MSc Systems Engineering Management

This module provides a series of strategic frameworks for managing high-technology businesses.

The module emphasises the development and application of conceptual models which clarify the relationships between a firm's strategy, technological and market change patterns and processes for the development of organizational capabilities.

This module is not about how to manage product or process development. The main focus of this module is on acquiring a set of powerful analytical tools, which are critical for developing a technology strategy as an integral part of business strategy. These tools can provide a guiding framework for deciding which technologies to invest in, how to structure those investments and how to anticipate and respond to the behaviour of competitors, suppliers, and customers. The module should be of particular interest to those interested in managing a business for which technology is likely to play a major role, and those interested in consulting or venture capital.

The module utilizes lectures, case analyses and independent reading. The readings are drawn from research in strategy, technological change and organizational theory. The case studies provide an extensive opportunity to integrate and apply these abstract tools in a practical, business policy and Industry 4.0 context.

This module aims to introduce students to the theories and principles of Systems Thinking. The module also introduces the methods, tools and techniques for modelling, analysing, improving and designing systems in a variety of organisations including industrial, commercial and public sector.

The module covers: Systems theory, concepts and approaches; Hard and soft systems analysis and systems dynamics; Systems and organisational performance – including leadership in a systems environment and ‘design’ in a systems environment and Practical application of Systems Thinking.

At the end of this module students will be able to:

• show clearer understanding and knowledge of hard and soft approaches and how they can be used to deal with complexity and system behaviour in a business context
• develop understanding of fundamental cybernetic principles that form the foundations of Checkland’s Soft System Methodology and Beer’s Viable System Model
• develop knowledge and skills in systems analysis and business process modelling
• critically evaluate the most appropriate methodology to model, analyse and design engineering/business systems across a range of organisations
• demonstrate an understanding of how to model a business system and to develop a solution to solve a business system problem
• develop an awareness of the importance of system approaches in management interventions

Assessment and feedback is in the form of a group presentation and one coursework in the form of a reflective diary.

This module aims to introduce the basic principles and techniques of engineering risk management and demonstrates the appropriate application of this knowledge within an engineering context.

The module covers: Risk definitions and basic risks in engineering; Risk management processes; Reliability - achieving reliability; Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Safety (RAMS) cycle; failure rate; Mean Time Between Failure; Mean Time to Fail; Mean Life; failure stages within bathtub distribution; downtime; repair time and availability; Risk classification - failure rate; severity and detection; As Low As Reasonably Practicable (ALARP); Risk identification - Failure Modes and Affects Analysis; Hazard and Operability Study; Fault and Event Tree Analysis; Risk-based decision making – uncertainty, decision trees, Pareto optimality, Analytic Hierarchy Process and Risk legislation and litigation in engineering.

At the end of this module students will be able to:

• Demonstrate awareness of and ability to make general evaluations of risk issues in the context of the particular specialisation, including health & safety, environmental and commercial risk
• Demonstrate awareness of relevant regulatory requirements governing engineering activities
• Demonstrate ability to work with information that may be incomplete or uncertain, quantify the effect of this on the design and, where appropriate, use theory or experimental research to mitigate deficiencies

Assessment and feedback is in the form of a group coursework to show understanding of the risk management process in practice (100% for group contribution and submission of main reports).

This module aims to develop an understanding of the principles of complexity and the systems architecting process to allow application to a wide range of engineering, business and socio-technical systems.

The module covers: Understanding types of systems and their requirements: engineering systems; business systems; socio-technical systems; System architecting process; Architecting using different perspectives: enterprise; operational; systems; logical; physical; decision; The lifecycle perspective; Optimising the solution; Applying architecting in practice.

At the end of this module students will be able to:

• Demonstrate an understanding of how complicatedness, complexity, uncertainty are related to systems
• Describe how systems can be adapted in order to make them adaptable, resilient, agile and sustainable
• Demonstrate the use of a structured approach in order to create enterprise, operational, systems, logical, physical and decision architectures
• Apply optimisation techniques to improve relevant aspects of the system’s performance
• Use appropriate research techniques in order to demonstrate integration between the system perspectives
• Demonstrate that good research practice has been adopted in investigating, modelling and documenting the architecting of an engineering, business or socio-technical system

Assessment and feedback is in the form of coursework (100%), there is no exam

You'll learn about the principles of complexity and the systems-architecting process which can be applied to a wide range of engineering, business and socio-technical systems.

This module aims to introduce students to the “softer” aspects of engineering management. Given some key organisational and technological issues, the main focus is to examine the relationship between “human” elements and change management from an engineering-oriented perspective.

At the end of this module students will be able to:

• Discuss key issues in organisation and technology by critically defining and discussing key characteristics of an organisation and evaluating the impact of technology on the workplace of the future
• Understand modern people management concepts and practices by evaluating leadership and motivation techniques using analytical approaches and will demonstrate critical understanding of the role of people in a modern organisation
• Identify the challenges and consequences of change, including defining and discussing the skills required to handle organisational change and the drivers and obstacles towards organisational change
• Understand the impact of organisational and technological issues on people when managing changes. This includes identifying drivers and obstacles from organisational, technological and human perspectives using analytical methods as well as creating strategies to help implement changes

Assessment and feedback is given in the form of:

• Group presentations and a group report
• An individual essay

This module will enable participants to understand the principles and techniques of Systems Engineering.  Participants will learn how to apply systems engineering techniques in engineering contexts, taking into account a range of regulatory requirements as well as commercial and industrial constraints.

The module will teach the following:

• background and design for competitiveness and sustainability
• integrated Product Development, and different approaches and aspects to design development including concurrent engineering, team engineering, product management, design management, distributed design, and decision support
• the design activity, methods and process models including the role of the market, specification, conceptual and detailed design
• basic team and management structures (organisation)
• key issues related to design complexities (e.g. relating to the people, processes, resources, product, key considerations, knowledge and information, decision making) and the key aspects of design co-ordination 
• design performance and innovation

This module aims for students to integrate and apply design, manufacturing and engineering management knowledge and skills to an industry based product and process development project and to develop project management skills.

The module consists of a team-based industrial project where an outline project brief is set by an industrial client. The team is expected to manage all aspects of the project through to a finished solution. This can be a product, system or process depending on the nature of the project. Teams meet with academic staff and industrial clients regularly through the project.

At the end of this module students will be able to:

• Have in-depth understanding and knowledge of products and management practices in industry
• Critically review and evaluate products and management practices of the particular company and the business impact of proposed solution
• Demonstrate knowledge and ability in applying and using various analysis and modelling tools and techniques
• Demonstrate project planning and management, presentation, consulting and team working skills
• Plan, control and lead an industrial project from inception to completion.
• Evidence achieving deliverables which meet the client company requirements.

Assessment and feedback includes a project report, a presentation to the client and any other deliverables specified in the project brief.

The aim of the individual project is to allow students to combine the skills learned in other modules of the course and apply them within a significant project in a specific area of design, manufacture, or engineering management. This will be achieved through students carrying out work into a particular topic relating to their course and preparing a dissertation that documents the project.

On completion of the module the student is expected to be able to:

• Define a valid project in a cutting-edge field of study relevant to the student’s degree – with an appropriate methodology and work plan for the project
• Plan, manage and complete project, involving where appropriate technical analysis and independent critical thinking. This involves giving a thorough, logical and critical review of the subject matter; using appropriate tools, processes and levels of analysis in the project and applying project management techniques to manage a successful project
• Document their project using suitable presentation techniques (such as language, figures, writing, layout, structure etc.); showing clear evidence of the value of the project and its outcomes and describing the project with clarity

Based on the work of a project, a student will submit an individual dissertation that will account for 90% of the final mark for the class. An interim project justification report will account for the remaining 10% of the mark.

You'll be introduced to the concepts of multi-perspective product modelling and techniques used to visualise products before they are fully designed and manufactured.

This module aims to introduce the fundamental techniques of risk management, risk-informed decision making and the general principles of risk analysis and its place in risk management, as well as the chance to develop skills in applying these methods to a variety of engineering examples.

The module covers: modelling approaches and methods used by industry currently to manage risk; tools and techniques that are gaining popularity in industry but are not widespread; the basic principles of uncertainty and consequence modelling and the tools and techniques required to apply these principles and Industry standard processes and software tools.

At the end of this module students will be able to:

• understand theory that underpins standard approaches to elicitation of expert judgment
• understand basic theory of fault and event tree modelling
• understand the standard approaches to modelling dependency between random variables
• develop the ability to assess the robustness of a risk model
• understand the standard methods used in ALARP decision-making
• appreciate the consequences of choosing specific measures for risk

Assessment and feedback is in the form of 40% individual work and 60% group work.

You'll gain a structured introduction to the design management process, issues and tools.

You'll develop the skills to design develop and implement knowledge and information management systems.

You'll develop the skills to address global challenges in sustainable product development and the study of environmental legislation.

The aim of this module is to provide students with knowledge and understanding of the key concepts for the Design for Industry 4 and Smart Products, current practices, tools and processes, and possible future development routes.

This class introduces two main forms of business simulation: discrete-event simulation and system dynamics (a continuous simulation technique).