Monday, February 18, 2013

Father of Engineering Management - Henri Fayol



Henri Fayol is the Father of Engineering Management.

Henri Fayol may also be known as Father of  Modern Management itself. But he initiated the discussion of management as a component of properly doing or administering engineering activity.


You can see the emphasis of Henri Fayol on Engineering Management or Industrial Management or Technology Management in his first sentence of the book "General and Industrial Management."

All activities to which industrial undertakings give rise can be divided into the following six groups-

1. Technical activities (production, manufacture, adaptation)
2. Commercial activities (buying, selling, exchange)
3. Financial activities (search for and optimum use of capital)
4. Security activities (protection of property and persons)
5. Accounting activities (planning, organization, command, statistics)
6. Managerial activities (planning, organization, command, co-ordination, control)


In an industrial undertaking, the six essential functions are closely interdependent. Production cannot exist without raw materials, sales outlets, capital and payment system based on accounts.

Management is not exclusive privilege of one person in an organization. It is an activity carried out in varying degrees by many people in the organization. Fayor indicated that even workman does some management activities.

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Class of                Managerial  Technical   Commercial   Financial  Security  Accounting
Employee

Workman                   5%            85%                                              5%          5%
Foreman                   15               60                  5%                         10           10
Superintendent          25               45                  5             5              10          15
Head-of-Section        30               30                  5             5              10          20
Head-Tech-dept        35               30                 10            5              10          10
Manager - CEO        40               15                 15           10              10          10

CEO - Several          50               10                 10           10               10         10
Establishments

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The important point to note is the importance of the technical function. Even if one is the CEO of an engineering concern, his understanding and direction engineering activities is very important and every engineering manager has to be involved deeply in engineering activities early in his career.


Fayol gave a similar table for CEOs of one man technical firm to large technical company

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Size of Business           Managerial  Technical   Commercial   Financial  Security  Accounting

One man                            15            40                  20            10            5          10
Small firm                          25            30                  15            10           10         10
Medium size                      30             25                  15            10           10         10
Large firm                         40             15                  15            10           10         10
Very large firm                    50             10                 10             10           10         10
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References

Henri Fayol, General and Industrial Management, Sir Issac Pitman & Sons, 1949