In modern business, engineering is a complex of provided engineering, technical and consulting services for the development and preparation of the construction process and industrial production, to ensure the normal functioning of the construction of facilities, production and sale of goods and services. Engineering services are provided by both professional engineering firms and construction and manufacturing companies.
The emergence of the concept
The concept of engineering originated in England in the second half of the 19th century. At the time, Britain was the most scientifically and technically advanced country and the services of engineers were in great demand. Demand gave birth to supply: engineers, one by one, and then by associations, began to sell their services to production workers for the construction of new factories and plants, as well as for the technical modernization of existing ones. At that time, the term engineering meant the provision of services for the construction, refurbishment and operation of industrial facilities and infrastructure.
A new impetus to the development of engineering was given by the high rates of construction that were carried out in European countries after the end of the Second World War. The need to rehabilitate and build new large facilities in European countries, and then in developing countries, led to a demand for engineering services for the implementation of large turnkey facilities. Often, customers needed not only help in construction, but also in operation, in training their specialists. That is why the range of engineering services has significantly expanded and supplemented, and the market for such services has been divided into domestic and global, profile and non-core.
Closer to the 80s of the XX century, there was a need for the systematization and unification of engineering services, including at the global level. In response to this need, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe has developed various regulations related to engineering services.
Modern engineering
Nowadays, the terms "engineering" and "project management" are closely related on a theoretical and practical level. Engineering is more often understood as the same management, but with a deep bias in the subject area. In the areas of activity, engineering can be financial, construction, industrial and others. By the nature of its activity, engineering is divided into the following subgroups:
- pre-design engineering studies the potential market, conducts research on the technical and economic justification for the creation of production, conducts engineering surveys, develops plans for the development of cities and regional centers, transport and other infrastructure, advises and supervises the listed works;
- project engineering develops architectural and master plans, estimates the cost of the project, develops estimate documentation for the construction and operation of a building or structure, drawing documentation, technical specifications and all other documentation required for the implementation of the project, provides consulting and supervisory services for the listed types of work;
- post-project engineering is associated with the preparation of contracts for the production of works, with the organization of tenders, management and supervision of construction, with the conduct of acceptance certificates and tests of the object, with the development of construction and technical documents for the finished object, with the training of engineering and technical specialists to work on the completed facility, with various activities for the commissioning and commissioning of this facility;
- additional services related to the specifics of each specific object.
Complex engineering
This type of engineering implies the provision of a full range of services for the justification, design and implementation of the project, including the provision of various technologies and innovations, equipment and equipment, work on the delivery of a building or structure on a turnkey basis. The complex engineering functional includes:
- Study of specific market and production situations directly related to the developed object. For example, if a warehouse center is created, access routes to it are checked, etc.
- Development and execution of architectural, technical and planning documentation for the construction of a building or structure.
- Full technical and supervisory support of all construction work, work on transferring the facility into operation, organization of the production process at the facility.
Construction engineering
This concept means all types of engineering work in the construction of industrial and residential facilities, as well as entire districts and cities.
For example, during the construction of an industrial facility, high-quality performance of engineering services makes it possible to locate in-plant warehouses as close as possible to production facilities, calculate convenient transport approaches to the facility, and competently lay intra-plant roads.
Financial engineering
In construction, financial engineering manifests itself in assessing the cost of a project, in the development of all design and estimate documentation for an object, in control and supervision over the use of funds allocated for construction, in reporting for the funds used.
In production, financial engineering develops plans for the development of the enterprise, approximate indicators for the coming periods of time (for the next month, year, etc.), justification of additional costs for new equipment, support. Engineering constantly monitors and analyzes all parameters of the production process, carries out financial and technical supervision over all technological processes.
Industrial engineering
This type of engineering includes the solution of all logistic problems: planning connections between workshops and production departments, between management organizations and centers, between laboratories and developers, between clients and an enterprise.
Direct engineering and reengineering
The concepts of direct engineering and reengineering differ in that direct engineering consists in the development and implementation of new business processes, new types of business, and work on bringing new products to the market.
Reengineering is a set of measures aimed at deep and comprehensive improvement of existing business processes within an enterprise or organization. A radical improvement in the level of development of the enterprise based on a deep analysis of previous activities and the achievement of new characteristics of business processes.
TRIZ-engineering
TRIZ is the theory of inventive problem solving. TRIZ-engineering - science-intensive engineering developments based on new inventions in the field of business processes, as well as on the basis of functional and cost analysis. It is often used in the implementation of innovative projects.
Differences between engineering and design
The main difference between engineering and ordinary design is the presence of new intellectual developments, business ideas in the implementation of the project. The task of implementing the project in life is solved every time with the involvement of something new. Moreover, these intellectual investments will continue to grow and be updated in the future.
Any of the types of engineering always has a multidisciplinary structure, therefore, many specialists of various profiles are involved in solving issues:
- scientific workers;
- economists;
- builders;
- lawyers;
- engineers;
- technicians;
- technologists;
- draftsmen;
- equipment suppliers;
- consultants, etc.
Engineering services are provided by specialized companies, but in many cases they can also be provided by non-core firms, usually selling equipment.
The technological processes of many enterprises are very similar to each other. This allows the engineering company to transfer the experience gained during the implementation from one project to another. Moreover, each time the quality and level of performance of the assigned task becomes higher and higher. However, for each client, the engineering company practices an individual approach, taking into account the wishes of the client, the specifics of his business and other factors.
Engineering as a profession
The most interesting thing is that there is no profession of "engineering" or "engineering specialist". It does not appear either in the "List of Higher Education Specialties" or in the "Nomenclature of Specialties of Scientific Workers".
During the construction boom 2005-2011. in the construction industry, there was a shortage of specialists with a combination of engineering knowledge and commercial acumen, or good managers with a deep understanding of the subject area. Specialists with a higher education in construction and a second higher education went to engineering.
At present, given the demand for specialists in the engineering field, many Russian universities teach engineering courses in its various forms (construction, engineering, finance, etc.).
Taking into account the fact that universities do not produce ready-made specialists in the field of engineering, their functions at enterprises are performed by project managers. And, depending on the type of activity of the enterprise, their positions are named differently:
- in production: managers and project managers, leading specialists and engineers;
- in design organizations, chief engineers;
- in large retail chains: leading managers, line managers, project directors.
But in the international practice of training specialists in engineering, there have long been many systems for the training and certification of project managers. The most famous of them:
- Project Management Institute (PMI);
- International Project Management Assocaition (IPMA);
- Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) for training specialists in computer engineering and others.
