Sample MEM603 Engineering Strategy Report

MEM603 Engineering Strategy Report Sample

Task Summary

In response to the background information provided, your group needs to research and develop a strategy to manage an engineering discipline within an international company operating across different global regions. You need to present your research in a 2,000 word (+/–10%) plan.

Please refer to the Task Instructions (below) for details on how to complete this task.

Context

For some time now, there has been a world-wide movement towards the cross-border integration of business activities, which, in the case of products and services, covers their design, manufacture, distribution and sale. This also includes engineering and technical disciplines operating across different global regions. For example, research and development (R&D) is being decentralised to reduce costs and access new capabilities; manufacturing is being moved to be closer to major emerging markets; the engineering design stage of product development is changing to cope with demands for quality and customisation; and licensing technologies are being introduced in new markets in which organisations do not have a presence. The trends driving the need to manage engineering disciplines across different global regions include the advent of the digital age (e.g., information and communications technology and the internet), the emergence and growth of developing countries with low costs and high levels of engineering capability (e.g., India and China) and the increasing cost of R&D and innovation.

International companies need to develop international strategies to ensure that engineering activities across the world are appropriately coordinated and managed. Strategic options to do this include joint ventures, setting up decentralised subsidiaries, mergers, acquisitions and licensing.

Solution

Introduction

Globalization has enabled the channelization of products and services that are coming from across borders. Engineering organizations are some of the most prolific companies involving engineers that provide different types of activities (Aznar-Sánchez et al., 2019). The work of engineering organizations is to make the world a better place and to do things in a better manner. Engineering organizations use their creativity to solve the design challenges resulting in solution-oriented thinking to help build a simplified future. For Assignment Help Engineering organizations are some of the most innovative companies working on a global scale, helping develop infrastructure and providing a key medium to help countries to progress. The globalized nature of engineering organizations is a key tool to grow the national economy resulting in the prosperity of the country and contributes to the development of labor and capital (Fazey et al., 2018). Engineering services and organizations have become an important vehicle for generating GDP growth. Technology and information communication (ICT) has become a key aspect of engineering organizations and technology is paving the way to channelize the strategic decision making reflecting the new operations and business developments. This report is an investigation of engineering business concepts that helps organizations to create strategic planning. The engineering company selected for this report is Hatch Pty Ltd which is a 65 years old company perfecting engineering innovation on a global scale. This report will analyze the business innovation and technology management strategies with a review on technology strategies.

Company Background

Hatch Associates PTY LTD is a Brisbane, Queensland; Australia-based engineering solution Provider Company that deals in the Architectural, Engineering, and Allied Services Industry. Hatch Associates PTY LTD operates at a global level with offices and projects in North America, South America, Middle East, United Kingdom, Russia, South Africa, China, India, Indonesia, and Australia. There are more than 1.124 employees across all the locations of Hatch Associates which is generating revenue of $166.91 million (USD). Hatch Associates PTY LTD is a conglomeration of 12 companies working in Engineering services, Management services, Office Administrative Services, Professional Scientific, and Technical Services. The overall experience of Hatch Associates PTY LTD spanned over more than 150 countries with major project work in metal, energy infrastructure, digital, and investment sectors (Koulinas et al., 2019).

Hatch Associates PTY LTD is a globally reputed organization committed to make the world a better place through effective engineering solutions based on the development of better ideas, smarter applications, and efficient professional service delivery. The work culture and innovation in the Hatch Associates PTY LTD is employee-owned and independent-free combining diverse teams, vesting engineering and business knowledge to partner with clients on a global scale. The resultant engineering solution is based on best-fit market strategies, helps manage and maximize the production and also creates game-changing technologies, designs, and complex projects completions (Kozaki et al., 2017). Apart from the engineering marvels, Hatch Associate PTY LTD also considers business sustainability and indigenous people policy as a forward objective of the organization and interconnects the community benefits with profitability.

Existing Engineering strategies

The engineering approaches and strategies adopted and practiced by Hatch Associates PTY LTD are time-effective, sustainable, and yet profitable. Based on the scale and scope of engineering solutions provided by Hatch, a wide array of tested strategies was selected to meet the contextual requirements of each project (Maskuriy et al., 2019). The impact of the region, natural conditions, labor laws of the country in which Hatch is operating influence and shapes the engineering’s strategies. Hatch Associates' existing strategies are governed by the theory of sustainable engineering, which is the process of managing a production based on the optimum utilization of resources and energy. The focus of sustainable engineering is to meet the needs of the existing world in such a manner not impacting future demands (Rahimifard & Trollman, 2018). Following elaborated strategies are currently used by Hatch Associated PTY LTD:

Sustainable Solutions

Engineering projects performed and completed by the Hatch Associated PTY LTD have always been challenged because of their proximity to nature and the local communities that live around them. A successful project performed by Hatch Associated PTY LTD requires the Project Company to extend the beneficial purpose to the surrounding community. Hatch Associates uses the strategy of “Leaving it better than we found it”, this mantra of working starts with performing an environmental assessment of the project along with the feasibility analysis (Pietrobelli et al., 2018). The development projects are provided with a positive relationship with the local surrounding communities based on mutual understanding. The response to sustainable solutions by Hatch works on the following perspectives:

• Developing stronger relationships with the surrounding communities early.
• Both Hands Open strategy
• Celebrating the differences
• Building for the future generation
• Understanding to understood

Urban Solutions

Globally the need for engineering solutions was to develop the cities in terms of infrastructure which further requires a myriad web of maintenance, underinvestment, sometimes impacted due to poor planning and the changing political agendas (Oesterreich & Teuteberg, 2016). These characteristics of urban solutions have to be responded to by any engineering solution. Local communities and financial investors are key stakeholders in engineering projects whereas the powers of urban innovation or not so innovation lie in the hands of politicians (Ordieres-Meré et al., 2020). The strategy of Hatch Associates PTY PTD is based on developing the risk management approaches to the engineering solutions and adhering to the global agendas of sustainable development. The response to the myriad challenges and complexities in developing the urban-centric engineering solutions is as given below:

• Small steps, big impacts
• New Opportunities for development
• Smart prioritization
• Best practices as the way forwards
• Technology integration

Water Development

Water is the essence of life. It is a critical resource interlinking the borders, communities, places, and activities. Engineering and water have been closely associated since the early development of scientific innovations be it transportation or water energy generation. With the increasing pace of urbanization, the stress on the water on a global scale has impacted the engineering responses by organizations. Water other than urbanization is a key agent to mining has a direct relation with the project outlook and planning for Hatch Associates PTY LTD (Pietrobelli et al., 2018). A careful strategy based on the true cost including the social, economic, and environmental perspectives is channeled and adopted by Hatch Associates working on the following given responses and principles:

• Turning data into decisions
• Delivering water wherever it is needed
• Effective environmental protection
• Approaching water-sensitive industrial development

Innovation in Mining

Mining has been one of the major aspects of Engineering solutions, the magnitude of mining and metal products have been increasing profitably and equally controversial. Any engineering company involved in mining demands looking from a new perspective where thinking in a smarter way has been the need (Qu & Fan, 2010). Engineers at Hatch Associates are at the core of solving environmental-related problems during mining operations. Hatch Associates response to the strategic decisions of mining projects involves a partnership with the clients to tackle the challenges based on the following strategies:

• Automation
• Electrification
• Continuous operations
• Eliminating Obstacles
• Optimization of flow sheet

Proposed Strategy

The engineering solutions in the 21st century are facing complex challenges which are outside the engineering domain of solutions. The proposed strategy of Hatch Associates is a response to climate engineering theory. According to Climate Engineering theory, engineering works produced by organizations should focus on climate mitigation and climate responsiveness. The journey of Hatch Associates PTY PTD is similar, with multiple projects on a global scale; Hatch Associates are feeling the heat from multiple aspects and must need to innovate. The Climate crisis has been one of the major worries of all engineering organizations (Yazdani et al., 2021). Risk management and climate crisis are some of the potential set of problems that every organization including Hatch Associates is dealing with. The climate Agenda of the Paris Accord 2015 is an abounding agreement of international nature that every country including Australia and Australian organizations are bound to integrate. Water-based issues and problems of post-engineering solutions are pressing the projects of engineering companies. The global oil issues and the world of pirates impacting the supply chains have been major forces resulting in a reduction in profitability and credibility of engineering companies.

The proposed strategy for Hatch Associates PTY LTD is based on the integration of technology streamlining the project monitoring and project management. Hatch Associates PTY LTD used the following strategies to navigate the business of engineering solutions and projects across the global regions (Zhang et al., 2021).

Responding to Energy Transitions

Hatch Associates PTY LTD is working towards the management of energy with better planning and management to optimize the energy requirements. Hatch Associates acknowledge the value of climate engineering theory and is making intentional efforts to positively modify the climate using responsible engineering (Jackson, 2011). Hatch Associates is working towards creating a planned system of load forecasting, system modeling, business case evaluations, and resource planning. These phases of energy management are aim to increase efficiency with the improvement of reliability for engineering networks (Kozaki et al., 2017).

Hatch Associates PTY LTD is working on developing clean energy generation, to develop the low carbon world, aiming for strategic improvements. Hatch Associates at the Architectural level are developing solar energy, wind power into engineering projects.

Carbon-free nuclear technology development is a high prospect area for the Hatch Associate which is going to reap benefits of higher scale increasing the competitive value and business opportunities as well.

Digitization to Transformation

Digital business opportunities are going to drive the Gen-next engineering solutions specifically in the field of Health and Urban solutions. Engineering solutions developed by Hatch Associates are based on the theory of digitalization, which states that every input of digital technologies has an equal economic benefit (Vogelsang, 2012). Thus as a way forward and looking at the data-driven world, computer technologies and digitization power will be an important step to mark the integration of project monitoring, site study, environmental assessments and thus aiming to reduce the risk profiling of the projects (Maskuriy et al., 2019). Every global location in which Hatch Associates is working towards a common and control center at the regional level to stress on the project management aspects, pre-project planning based on GIS, Satellite imagery to improve the project outcomes. Integration of digital design, procurement, and construction is based on the data-driven virtual project management and delivery capability. Hatch Associates are imaging to leverage the digital twin aimed to collect the data and information at the right time, from the right people, and in the right format. Virtual representations will help Hatch Associates making it Data-rich and data-centric using advanced analytical and machine learning. Hatch Associates will aim to integrate operations and performance centers to improve team collaboration for improving the decision-making and effectively resulting from the problem-solving (Oesterreich & Teuteberg, 2016).

Purpose-driven Analytics and Optimization

According to Ordieres-Meré et al., (2020) purpose-driven analytics is going to influence the restricting of the engineering organization and will be among the core business operation. Hatch Associates considers modeling and data optimization such as artificial intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and Operations Research (OR) are going to be powerful technologies that will add high value to existing and proposed business solutions. These technologies will mark the successful adoption helping construction projects improve upon mathematical sophistication. Hatch Associates PTY LTD aims to build capabilities through the following strategic development:

• Integrated value chain optimization helping decision and support systems to improve the logistical and distribution supply chains.

• AI & ML will help Hatch Associate to optimize the production aiming to leverage the state-of-art-OR knowledge in mining, mineral processing, metal, Oil and Natural gas, and others.

• Using technologies to create a centralized system of online process monitoring.

• Asset management improving the risk-based long-term management and parameter estimation.

Conclusion

Engineering solutions are a vital part of developing the world for the future. The current sphere of engineering organization and solutions comprises data-driven technologies along with the primary aspect of engineering that involved production and discoveries. Engineering solutions provided by an organization such as Hatch Associated PTY LTD which is based in Australia but has experienced working in more than 150 countries requires technologies based on digital and ICTs. The new changing era of ICT technologies will help Hatch Associates to effectively monitor the project outcomes and to plan the strategies of project initiation at a much-informed level. This report is an investigation piece comprising of the analysis of existing engineering approaches and strategies used by Hatch Associates highlighting the changes in the current approaches leading to proposing the new strategies that are based on the technology of ICTs and Digitalization. The proposed strategies include Purpose-driven Analytics and Optimization, Digitization to Transformation, and Responding to Energy Transitions to channel the business effectiveness into the new world order.

References