11-CS-4 Engineering Law and Professional Liability · May 2019
Nivaar worked solution (AI-drafted; not reviewed by a licensed engineer)
National Exams — May 2019 — 11-CS-4 Engineering Management. Closed book. Any five questions constitute a complete paper; all questions are of equal value (20 marks each). Full worked answers to all eight questions are given below; part marks are from the printed marking scheme.
Question text not reproduced: the examination questions are © Engineers and Geoscientists BC. Open the official past paper (linked at the top of this page) to read the question, then follow the worked solution below.
Designing sustainable production, products, service systems and consumption means engineering the whole life cycle of what a firm makes and sells so that it meets present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own (the Brundtland definition), balancing economic, environmental, and social performance (the triple bottom line). It operates at four linked levels. Sustainable production designs processes to use less energy, water, and material per unit of output, substitutes renewable and non-toxic inputs, prevents pollution at source rather than treating it at the end of the pipe, and closes loops by recovering scrap and by-products (cleaner production and industrial ecology). Sustainable products apply design for environment, guided by life-cycle assessment from raw-material extraction through manufacture, use, and end of life ("cradle to grave", or "cradle to cradle" when materials are recovered): lightweighting and dematerialization, low energy use in service, durability, reparability, modularity, and design for disassembly, remanufacture, and recycling. Service systems are designed as deliberately as products—the processes, people, and physical evidence through which a service is delivered, recognizing that services are intangible, produced and consumed simultaneously, variable, and perishable. For sustainability the key idea is the product–service system, in which the firm sells the function or result (leasing, pay-per-use, lighting-as-a-service) rather than ownership, so it profits from products that last, run efficiently, and come back for recovery. Sustainable consumption addresses the demand side: informing customers through eco-labels and energy ratings, designing for efficient and longer use, and take-back under extended producer responsibility (such as the provincial stewardship programs for electronics, tires, and packaging in Canada), so that total material throughput falls rather than merely shifting between stages. The unifying goal is a circular economy: design out waste, keep products and materials in use at their highest value, and optimize the whole system rather than one stage at the expense of another.
Lean manufacturing, derived from the Toyota Production System, is a philosophy of producing more value for customers while consuming fewer resources by relentlessly identifying and eliminating waste (muda)—any activity that consumes resources without adding value the customer would pay for. The classic seven wastes are overproduction, waiting, unnecessary transportation, over-processing, excess inventory, unnecessary motion, and defects. Lean pursues these objectives: to eliminate waste in all its forms; to reduce cost and lead time while improving quality; to establish continuous flow and pull production in which items are made only in response to actual demand (just-in-time) rather than pushed to forecast; to level and smooth production; and to foster continuous improvement (kaizen) through the involvement and respect of the workforce. Supporting techniques include value-stream mapping, 5S workplace organization, kanban signalling, quick changeover (SMED), and mistake-proofing (poka-yoke). The overarching aim is a responsive, low-inventory system that delivers exactly what the customer wants, when wanted, at the lowest sustainable cost.
Total Quality Management (TQM) is an organization-wide philosophy whose objective is to embed quality into every process and every employee's responsibility, driven by customer satisfaction as the ultimate measure of success. Its objectives are continuous improvement of all processes, full employee involvement and empowerment, management by fact using data, strong supplier partnerships, and a culture in which quality is designed and built in rather than inspected after the fact. Six Sigma is a rigorous, data-driven methodology whose objective is to reduce process variation and defects to an extremely low level—no more than 3.4 defects per million opportunities—thereby lowering cost and raising consistency. It pursues this through the structured DMAIC cycle (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) applied by trained practitioners using statistical tools. Where TQM sets the broad cultural aim of universal quality, Six Sigma provides the disciplined statistical machinery to achieve near-perfect process performance; the two are complementary and are often combined as Lean Six Sigma.
A firm offering equipment with a maintenance-service contract would design the service system as carefully as the product—blueprinting the repair-request-to-resolution process, training the technicians who deliver the "moments of truth," and managing capacity against unpredictable demand. It would apply lean principles to eliminate waiting and rework in that service, and use Six Sigma to reduce variation in repair time, all within a TQM culture that keeps customer satisfaction paramount for both the product and its service. Offering the same equipment on a pay-per-use basis with take-back at end of life would make it a sustainable product–service system, rewarding designs that last longer and can be remanufactured.
