational activities that have the same objective should be directed by one manager using one plan.
6- Subordination of individual interests to the general interest. The interests of any one employee or group of employees should not take precedence over the interests of the organisation as a whole.
7- Remuneration. Workers must be paid a fair wage for their services.
8- Centralisation. Centralisation refers to the degree to which subordinates are involved in decision making. Whether decision making is centralised (to management) or decentralised (to subordinates) is a question of proper proportion. The task is to find the optimum degree of centralisation for each situation.
9- Scalar chain. The line of authority from top management to the lowest ranks represents the scalar chain. Communications should follow this chain. However, if following the chain creates delays, cross-communications can be allowed if agreed to by all parties and superiors are kept informed.
10- Order. People and materials should be in the right place at the right time.
11- Equity. Managers should be kind and fair to their subordinates.
12- Stability of tenure of personnel. High employee turnover is inefficient. Management should provide orderly personnel planning and ensure that replacements are available to fill vacancies.
13- Initiative. Employees who are allowed to originate and carry out plans will exert high levels of effort.
14- Esprit de corps. Promoting team spirit will build harmony and unity within the organisation.

References:
1- http://everything2.net/?node_id=1021426
2- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Fayol

Frank Bunker GILBRETH- Lillian Moller GILBRETH (GILBRETHS)

One of the greatest couple of the science and engineering. Frank and Lillian Gilbreth worked in an extremeley good coorporation for the development of motion and time study as en engineering and management tecnique.Frank Gilbreth’s education was no longer than high school. He started as a bricklayer then he became a building conductor, an inventor and finally he became an occasional lecturer. He and Lillian Moller married and they started to work together. Their motion and time studies had something to do with the fact that they have extremely large family. Frank Bunker Gilbreth used himself and his family in the experiments..Gilbreth’s first trade was to find ways of making bricklaying faster and easier. To acheive this he and his wife developed 18 basic motion that involves grasp ,transport loaded, hold etc.. These motions were called “therbligs” and by creating these they aimed to develop the best method in working. These elements were studied by means of a motion-picture camera and a timing device which indicated the time intervals on the film as it was exposed. Gilbreths were, above all, scientists who sought to teach managers that all aspects of the workplace should be constantly questioned, and improvements constantly adopted. Their emphasis on the "one best way" and the therbligs predates the development of continuous quality improvement (CQI), and the late 20th century understanding that repeated motions can lead to workers experiencing repetitive motion injuries. Frank Gilbreth also designed the standart tecniques used by armies to teach recruits how to rapidly disassemble and reassemble their weapons even when blindfolded or in total darkness. These tecniques helped save millions of lives. After Frank Gilbreth's death, Dr. Lillian Gilbreth continued the work and extended it into the home in an effort to find the "one best way" to perform household tasks. She has also worked in the area of assistance to the handicaped, as, for instance, her design of an ideal kitchen layout for the person afflicted with heart disease. She is widely recognized as one of the world's great industrial and management engineers and has traveled and worked in many countries of the world.

Although it is thought that Gilbreths were inspired by Taylor’s ideas, there were some differences between the two. Taylor was like a stopwacth (koronometer) which means that Taylor generally deals with the time of the production process, while The Gilbreths aim to reduce the motions in production. For The Gilbreths welfare and psychological situation of the workers were more important. Especially Lillian Gilbreth being an industrial - organizational psychologist contributed his husband’s studies by taking into account the workers’ psychological sides in order to increase efficiency. Also Gilbreths developed the triple promotion plan which means that workers would do their own missions, get ready to be promoted and at the same time they would educate the other workers.

References:
1-http://gilbrethnetwork.tripod.com/bio.html
2-en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lillian_Moller_Gilbreth -
3-en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Bunker_Gilbreth –
4-www2.aku.edu.tr/~hozutku/sayfalar/klasik.ppt