Engineering Role - Engineers have Created the Current Standard of Living

(This reading was written by my Innovation professor Ed Crow.  He was a Senior VP of Pratt and Whitney, the company responsible for the jet engines on most of the aircraft you've ever flown on.  He is an outstanding role model and he has motivated me immensely.  He always said, "innovate wherever you are, your home, your workplace, because these are the things with which you are most familiar")

I think this reading is especially valuable because innovative engineers are the only way that the standard of living can increase for many Indians.  Professor Crow was incredibly enthusiastic about my trip to India, having been here himself many times. Don't mind the typos, there's many...

Engineers use their knowledge of mathematics and physical laws to create “What has never been”.  Sometimes, “creating what has never been” is called innovation or creating value in fact many times these terms will be used interchangeably in this Text.   So far, most of your Engineering Career has been studying to gain a basic understanding of mathematics and the physical laws of nature.  After graduation and for the next 40 years that you are expected to practice Engineering you will be creating “What has never been”.  This creation may be an incremental improvement of a process or a transformation creation that opens an entire new vista to Mankind.  Indeed, Engineering more than any other field has allowed the population of the Earth to increase and at the same time increased the standard of living for the population. The object of creating a product, service or improving an existing product or service is to create value.  The only thing in the Universe that is unlimited is the human brain.  Unlike the industrial age, improvements in knowledge-based products and services have no upper limits.  So if we are to live in a World of Abundance, “creating what has never been” is essential.  For ultimately, the major problems the World faces (human poverty, health problems and balance of the human population and the environment) will only be addressed by our ability to “create what has never been”.    Some of the questions we need to ask and have answers for are:  Will the Earth be able to support future population growth?   Can the standard of living in Connecticut and the United States continue to increase?  What is the health of United States’ Engineering population?  Can the United States continue to compete in a Global Economy?  How will outsourcing affect Engineering in the United States? How many Engineers do we need?   For insight into these questions, please read, Attachment 1 – “The Importance of Engineering to the State of Connecticut, the United States, and the World” and the introduction and Chapters 1 and 2 of “ INNVATION” (please note these are provided on the CD).

“Many people are confused about what leads to successful innovations.  Innovation is not just the invention of some clever new gadget.  It is much more that.  Innovation is the successful creation and delivery of a new or improved product or service in the marketplace.  Or to put it another way, innovation is the process that turns an idea into value for the customer and results in sustainable profit for the enterprise.  Innovations can be incremental (a child’s new toy) or transformational (the development of instant photography).  In all cases innovations deliver new customer value in the marketplace.” (From “Innovation” by Carlson and Wilmot).    The new product, service or an improvement to a product or service, which you as an engineer will create, needs to create value for your customer, value for your company, and value for yourself. And any idea no matter how good that does not reach the customer does not create value.    Some of the questions we need to ask and have answers for to understand your role are:  What is value?   Is value the same for your customer, your company, and you?  That is, you create value by creating something that satisfies a customers needs.  What are needs? What are the future trends that will drive world needs?  What are product or service attributes that add value?  How are value and quality related?   Please study Attachment 2- “What is Value” and Chapters 3 and 4 of “INNOVATION” (provided on the CD) to help get a crisp understanding of value.

The role Engineers in any established or new startup company is to insure the survival of the company by creating products and services that the company can produce and sell at a profit.  However, process of putting a new product or service has many pit falls in fact most new business fail and most programs to put new products or services into service do not succeed. Even though approximate 2 out of three new businesses or new products/services fail the pace of introduction of new businesses and new products/services is increasing.  The consequence of this increased rate of change is that businesses last less than one third the length of time they did 40 years ago.  The internet expansion of knowledge and global economy will continue to increase the rate of change and thereby decrease the life times of companies throughout your career.  The listing below shows some of the many ways that a program to place a new/improved product or service into the marketplace or for that matter a new business can fail. Programs to produce new products or services fail because they over run the estimated cost of put a new product or service into the marketplace. Faced with these over runs the Company either cannot afford to continue or invests its money in another area.   Programs to produce new products or services fail because the new product or service does not enter the market when planned.  This failure can allow a different Company to put a competing product or service into the marketplace first, or a new technology can made the new product or service obsolete, or that the late entry into the market misses major sales opportunity. Programs for new products or services can fail because the quality of the new product or service does not meet customer expectations. That is it does not create customer value.  Programs to produce new products and services can fail because the actual cost to produce the product or service is higher than planned.   That is the value created for the customer does not match what it cost the company to produce the product.  Programs to produce new products and services can fail because of the size of the market was over estimated. That is, the company can never recover its investment required to design and develop the product or service.  Programs for new products and services fail because the capacity to produce quantity of the new product or service is not in place when the product or service enters the marketplace. The first measure of quality of a product or service to a customer is “did I get it when I wanted it” and if the answer is no then the customer may select a competing product or service.   Programs to produce a new product or service can fail because companies do not supply the necessary customer support.  That is, the customer does not know how to use or maintain the product or service and the companies customer support is very difficult to obtain.   Programs for a new product or service can fail because the process to put a new product or service into the market does not produced planned “deliverables”.  That is the company assumed when it made the investment the product or service would have “deliverables” which would create customer value but the new product or service that actually came out of design and manufacturing then enters service does not meet these “deliverables”.      

Major items the Student should learn from this discussion are:

AN ENGINEERS ROLE IS TO USE KNOWLEDGE OF PHYISICS AND MATH TO

“CREATE WHAT HAS NEVER BEEN”. THIS CREATION IS THE LIFE BLOOD OF A NEW OR AN EXISTING COMPANY

THE INTERNET WILL HAVE A MAJOR IMPACT DURING YOUR CAREER.  YOU NEED TO MOVE UP THE FOOD CHAIN FROM ANALYSIS WORK THAT MANY ENGINEERS DO TODAY TO CREATING NEW PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

POPULATION, CONSUMERISM, ENVIROMENTISM, AND  GLOBAL ECONOMY  WILL BE MAJOR FORCES THOUGHOUT YOUR CAREER

RATE OF INTRODUCTION OF NEW PRODUCTS AND SERVICES TO THE MARKETPLACE IS INCREASING AND WILL CONTINUE TO INCREASE, CONVERSELY THE RATE OF FAILURE OF COMPANIES WILL CONTINUE TO INCREASE

KNOWLEDGE BASED PRODUCTS AND SERVICES HAVE NO LIMITS

INNOVATION IS THE KEY TO A WORLD OF ABUDANCE

VALUE IS PRICE THAT SOMEONE WILL PAY FOR A PRODUCT OR SERVICE

COST IS WHAT IT COST TO PRODUCE A PRODUCT OR SERVICE

COST AND PRICE HAVE NO RELATIONSHIP

THE U.S. HAS THREE ADVANTAGES RELATIVE TO THE REST OF THE WORLD.  THEY ARE FREE MARKET, DIVERSITY AND BEST TRAINED ENGINEERING WORK FORCE IN THE WORLD