Engineering Management MSc 2021/22 entry

Your mandatory study themes are:

• Industry 4.0 and the Engineering Digital Environment: This module aims to provide students with knowledge of the key components of Industry 4.0 and how they can add value to engineering management and business performance. Students will gain a comprehensive understanding of the capability of emerging digital engineering tools, and the current readiness of industry to embrace and adopt Industry 4.0 concepts. They will be also challenged to examine applications of Big Data in practice, to identify improvements achieved and to critically evaluate issues of cybersecurity and data protection.
• Global Engineering Strategy: We adopt a global perspective of strategy, focusing on the means to achieve long-term profitability within industrial companies. Increasingly, companies in international markets are competing through both their product offering and their manufacturing activities. As such, the ability to respond to customer demand by developing new products quickly and effectively is an important way of creating a structural competitive advantage. This focus on the market place similarly drives the development of strategies for the manufacturing function, in that it must support the company’s marketing objectives and also be able to provide a competitive advantage in the global market place.
• Financial Decision Making and Risk Analysis: Teaches key financial concepts and their application towards the establishment of a financially sound business. It should enable you to develop sufficient financial knowledge to be able to evaluate your own decision making in the context of a company’s long- term strategic development.
• Project Management: Teaches how to manage organisational change through projects. We focus on projects involving major changes, including issues related to new products, new plant and equipment and new operating systems, which will affect the lives of people both within and without the organisation. We take a high level, critical and evaluative view of the subject, emphasizing managerial and strategic use of the tools and techniques of project management.
• Consultancy: We will be covering this in the professional development topic as part of the Chartered Management Institute element of the course, in which there is additional certification awarded.

Pathway themes are:

1. Engineering Business Management Pathway

• Entrepreneurship and Innovation for Engineers: Successful innovation is critical to a company’s success. You will have the chance to develop an important capability to analyse a company’s strategic approach to innovation management including the company’s culture and the role of the individual within the process, and as a result, potentially improve company performance through recommending strategic changes to improve a company’s innovation management.
• Supply Chain Management: This Module aims to equip students with an understanding of the importance of supply chain management from both a customer and supplier perspective, and aims to prepare them for managerial roles within an industrial or commercial supply organisation. It takes a high level, critical and evaluative view, emphasising managerial and strategic use of theories, concepts and analytical tools appropriate to supply chain management.
• Sustainability and the Environment: You are taught how to develop and implement business models and strategies within the appropriate frameworks to comply with future requirements for sustainability, studying various aspects of sustainability (economic, social, environment), sustainable operations, and sustainability challenges.

2. Technical Pathway

• Design Principles and Practice: This module aims to develop an understanding of a systematic approach to the design process, design management, and creative problem solving, leading to the development of an artefact ready for manufacture. Design as a process will be applied via a series of principles to assist the progression of the project to reach a suitable solution and evaluating that against the initial brief. This module should help strengthen the student's understanding of CAD by examining current industry standard methods and criteria, and its relationship with production methods and part variation from design nominal dimensional values. 3D computer solid modelling will be covered using the latest industry standard software, interfacing with current leading production machines.
• Future and Advanced Manufacturing Materials and Technologies: The aim of this module is to investigate the introduction and use of leading edge technologies, methods and materials currently used in advanced and high value manufacturing environments. Students will have the opportunity to learn to critically assess these advanced manufacturing areas in terms of cost, complexity of manufacture and end-of-life consequences (e.g. remanufacture and recycling). Students will also be expected to evaluate future manufacturing concepts (e.g. 'factory of the future', hybrid processes, smart materials, autonomous decision making.) and the development of future looking strategies, formal investigation processes and techniques for analysing and assessing the feasibility of emerging technologies and materials for manufacture. In summary, this module is designed to equip students not only with a strong knowledge and appreciation of advanced manufacturing but also to help them develop the appropriate skills to identify and critically evaluate future trends and requirements .
• Automation and Robotics: This module seeks to provide an understanding of the application of automation techniques and mechatronics in manufacturing. The module is intended to equip the student with knowledge to specify, design and develop automation systems. An understanding of applications for robots is taught, and students will get practical involvement in on-line and off-line robot programming. PLC control systems are taught and students will experience practical programming of ladder logic code to achieve specific control outcomes. An artefact-assisted problem solving approach is used as the basis of encouraging the student to work through the automation requirements for an artefact and arrive at a sensible solution for automated manufacture.

3. Operations Pathway

• Global Lean and Agile Operations: In the fast-moving global market place of today, agility enables manufacturing industry to thrive in an environment of continuous and unanticipated change. It is an overall strategy focused on rapid response to unpredictable customer demand. Lean operations, on the other hand, is often seen as a collection of operational techniques focused on the elimination of waste to increase productive use of resource to make value flow. It is often considered to be the precursor to agility. This module will review both concepts and through industrial case studies and examples, will enable the student to assess how these two techniques can work together, evaluating the benefits and limitations.
• Management of quality: You will have the chance to learn to appreciate the importance of quality as a strategy for continuous improvement in business performance, examining progressive strategies for competitive quality, quality in design and manufacture and the customer supply chain right through to the concept of ‘Total Quality’. In addition to the foundation of quality as a strategy for continuous improvement in the provision of successful and competitive products and services to customers, you will have the opportunity to learn how to integrate other critical aspects of world class business performance from such topics as supply chain management, global lean and agile operations, and professional development.
• Optimisation and Simulation: We aim to provide a broad understanding and knowledge of several production engineering and operations management concepts, which should enable you to map and analyse and manage engineering production operations using Operational Research techniques including Simulation to identify problems and provide solutions before actual implementation. These techniques will be used to model and optimise both deterministic and probabilistic production engineering problems.

Actual teaching contact hours will vary depending on the requirements of a particular semester, you will study two taught semesters and 1 project semester over the course of the year. For taught semesters in a typical week your contact hours will be divided amongst personal tutorials, medium group teaching in tutorial sessions, labs and workshops activities as well as large group teaching in lectures.
Additionally, you will be expected to undertake significant self-directed study approximately 30-35 hours each week, depending on the demands of individual modules. The number of contact hours may vary from semester to semester, however, on average, it is likely to be around 12 contact hours per week in the taught semesters. Your project based semester will be supervisor supported, self-directed study in the region of 38 hours per week as well as supervisor meetings around 1 hour per week and optional workshops supporting your project which can add up to 10 additional hours across your project semester.

The contact hours may be made up of a combination of face-to-face teaching, individual and group tutorials, and online classes and tutorials. As an innovative and enterprising institution, the University may seek to utilise emerging technologies within the student experience. For all courses (whether on-campus, blended, or distance learning), the University may deliver certain contact hours and assessments via online technologies and methods.

The University may deliver certain contact hours and assessments via emerging online technologies and methods across all courses. In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, we are prepared for courses due to start in or after the 2020/2021 academic year to be delivered in a variety of forms. The form of delivery will be determined in accordance with Government and Public Health guidance. Whether on campus or online, our key priority is staff and student safety.

Due to the ongoing restrictions relating to Covid-19, some facilities (including some teaching and learning spaces) and some non-academic offerings (particularly in relation to international experiences), may vary from those advertised and may have reduced availability or restrictions on their use.

In addition, you will be expected to undertake an average of approximately 35 hours of self-directed study each week, for example reading additional material as required by the lecturer, undertaking research, doing background reading, and working on assessments.

The University is committed to providing a global educational experience, which is reflected throughout the teaching experience. The course has previously recruited diverse international graduates and promotes multicultural experience.

Please note that we are unable to guarantee any placement or study abroad opportunities and that any such opportunities referred to on this webpage may be subject to additional costs (e.g. travel, visas and accommodation etc.), competitive application, availability and/or meeting any applicable visa requirements. To ensure that you fully understand the requirements in this regard, please contact the International Office for further details if you are an EU or International student.