Improved design methodology practice: successful matching of tasks and employees
Year: 2013
Editor: John Lawlor, Ger Reilly, Robert Simpson, Michael Ring, Ahmed Kovacevic, Mark McGrath, William Ion, David Tormey, Erik Bohemia, Chris McMahon, Brian Parkinson
Author: Hinsch, Malte Sebastian; Heller, Jan Erik; Feldhusen, Jörg
Series: E&PDE
Institution: Chair and Institute for Engineering Design, Germany
Section: Design Methodology
Page(s): 014-019
ISBN: 978-1-904670-42-1
Abstract
Choosing the right employees for a given task has great influence on the quality of the results and the time needed. Executives who have to decide, which employees are best suited for a task, often make those decisions based on experience or emotions. Therefore, these decisions are usually complicated to trace and executives with little or no experience often have difficulties choosing the right employees. Teaching the mechanisms of employee placement provides a solid basis for future engineersâ work practice, as the right choice of collaborators is vital for success. The method proposed is especially designed for research and development (R&D) departments in engineering companies. Its purpose is to assist executives in assigning the most appropriate employee to a typical task in their department. Two models and a linking algorithm for the successful allocation of employees enable the assignment. Insights gained in this paper are intended to both improve R&D practice as well as the education of design engineersâ education in the future and will be transferred into education practice. Furthermore, understanding the mechanisms behind successful task execution can support better teaching concepts.
Keywords: Design methodology, employee allocation, engineering tasks, research & development