Globalization Brings Forth New Era in Engineering

You're hard at work on a project when you have to stop everything to fix a computer problem. You call your computer manufacturer's help line, where a technician diagnoses and helps you solve the problem. Pretty soon, you return to work.

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Globalization Brings Forth New Era in Engineering

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You're hard at work on a project when you have to stop everything to fix a computer problem. You call your computer manufacturer's help line, where a technician diagnoses and helps you solve the problem. Pretty soon, you return to work.

Do you realize that the technician who just saved your project may have been continents away?

Globalization is here. Globalization is linking national economies. And it is causing unique technical challenges for the business world - in the engineering field, for instance.

The growth of the global economy can be both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, it gives nations the opportunity to reduce manufacturing costs and to compete in a global market. But on the other hand, it becomes more challenging for a business to survive.

Matching the best technical strengths in the world with the lowest cost is the essence of globalization. But with companies engaging in worldwide redistribution of labor and production, engineers in today's workforce are starting to see the effects that the global market has on their jobs.

Now engineers must understand the dynamics of the global marketplace. And there's even more of a challenge for those in the field to expand their traditional technical skills to other areas such as project management, global marketing and foreign languages.

Many colleges and universities are taking a new approach to training and instructing future engineers. In order to prepare students for working abroad and functioning effectively on international design teams, educators have started including technical coursework that includes studying foreign languages and project management.

Beyond these courses, colleges and universities must also create nontraditional academic programs such as intercultural teaming, distance learning and cross-cultural communications.

ASME, a professional organization of engineers, realizes the need for a more global educational engineering curriculum and has started two programs for this purpose.

Its Global Training Program trains engineering instructors in many global markets to administer ASME-approved continuing education courses in their native language.

Engineering Management Certification International is another globally focused program created by ASME; its students earn credentials in project management that are recognized worldwide.

ASME takes pride in identifying the emerging needs and market standards in the engineering industry. For example, ASME has identified China as one such emerging market and soon will open an office in Beijing to promote the use and acceptance of North American standards.

Engineering Job News: Tips To Survive Offshore Outsourcing

The cheap labor costs of Southeast Asia are like a siren call to more and more US employers seeking to lower support costs and improve profits. The increasingly common trend toward outsourcing labor to countries such as India, Malaysia, and Pakistan means jobs are leaking to a part of the world where workers fresh out of college or technical school will work for pennies on the dollar compared to American workers. For the American workers, that means the bar for entry-level po...

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The cheap labor costs of Southeast Asia are like a siren call to more and more US employers seeking to lower support costs and improve profits. The increasingly common trend toward outsourcing labor to countries such as India, Malaysia, and Pakistan means jobs are leaking to a part of the world where workers fresh out of college or technical school will work for pennies on the dollar compared to American workers. For the American workers, that means the bar for entry-level positions is rising or the same positions are disappearing off the map completely. What can you do to avoid losing out to offshore outsourcing??

Don't become a target.

What should you do if you find yourself facing joblessness due to outsourcing? Many would say make yourself indispensable, but is anyone ever really so valuable that they are indispensable? What makes someone indispensable in a company that has 1500 employees? Few things, but some key skills can give you an edge. Skills such as bilingualism, abilities with key or rare equipment, skills with software that is either so cutting-edge or so old that only a few can manipulate it well ¼ skills that will make you stand out in an ocean of other employees.

Move up the ladder rapidly.

Another way to deal with outsourcing is avoidance. Jobs that are outsource-able are not key positions in the first place. Therefore, the key is to rapidly move out of entry-level positions into positions that are less likely to be outsourced. Look around you. If you are in a company in an entry-level position that has 50 to 100 other people doing the exact same tasks you are doing, you may very well be in a Danger Zone for having your position outsourced. Make it your mission to get out of that huge fish barrel of low-skilled fish and into a position that can only effectively be done on home turf as rapidly as possible. Get promoted, get higher training or education, or go for a position that is more specialized.

Go smaller.

Consider changing jobs to a company that is smaller or more niche-oriented. Smaller companies generally do not outsource due to decreased cost effectiveness and often because they have a closer relationship with their customers. While offshore outsourcing may save dollars and improve stock prices, it often has detrimental effects on customer relations. Small companies cannot afford to lose customers because of poor customer service or language barriers and are therefore less likely to outsource offshore.

Go where the jobs are.

Displaced garment and textile workers in the Carolinas and other Southern states were left jobless almost overnight in the nineties when their employers moved operations to Central America or Asia. Those who did not have transferable skills or were unwilling to relocate were left floundering. Workers who thrived were the ones who learned new skills that were in demand or who were willing to move to areas where their current skills were needed.

Stay on the cutting edge of your field.

Work that is outsourced is generally grunt work that requires a labor force that is broadly skilled in the most common tasks, works with the most common applications, or can handle minimal communication coupled with heavy, repetitive-type work. There is always demand for skilled professionals who can work easily with the latest and greatest technology, who do not fear risk-taking and enjoy the challenge of development and innovation.

Will offshore outsourcing suddenly cease? Not a chance as long as the American consumer continues to demand high-end technology for rock-bottom prices. The race to maintain market share while maintaining profits, demands cheaper and cheaper labor costs. Offshore outsourcing is a solution to that problem. It behooves American engineering and information technology workers not to be a part of the problem to begin with by pursuing education and training that sets them above their offshore labor competitors and takes them out of the fish barrel of low-end, low paid support type positions. America has always been the leader in innovation and development and engineers who concentrate on those areas will always have a place in this economy.

Chemical Engineering - A Convincing Argument

Professor: So...You are interested in studying Chemical Engineering?

Student: Mmmm. Dunno, all that pollution and stuff is pretty bad.

Professor: You think the industry is the source of most pollution then?

Student: Obviously.

Professor: You have done research into this?

Student: Hummph. No need to, everyone knows that is true.

Professor: Really? My research tells me differently. Tell me, what do you mean when you say pollution?

Student: Smells, poisoned ...

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chemical engineer, engineering,chemical,chemistry

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Professor: So...You are interested in studying Chemical Engineering?

Student: Mmmm. Dunno, all that pollution and stuff is pretty bad.

Professor: You think the industry is the source of most pollution then?

Student: Obviously.

Professor: You have done research into this?

Student: Hummph. No need to, everyone knows that is true.

Professor: Really? My research tells me differently. Tell me, what do you mean when you say pollution?

Student: Smells, poisoned streams and people dying.

Professor: And you think this all comes down to the chemical industry?

Student: Yes.

Professor: What about all the gases that come from your boiler at home? What about the gases that come out of your car? What about all the gases that come out of the power station to produce the electricity for your lights or air-conditioning at home? What about...

Student: Yeah, yeah, whatever.

Professor: You insult me by picking an argument, and then refusing to listen to an opposing view. I do not want you on my course anyway, move along and let the next person in please.

Student: What do you mean, you don’t want me? Huh?

Professor: Exactly that, move along now.

Student: OK, convince me that the people running those chemical plants are all good guys who produce no air pollution

Professor: That was not what I said. They do produce pollution, but much less of it than they used to and much less than any power station does. There are controls on what gases they can release into the air, and how much of each gas. The companies have to monitor their emissions and tell the government if they release too much.

Student: Very likely.

Professor: The government send inspectors around to check that the monitoring is in place. These officials make unannounced visits and if they find any missing data there had better be a good explanation.

Student: Mmmm

Professor: The companies are set five year targets to reduce their emissions below current levels. When they hit those targets, even if they hit them after two years, the government sets them another reduction target that has to be reached within another five years

Student: That’s not very fair.

Professor: It seems unfair at times, but the constant drive for reduced emissions makes the company invest in research and new processes to reduce the amount of waste gases it releases. It encourages the company to find uses for those waste gases.

Student: That sounds pretty good.

Professor: Technology is moving on all the time. Processes become more efficient and pollution is reduced. No industry can ever reduce its pollution to zero, though.

Student: Why not?

Professor: It’s a law of diminishing returns. 90% of the emissions can be removed at low cost. That leaves 10%. A further 9% can be removed at high cost, still leaving 1%. An extremely high cost is needed to remove the next 0.9%, but there is still 0.1% of the original amount. You can see that the removal cost is increasing, but the pollution reduction is becoming more and more marginal.

Student: Right. So is chemical engineering a good choice then?

Professor: It depends... You need to be good at solving problems, to be able to think laterally. You need to be able to work as part of a team, too.

Student: Right...

Professor: You also need to be interested in a career in management

Student: Huh, why’s that?

Professor: Technology moves along fast in this field and within ten years of gaining your degree your knowledge will be out-dated. There will be new graduates competing for the jobs you will have been doing, who have up to date knowledge. Most chemical engineers move into management after about twelve years in the job. Their background of engineering is still useful, but they recognize that they are no longer at the cutting edge.

Student: But management can be a good career to, can’t it?

Professor: It can, indeed. Are you interested in finding out more then?

Student: Definitely, and thanks.

Engineering Directory is an Invaluable Aid to Engineers and Businesses

An engineering directory could save hours or even days of work for an engineer engaged in engineering work. Engineering typically involves finding alternatives available in the market and selecting those best suited to achieve desired objectives.

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Businessmagnet Directory Ltd , Business To Business Directory

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An engineering directory could save hours or even days of work for an engineer engaged in engineering work. Engineering typically involves finding alternatives available in the market and selecting those best suited to achieve desired objectives.

Engineering is a Complex Function

Engineering involves design and development of products or equipment, construction or operation of equipment and forecasting the behavior of equipment under different operating conditions. These activities seek to find how best

• A function could be carried out, or






• Economics of operation could be improved, or






• Safety to life and property could be enhanced during use or operation.

The engineering function goes about these tasks by trying to find alternatives to existing components and ways of doing things and testing these under different operating conditions.

Examining Alternatives is a Key Engineering Activity

It would be obvious that achieving these kinds of objectives is a complex exercise and that an awareness of different solutions available in the market could help the engineer immensely. For example, a component using a new composite material might recently have been introduced in the market and if the engineer knew about it, the person could find an excellent solution to a persisting production problem.

A specialized engineering directory that lists products by application could highlight such new solutions and bring it to the attention of the directory user (including our engineer).

Standard Directory Services

In addition to the kind of design and development help mentioned above, an engineering directory can help users to find sources for their regular business requirements. Good directories would be organized in a manner that makes finding things easy. A few typical examples can make this clearer.

There might be an Automotive category with such sub categories like Paint & Finishes, Materials, etc; a Building & Civil category with Consulting & Design services and other relevant sub categories; and so on.

The same businesses can also be categorized under Architectural, Communications, Quality Management, Reliability Engineering, etc for those who search along such lines.

These kinds of categorizations seek to capture the complexity of the field and provide satisfactory solutions.

An Engineering Directory is a Niche Directory

It would be clear from the above that an engineering directory seeks to meet the special kinds of needs that an engineer is likely to have. It is thus a niche directory targeted to this group.

Another kind of nicheness is seen when the engineering directory lists only suppliers from a particular country or region. Such regional directories focus to promote the engineering industry of particular regions. Additionally, regional directories help users to identify local or nearby sources for their requirements.

Conclusion

Engineering is a complex activity involving consideration of many alternatives to achieve desired aims. A source that could help the engineer become aware of different alternatives (such as components and solutions) available in the market can definitely help the person perform better and achieve better quality results.

An engineering directory is such a source of information. It is typically organized to facilitate finding information in different ways such as by products, industries, solutions and functions.