Assessing the Performance of the Engineering Department

In Assessing the Performance of the Engineering Department, you'll learn ...

• Methodical ways to define the Engineering Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) such that they improve the performance of the Engineering function
• Typical KPIs used in Engineering that are aligned with the Lean 6-Sigma processes around Safety, Quality, Timeliness, Cost, and Productivity
• The need to have KPIs that measure opposing areas, to be able to gain a closer to complete view of the Engineering performance
• The best ways to define and use KPI Dashboards for Engineering

Overview

Preview a portion of this course before purchasing it.

Credit: 5 PDH

Length: 82 pages

The performance of the Engineering Department is critical to a Company’s success. Understanding how well the Engineering processes are executed is the first step to enhancing them, and to improve the associated deliverables. But the Engineering metrics are often viewed with a dose of skepticism and organizational inertia, more as a way to reactively comply than as a useful tool. A positive approach is to look at the metrics and see them as a start to proactively prepare for outstanding performance. A healthy and forward-looking organization can only benefit from implementing and analyzing a robust set of key metrics.

Often the complexities and the variety of Engineering work make it difficult to obtain robust, reliable, and actionable metrics. However, if the Engineering procedural complexities are well understood and accepted, and if the intrinsic desire to absolute precision is reasonably controlled, highly beneficial metrics can be defined and implemented with great success.

This course introduces a few methodic approaches for defining Engineering KPIs that not only are relevant to the Engineering function, but also answer the Company’s strategic short- and long-term objectives, and connect well with the KPIs of the adjacent functions. More than 80 metrics are suggested for use, which can be combined in relevant KPI panels. The Engineers can apply those directly or use them as a starting block to define additional KPIs that are relevant to the specific function of their Department.

Providing a way to better understand the performance of the Engineering group, this course answers the needs of Engineering Managers and Engineers who aspire to think strategically and to progress their career into Engineering leadership.

Specific Knowledge or Skill Obtained

This course teaches the following specific knowledge and skills:

• The applicability, general characteristics and specifics of metrics and kpis in the Engineering function
• Appropriate ways to define the Engineering metrics, select the appropriate kpis, assign the targets, implement the data tracking process, and apply the continuous improvement actions
• The typical lifecycle of newly implemented kpis
• Categories of work executed by the Engineering group, how they answer the Company’s needs, and how the associated metrics are able to evaluate the Engineering performance in all those areas
• Typical kpis that measure the effectiveness of the internal Engineering processes, of the Engineering suppliers, of the Engineering personnel and their skills, the NPI / R&D activities and the levels of unproductive time - typical examples are provided
• Product based kpis, such as assessing the levels of Environmentally-friendly solutions, the reliability of
• Products, and the Cost-out performance - typical examples are provided
• The Creative Engineering Design Assessment (CEDA) method that evaluates the levels of Engineering creativity and its applicability; also, understand the CEDA-modified method

Certificate of Completion

You will be able to immediately print a certificate of completion after passing a multiple-choice quiz consisting of 25 questions. PDH credits are not awarded until the course is completed and quiz is passed.