Engineering Economics – Project & Operations Management

Course Type Compulsory after Selection
Semester VI
Theory 2 hours/week
Laboratory 2 hours/week
Tutorial 2 hours/week
Instructor Dr. Emilia Kondili

Aim of course

Τhe aim of the course Engineering Economics – Project Management and Business Administration is to assess the aptness of a project by estimating its value and justifying it from an engineering point of view. For this purpose concepts like, cash-flows, interests rates as well as more evaluation criteria, like Simple PayBack Period, Rate-on-Return, Net Present Value, Break Even Analysis are considered and instructed. Furthermore the basic points for an integrated engineering assessment, by reading and explaining balance sheets and Profit and Loss Accounts, also takes place.

From the part of Project Management, the basic network design principles, CPM -PERT method are analysed and implemented in projects' case studies, providing the students with special skills on organising, planning and controlling a wide variety of technical plans.

In the following section the course outline is presented:

 

Part A:  Engineering Economics - Business Administration

Basic concepts  - Business Pans – Feasibility studies

  • Basic concepts of engineering economics- Business Plans – Feasibility studies
  • Scope, objectives and contents

Cost analysis
  • Cost significance, basic categories of the costs. Direct and indirect cost, fixed and variable costs. The definition and implementation of BreakEven Point. Sensitivity Analysis in BreakEven Calculations.
  • Production cost, maintenance cost. Fixed investment cost and working capital. Methods and principles in depreciation. Estimation of production cost in an industrial facility. Examples.

Investments Evaluation

  • The significance of cash flow. The time value of money.  Basic criteria in investments evaluation. 
  • The PayBack Period, Return on Investment, Net Present Vale and Internal Rate of and drawbacks. Implementation issues.
  • Implementation and examples in the implementation of NPV, IRR, PBP, ROI
  • Practical examples in investment evaluation in the field of mechanical engineering.

Financial analysis of Enterprises

  • Reading and explaining balance sheets and Profit and Loss Accounts. The basic points for an engineering assessment. Basic financial indexes, concepts and implementation issues.

Part Β : project management

Basic Concepts in Project Management – The development of project network

  • Project Definition and basic parameters. Projects examples from various production sectors.
  • Events and Activities in a Project.
  • Basic concepts of Network Analysis.
  • The construction of Project Network.
  • The Critical Path Method. Critical Path and Critical Activities.
  • Earliest, Latest and Floating Times.

Project design and planning
  • Basic Concepts in Project Management. The Significance of the WBS (Work BreakDown Structure). Examples in complex projects.
  • Project Planning and Scheduling. 
  • Decreasing the total duration of the project. Financial implications.
  • Project staffing
  • The PERT technique

Case studies
  • Organisation, planning and control of various projects (case-studies)
  • The use of Project Management Software for project planning and control. 

 

Part Α΄: financial analysis of enterprises
Part Β΄: projects’ case studies

Reading and explaining balance sheets and Profit and Loss Accounts. The basic points for an engineering assessment. Basic financial indexes, concepts and implementation issues.