Performance assessments of engineering departments: An empirical study

Abstract

This contribution presents the results of an empirical study about assessments of performance of engineering departments in the German plant manufacturing industry. Engineering plays a central role in the industrial value chain. However, its multiple impact is not considered in an adequate way by current assessments. For instance, economic considerations have a strong focus on costs and consider the engineering department only in an isolated way. Since there is little literature about this topic - existing publications analyze performance from a technical-functional perspective or focus on design aspects - this study aims to evaluate performance criteria and challenges for performance assessments. 36 experts in the domain of plant engineering have been asked in an online survey and personal interviews. A lack of common understanding of engineering performance and the difficulty to quantify the impact of engineering turned out to be the main challenges besides a strong cost focus in the plant manufacturing business. Finally 13 challenges were identified which oppose comprehensive assessments of engineering performance. If recognized, these challenges can help plant manufacturing companies to minimize the ill effects of current economic considerations and to improve their engineering departments more effectively.