Materials and Economy

Lecturer(s)

Dr. G. Gessinger

Hour(s) of lecture(s), exercise(s) and credit points

4L
4CP

Teaching goals

The course will help participants understand important economic and cost concepts for selection of materials, manufacturing processes, for strategic planning of technologies, for managing projects and businesses, and for creating entirely new businesses.

Summary and outline

To survive in the long term, companies rely increasingly on R&D. In many technology areas material engineers will assume a substantial amount of responsibility to secure the future. At the same time the risk for failure increases when the engineers have insufficient knowledge of economic aspects in an enterprise This course, together with the specialized courses, will provide fundamentals of economics, and it will use several case studies to show how economic concepts have been applied.

1. Introduction: Course as a bridge to professional life. Categories of jobs for materials engineers. Importance of innovation in saturated markets; importance of productivity, materials, demography.
2. Purpose and structure of a business. Measuring instruments to steer a company. Role of a materials engineer in a company. Case study ‘Varistors’.
3. Economics of Research (interrelation basic science – technology – wealth; first and second mover research; 3 laws of research funding; experiences with public funding in US, Europe, and Switzerland). Case study ‘Fuel cells’.
4. Entering uncharted territory. Case studies ‘SCFCL’ and ‘Nanotechnology’
5. How to keep score in business
   a. The Balance Sheet - Where are we now?
   b. The Profit and Loss Account - Where we have been
   c. Cash Flow and Funds Flow - Where we are going
6. Strategic Technology Planning as part of Business Strategy Development. Management of Global R&D.
7. Business Impact – how to compute
8. Project Creation and Project Management Process (Case study ‘PIPE’)
9. Techniques for analyzing how the choice of materials, processes and design determine properties, performance and cost
10. Economic selection of manufacturing processes (Case studies ‘Isothermal Forging’ and ‘Coatings’)
11. From project creation to business creation; analytical techniques to develop a plan for starting a new materials-related business; learning experiences; importance of interdisciplinary thinking (Case studies ‘NDC’ and ‘Cercon’)

Literature

• T.Kealey, The Economic Laws of Scientific Research, MacMillan Press, London (1996)
• C. Barrow, Financial Management for the Small Business, Kogan Page Ltd. (1984)
• P.C.F. Crowson and B.A. Richards, Economics for Managers, London, Edward Arnold (1978)
• R. Follett, How to Keep Score in Business, Mentor (1978)