Property, Plant, and Equipment free essay sample

Plant and Equipment Property, Plant and Equipment I- Nature of Accounting Issues Businesses purchase and use a variety of fixed assets, such as equipment, furniture, tools, machinery, buildings, and land. These fixed assets are long-term or relatively permanent assets. Also, they are tangible assets because they exist physically. They are owned and used by the business and are not offered for sale as part of normal operations. Perhaps the most descriptive titles these assets are known under are plant assets or property, plant and equipment. Depending on the industry, the plant assets of a business can be a significant part of its total assets. That is why the accounting for these long-term assets has important implications for a company’s reported results. In this paper, we discuss the proper accounting for the acquisition, use, and disposition of property, plant, and equipment. Before going over a brief overview of the nature of accounting issues, we ought to take a deeper look at what plant assets really are. We will write a custom essay sample on Property, Plant, and Equipment or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The major characteristics of property, plant, and equipment are as follows: * They are acquired for use in operations and not for resale. Only assets used in normal business operations are classified as property, plant, and equipment. For example, an idle building is more appropriately classified separately as an investment. Also, land developers or sub dividers classify land as inventory. * They are long-term in nature and usually depreciated. Property, plant, and equipment yield services over a number of years. Companies allocate the cost of the investment in these assets to future periods through periodic depreciation charges. The exception is land, which is depreciated only if a material decrease in value occurs, such as a loss in fertility of agricultural land because of poor crop rotation, drought, or soil erosion. * They possess physical substance. Property, plant, and equipment are tangible assets characterized by physical existence or substance. This differentiates them from intangible assets, such as patents or goodwill. Unlike raw material, however, property, plant, and equipment do not hysically become part of a product held for resale. The content of this paper will be centered on the four main accounting issues we face when dealing with property, plant, and equipment. The first one is computing the costs of these plant or fixed assets; the following one is how to allocate the costs of those fixed assets–depreciation- (less any salvage amounts) against revenues for the cor responding periods; the third one is how to account for expenditures such as repairs, additions and improvements to these plant assets; and finally how to record their disposal. The following table provides a summary of these accounting issues: II- Historical Background of the Accounting Rules in the U. S and Internationally * IFRS Standards Background Information An important and considering factor for understanding the International Financial Reporting Standards is having a little history about it how it came to be. Before we go any further about property, plant, and equipment, we must first discuss the history and background of how the standards under IFRS originated and the importance of defining why it originated. In order to understand IFRS, we need to examine what the International Financial Reporting Standards are. With that in mind, we want to reference the authors of Understanding IFRS Fundamentals: International Financial Reporting Standards, â€Å"IFRS are a set of standards promulgated by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), an international standard-setting body based in London† (Ankarath 2). This quote tells us who makes IFRS and where IFRS originated from. The International Accounting Standards Board made it clear that when developing the standards, they wanted to make them clearly stated and based on principles instead of rules-based like U. S. GAAP. In other words, IFRS are rooted in â€Å"the approach [principles-based, that] focuses more on the business or the economic reality of transactions and the underlying rights and obligations instead of providing prescriptive rules† (Ankarath 2). This basically means that IFRS is not setting certain rules to be followed and are instead giving guidance in the form of principles. We now want to look into the International Accounting Standards Board and framework for the preparation and presentation of financial statements. The conceptual frameworks are split into five categories and are in the following order: the objective of financial statements; underlying assumptions; the qualitative characteristics that determine the usefulness of information in financial statements; the definition, recognition, and measurement of the elements from which financial statements are constructed; and the concepts of capital and capital maintenance (Ankarath 11). The standards under IFRS are beginning to become much more popular across the world for several different reasons. The International Financial Reporting Standards are currently being used by at the very least 100 countries and â€Å"[was] expected that by 2011, more than 150 countries [would] have adopted them† (Ankarath 1). We happen to find this important because it seems that a lot of countries are starting to adopt IFRS to report their financial statements. One of the reasons why many countries made the switch over to IFRS is because â€Å"the decision of the U. S. SEC to allow foreign private issuers to list their securities on U. S. stock exchanges using IFRS and without reconciling to U. S. GAAP has also made it incumbent upon accountants, finance professionals, analysts, and bankers to become proficient in IFRS† (Ankarath 1). Another significant factor when dealing with IFRS is the rise of globalization and businesses within countries wanting to have the flexibility and ability to compete worldwide. This made countries seek and adopt accounting standards to give investors, creditors, financial analysts, and the financial statements needed to be comparable and of high-quality. This became a difficult issue because companies ran into the problem of not being able to compare financial statements unless they were under a certain set of standards. With that being said, â€Å"International Financial Reporting Standards are increasingly becoming the set of globally accepted accounting standards that meet the needs of the world’s increasingly integrated global capital markets† (Ankarath 2). * U. S. GAAP Standards Background Information In order to fully understand the topic of plant, property, and equipment, we first must consider how the FASB has implemented its standards in the past. So before we go any further into the â€Å"nuts and bolts† and foundation of the accounting standards followed under U. S. GAAP, we first want to discuss what GAAP is, who created GAAP, how it was created, and the hierarchy of GAAP after codification. The answers to these questions will give us a better understanding of U. S. GAAP and the historical background needed to fully understand how U. S. GAAP works in practice with respect to fixed assets. According to Steven Bragg, author of Wiley GAAP 2011: Interpretation and Application of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, â€Å"the phrase â€Å"generally accepted accounting principles† is a technical accounting term that encompasses the conventions, rules, and procedures necessary to define accepted accounting practice at a particular time† (Bragg 1). The main concerns under GAAP are the measurements of economic activity, as mentioned earlier, GAAP used a more rules-based approach and â€Å"thus GAAP is a reaction to and a product of the economic environment in which it develops† (Bragg 2). The creation of U. S. GAAP dates back to the stock market crash of the 1930’s. Its original goal was to try and help pick the economy back up. With the economy being in distraught, â€Å"the AICPA created a special committee to work with New York stock exchange toward the goal of establishing standards for accounting procedures† (Bragg 2). This committee did not get very far in achieving its goals because of limited resources and lack of research efforts. The APB (Accounting Principles Board) was then used in order to have better research and to report its findings to the division of the AICPA concerning accounting principles. However, the APB was not as successful as they hoped for and this made forth for the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) to try and solve these problems of poorly written accounting procedures. The FASB was formed in 1972 and â€Å"is recognized as authoritative through Financial Reporting Release 1 of the SEC and through Rule 203 of the AICPA code of professional conduct† (Bragg 3). The FASB issues many types of pronouncements to help ensure that companies using U. S. GAAP are doing so by the book and â€Å"the FASB staff is empowered to issue implementation guides† to help companies report their financial statements to be comparable (Bragg 3). Another important creator of U. S. GAAP that we want to briefly explain is the Emerging Issues Task Force (EITF) that was formed by the FASB in 1984 in order to help assist current and future issues to be raised. We now want to shift our topic away from the creators of U. S. GAAP and discuss how the 5-level hierarchy got condensed into two categories and briefly explain the hierarchy of GAAP after codification. An important date in history is July 1, 2009, when the FASB Accounting Standards became the official source of authoritative, nongovernmental U. S. generally accepted accounting principles (Bragg 7). This codification or condensation in our opinion made the 5-level hierarchy split into two categories that reorganizes the large number of U. S. GAAP pronouncements into roughly 90 accounting topics and each has some sub-topics. The way the codification is arranged is simply by topic, subtopics, sections, and subsections to make it easier for accountants to follow the rules and it also makes it easy for accountants to look up. The four main areas of the codification for topics are as follows: presentation, financial statement accounts, broad transactions, and industries. An example we found as to how to read the codification is through â€Å"a hybrid classification developed by the FASB that follows the structure of XXX-YY-ZZ-PP, where XXX=topic, YY=subtopic, ZZ=section, and PP=paragraph† (Bragg 8). As you can see this makes it very easy for anyone to find the topic they are looking for because everything is broken down by code. We also must account for what happens when there are updates to the codification and the way the FASB handles this is through organizing the new standards using the same section heading as those used in the codification. Whenever there is a new standard they are â€Å"deemed to be non-authoritative in their own right; [and] instead, the new standards serve only to update the codification and provide the historical basis for conclusions of a new standard† (Bragg 9). Now that we have discussed some background information of U. S. GAAP, we are now ready to examine these standards with respect to property, plant, and equipment. III. Recognition and Measurement The International Accounting Standards, or IAS, and Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, or GAAP are both essential tools in helping accountants provide accurate financial information and reports to shareholders, external users and internal users. There are differences and similarities as well as advantages and disadvantages between the two sets of recognition and measurement rules when it comes to the requirements under the topic of Property, Plant, and Equipment. Even though under IFRS, the International Financial Reporting Standards, it is globally accepted amongst most countries, GAAP provides easier comparability, a more straight forward cost system and may be less costly in the long run. Before comparing the similarities and differences between the recognition and measurement rules of property, plant and equipment in IFRS and GAAP, it must first be clarified whether accountants within the United States are even allowed to apply IFRS guidelines in reporting. According to one of the well-renowned and respected accounting firms, McGladrey it has been a constant and ongoing debate within the Securities Exchange Commission or SEC for the final decision on determining which set of reporting standards to adopt. The recognition and measurement rules for property, plant and equipment is located in the International Accounting Standard (IAS) 16 under IFRS and in the Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) 360 of FASB. First, to determine what is recognized as Property, Plant and Equipment under IAS 16: it must be a tangible item, held for use in the production or supply of goods and services. Then, recognition under IFRS requires the entity to apply â€Å"the general asset recognition principle to all property, plant and equipment costs at the time they are incurred, including initial costs and subsequent expenditures† (IN6) meaning that they are all measured at cost at initial recognition, and after that the entity can choose either to apply the cost or revaluation model. Under GAAP, however, property, plant and equipment are still measured under the cost model: the carrying amount is equal to the initial cost minus accumulated depreciation minus accumulated impairment losses. Also, it is noted that during the construction period in preparing the asset to become ready for its final stage of intended use, certain interest costs are capitalized. Since the revaluation method is not allowed under U. S. GAAP, it can be argued that IFRS would be a more accurate model of reporting the costs of property, plant and equipment. Under valuation, IFRS uses the cost model, like in GAAP mentioned above or it can use the revaluation model in which it recognizes the carrying value of property, plant, and equipment assets at fair value at the date of revaluation minus accumulated depreciation since revaluation date minus accumulated impairment losses since revaluation date. According to IAS 16 if the carrying value is less than fair value at revaluation date, then the carrying value is increased to fair value and recognized in comprehensive income. On the other hand, if the carrying value is greater than fair value at revaluation date, then the carrying value is decreased to fair value, decreasing revaluation surplus which is then recognized in profit or loss. Measurement at recognition under IFRS standards also include a lot of the obligations in anticipating the disposal element of an asset, such as requiring entities to both include the costs of removal, restoration and dismantlement of an aspect of property, plant and equipment as well as measuring a property, plant and equipment asset at fair value if there is commercial substance in an exchange involving a non-monetary asset. For the issue of recognition and measurement of depreciation in an asset of property, plant or equipment IFRS and GAAP both allow the same depreciation methods including: straight line, accelerated, and units-of-production. They both allocate the cost of the asset over its useful life, and have the option of component depreciation; however, it is not often used in US GAAP, while component depreciation is required under IFRS if the useful lives of the component are different. GAAP requires the recognition of an impairment loss under certain events that change the book value of an asset, like a significant decrease in market price, a significant change in its physical condition or how it is being used to name a few. The measurement of depreciation is a two-step process involving two tests. First, applying the recoverability test, which is required only when the undiscounted sum of future cash flows is less than the book value and thus, the entity will record depreciation at cost basis, for example: debiting depreciation expense and crediting accumulated depreciation on the income statement. Second, is measuring an impairment loss of the revaluation, which is the fair value minus the book value. Then, to adjust the property, plant and equipment assets to fair value and record revaluation surplus, the entity will debit accumulated depreciation for its cost, and credit the asset and its revaluation surplus for the difference between fair value and book value. In analyzing the differences and similarities between the recognition and measurement guidelines that GAAP and IFRS provide, it can be seen that a convergence between the two reporting standards may be the best solution to a more uniform and easy to comprehend universal accounting principles. The cost method is used in GAAP for both the initial costs and thereafter, while both the cost method and revaluation method is used in IFRS allowing the cost basis to be raised to fair market value, this then allows for appreciation without creating a capital gain. Regarding the recognition and measurement of depreciation and impairment losses, there are also both similarities and differences between IFRS and GAAP and the conceptual framework. It has consistently been an ongoing issue in the convergence of the guidelines of recognition to using the fair value measurement and revaluation option for property, plant and equipment over the cost model of US GAAP, but only time can tell what is decided for the future of accounting reporting. IV- Presentation and Disclosure Rules There are presentation and disclosure rules that both IFRS and GAAP set forth in order to provide adherence and cooperation amongst many for the sake of a better understanding and communication of the financial statements for different entities. Presentation rules amongst IFRS and US GAAP are very similar but there are some differences. For presentation of financial statements under IAS 1, there are many requirements and guidelines set in order to provide a structure for financial statements that everyone could understand. There is an exact objective for providing presentation rules for financial statements and that is to be able to compare information with previous periods or with other financial information from other entities. â€Å"The objectives of IAS 1 are to ensure comparability of presentation of that information with the entity’s financial statements of previous periods and with the financial statements of other entities (Wiley IFRS). Usually, the presentations of financial statements include the Balance sheet, income statement, a cash flow statement, and a statement of changes in equity. Now with IAS 1 revised, the balance sheet is called the statement of financial position and there is a statement of comprehensive income included. With presentation rules under US GAAP, the presentation of comparative financial statements’ objective is to clearly bring out the nature of certain events and changes in an entity. According to U. S GAAP, financial statements for a period should also show the financial position at the end of the period, earnings and net income for the period, cash flows during the period, and investments by and distributions to owners during the period. Comprehensive income for the period is included in one statement, or two separate but consecutive statements, only if the reporting entity is required to report comprehensive income. The statement of financial position, the income statement, and the statement of changes in equity should be presented for one or more previous years and also for the present years. Just by looking at the presentation of the financial statements, it is recognized that there are many similarities between IFRS and US GAAP. Therefore it is not much of surprise to see there is an abundance of similarities under both IFRS and US GAAP with the subject of property, plant, and equipment disclosures but there are few differences that should be acknowledged. Under IFRS, IAS 16 provides disclosure requirements and a specific way of presentation for property, plant and equipment. The information that needs to be disclosed is the gross carrying amount, the accumulated depreciation, and the detailed reconciliation of the carrying amount at the beginning and end of the period. Other information includes the measurement bases used for determining the gross carrying amount and the depreciation methods and rates or useful lives. Restrictions and contractual commitments related to property, plant, and equipment and compensation for assets impaired, given up or lost must be disclosed as well (Friedrich, 2009). For example, with each class of long-lived asset the amount of impairment losses recognized in profit or loss for each period being reported upon must be stated under the comprehensive income statement. Or if any impairment losses were recognized in other comprehensive income and in revaluation surplus in shareholders’ equity it should be disclosed as well. If the items of property, plant, and equipment are stated at revalued amounts then there are certain requirements that the entity must disclose such as: * the effective date of the revaluation * whether an independent valuer was involved * the methods and significant assumptions applied in estimating the items’ fair values * the extent to which the items’ fair values were determined directly by reference to observable prices in an active market or recent market transactions on arm’s-length terms or were estimated using other valuation techniques * for each revalued class of property, lant, and equipment, the carrying amount that would have been recognized had the assets been carried under the cost model * the revaluation surplus, indicating the change for the period and any restrictions on the distribution of the balance to shareholders (Friedrich, 2009) Although US GAAP does not have a comprehensive standard that reports long-lived asset, its definition of prope rty, plant and equipment is very similar to IAS 16. For example, with impairments of long-lived assets to be held and used, a description of the events and circumstances of the impairment should be stated. The amount of the impairment loss should as well be stated, along with it recorded in the income statement. Another aspect that should be considered is the methods used to determine the fair value. This information must be disclosed as well. Items of property, plant and equipment cannot be revaluated because it is not permitted under U. S GAAP. Another important difference that can be discussed deals with investment property. Under U. S GAAP, investment property is considered and treated to be held for use or held for sale. This is not the case with IFRS. In fact, IFRS discusses investment property under IAS 40 instead of IAS 16 that was previously discussed. Determining the similarities and differences amongst IFRS and U. S GAAP provides a better and clearer distinguishing of presentation and disclosure rules with the subject of property, plant, and equipment. We found that there were many similarities in the presentation and disclosures of property, plant, and equipment but one difference that really stood out. Although IFRS and U. S GAAP both record their property, plant, and equipment cost as historical, IFRS allows revaluation of assets. Up to this point, we have assumed that companies use the historical cost principle to value long-lived tangible assets or fixed assets after acquisition. However, under IFRS companies have a choice: they may value these assets at cost or at fair value. * In testing for impairments of plant assets, GAAP uses a two-step model to test for impairments. As long as future undiscounted cash flows exceed the carrying amount of the asset, no impairment is recorded. The IFRS impairment test is stricter. However, unlike GAAP, reversals of impairment losses are permitted. The accounting for impairments is different under GAAP and IFRS. A fixed tangible asset is impaired when a company is not able to recover the asset’s carrying amount either through using it or by selling it. To determine whether an asset is impaired, on an annual basis, companies review the asset for indicators of impairments—that is, a decline in the asset’s cash-generating ability through use or sale. This review should consider internal sources (e. g. , adverse changes in performance) and external sources (e. g. , adverse changes in the business or regulatory environment) of information. If impairment indicators are present, then an impairment test must be conducted. This test compares the asset’s recoverable amount with its carrying amount. If the carrying amount is higher than the recoverable amount, the difference is an impairment loss. If the recoverable amount is greater than the carrying amount, no impairment is recorded. Recoverable amount is defined as the higher of fair value less costs to sell or value-in-use. Fair value less costs to sell means what the asset could be sold for after deducting costs of disposal. Value-in-use is the present value of cash flows expected from the future use and eventual sale of the asset at the end of its useful life. Future Developments: As a result of these divergences between U. S GAAP and IFRS with respect to accounting for property, plant and equipment; the two boards have in plan to examine the measurement bases used in accounting for fixed assets with respect to revaluations specifically. As part the conceptual framework project, fair value measurement might be recommended in the converged conceptual framework for property, plant and equipment. However, it will be a very difficult change to adopt due to conservatism proponents who still prefer the historical cost model. Works Cited: Ankarath, Nandakumar, et al. Understanding IFRS Fundamentals: International Financial Reporting Standards. Hoboken, New Jersey. John Wiley amp; Sons Inc. , 2010. Print. Bragg, Steven M. Wiley GAAP 2011: Interpretation and Application of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. Hoboken, New Jersey. John Wiley amp; Sons Inc. , 2010. Print. FASB: Property, Plant and Equipment. FASB: Financial Accounting Standards Board. N. p. , n. d. Web. 26 Nov. 2012. lt;http://www. fasb. org/jsp/FASB/Page/SectionPagegt;. Kieso, Daniel E. , Jerry J. Weygandt, and Terry D. Warfield. Wiley: Intermediate Accounting, 14th Edition. Wiley: Intermediate Accounting, 14th Edition. N. p. , n. d. Web. 26 Nov. 2012. lt;http://www. wiley. com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-EHEP001739. htmlgt;. Summary of IAS 16 Property, Plant and Equipment. IFRS. N. p. , n. d. Web. 26 Nov. 2012. lt;http://www. ifrs. com/blog/post/summary-of-ias-16-property-plant-and-equipmentgt;. Http://mcgladrey. com/pdf/us-gaap-vs-ifrs-property-plant-equiment. pdf. U. S GAAP vs IFRS: Property, Plant and Equipment. McGladrey, n. d. Web. 26 Nov. 2012.

Normality and Normalcy

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Unit 5 Case Study Assignment 1 - Coursework Example Some of the key requirements by the president of Canyon College is that he can participate in several classes and be able to use a telephone while at a home office. This means, there is a need for WAN option that will support data, voice and video transfer over a network. To achieve this crucial requirement it is recommended that a WAN technology called, Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is put into use (Bagad and Dhotre, 2010). The ATM technology fits well in this case study mainly because it supports high bandwidth networking solutions for data, voice and videos. This will be very important in satisfying the predefined user requirements of the president (Bagad and Dhotre, 2010). It is also important to clarify that in case of any web connectivity problems at the school’s web server, there is always a quick way to make a check. It is recommended a ping test is done. The ping test will entail, opening the command prompt, enter ping and then the host website. For example, in the command window, type, Ping www.canyonuniversity.com and press enter (Bagad and Dhotre,

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Engineering Management Skills An engineering manager has four main fields of responsibility, that is, supervising engineers or technicians, project management, interacting with clients, and offering suggestion and representative as a resourcefulness. An engineering manager should be a completely permit and specialized. All job seeker must finish a university undergraduate degree in engineering. Engineering management is the field involved with the application of engineering principles to the planning and manipulative management of manufacturing and industrial organizations. Engineering managers requires an integration of technical skills, soft skills, and conceptual skills as well. Technical skills are the elementary type of skills. Engineering manager is a leader of the team; normally consist of a group of engineers, technicians and workers. Engineering managers should have a unique skill in a specific area which can leading them to stand out among the public. 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Engineers who take on management position should emulate and study new set of specific skills. From beginning, engineering managers may often confront an intercession period that requires accepting a whole fresh skill and mentality. Engineering manager should change their natural instincts such as straightforward answers and seriousness. The important principles for engineering managers may and must be flexible. Always put effort on additional skills, will bring good results. CHAPTER 1 TECHNICAL SKILLS Technical skills are those skills, such as intellectual and mastery that managers use to complete their task in specialized areas such as engineering or information technology. Technical skills must be come out by entire standards of administrative. High level of management use technical skills to develop project plans and for making conceptual decisions, and to focus on the individual decision making process. Technical skills give lower-level managers the capability, intellectual and practiced in a designated field, not only to perform tasks, but also to regulate the tasks of employee in that area. Technical skill can define as the most fundamental type of skills that should have to achieve in our life. The technical skills required of life general as well as the particular technical skills required of specific job or task. The technical skill suggests an understanding in a specific kind of task. It involves specialized knowledge, analytical ability, and facilities in the use of the equipments of the specific branch of learning. Occupational practical training programmes mostly do a great job in developing this kind of skill. Engineers may evolution to transform into technical specialists or to monitor a team of technicians and engineers. Some may ultimately become engineering managers or to participate other managerial tasks. In business, an engineering intellectual will offers them to discuss a projects technical specification and helps in production planning, assembly, and utilize. Unique Skills Engineers who always succeed the greatest in their profession are engineers who have unique skills in a specific area leading them to stand out among the public. It might be the difference between banality and distinct. Upgrading the Knowledge People who able to take his skill levels in a specific area one level higher than his have now, and always taking up the effort in value adding process. This effort may even bring long term extra pay or reward from an unimaginable source. Technical skill building is an on-going, and it is a never-ending process. Constantly upgrade the skills, make continuous education, and always stay at a distinct advantage of changes and developments. For example: An engineering manager who hadnt had a consulting project of any considerable order in over half a year, and he realize that the relationship between his effort for improvement with his lifes better response to the effort. He tried to improve his knowledge by continuous learning some higher level skills. Within a short period, he was contacted by a company to produce a large consulting project. Mechanical and electronic engineering manager The technical skills are fundamental to the job. The computer skilful is very important. Most professionals task widely with computer drafting software and other specific programs to help them design a new product. Besides that, engineers always work on physically building prototypes, which need manual practised and particular knowledge of various types of tools and assemble techniques. Normally, it is require working rapidly and efficiently, without skipping any steps in the building procedure. After the prototypes has been completed, the engineer manager will passing the idea to the development teams member, and supervise them to complete the task according to the initial concept. Information Technology engineering manager The hardware support is the basic technical skill for information technology engineer, it depend on specialized training in hardware installation, software application, and computer networking. As an information technology engineer manager, the continuing study and upgrading the knowledge is required. Else, that will be difficult in certain kind of problem solving. The information technology is rapidly changing, the technology tends to evolve rather quickly, such as telecommunication, and there is an evolution from 3G to 4G, just taking a short period. The information technology manager should always review and estimate the current applications are satisfying the demands of the company. Besides that, the manager must be able to verify the new technologies to improve the objective of the company. Fully Integrated Skill As a skill gets carried out over and over again, it becomes nearly second. As the skill grows more integrated into out being, it transform from our conscious awareness of carry out the action involved in the skill fall into a subconscious stage where it is manipulate on an nearly automatic of implement. It is done without any effort and is done with a meaning of impassive. Technical Responsibilities Technical responsibilities can change greatly; it is depending on the scale and composition of the company. Identify Identify conclusive process scope that controls the reliability, quality and performance of the final product. Leading Lead the commercial grade design and progress a high volume manufacturing line in order to meet the requirement. Managing Manage the evolution of mechanical, electronic and electrical, and software systems for carry out, inspecting and controlling all field of the manufacturing process. Inspection Manage the design of electrical and mechanical measurement tools for received good monitoring, post-process inspection and final inspection. Evolution Evolution and refine the innovative product line to meet the requirement of client. Engineer manager will be working closely with the CEO, clients, contractors and manufacture groups. CHAPTER 2 SOFT SKILLS Soft skills also define as interpersonal skills. Engineering managers require interpersonal skills to be efficient. Without the capability to influences others, produce good decision making and control many preferential, the excellent of technical skills arent going to dedicate completely to the administrative of the team. As a engineering manager, who realize themselves badly off in interpersonal skill, must try to aspire training at any time to support up leadership skills, human skills, communications skills, management skills, presentation skills and so on. An administrative management must hold out such training. Engineering managers requires an integration of technical skills and interpersonal skills as well. For engineering manager, technical skills are generally less important, and their professional evolution focal point should be on skills that will assist a manager become a primary leader of the business. For those engineering managers who are not willing to spend those specialize into leadership path, may not be the greatest rightness for engineering management responsibilities. Human Skills Human skills include realizing how to interact nicely with people. Normally, nobody like to working for a manger that is impolite and inconsiderate. A manger lack in human skills can decrease both spirit and productivity of the team. However, engineering manager with effective human skills always has employees with a positive manner and a tough desire to boost up company productivity. It is important for engineering manager to work effectively with positional, subordinates, and supervisors. Always entertaining employees or workers with respectful and polite together with the ability to expressive a vision for the task are main element to a manager to archiving an interpersonal skills. Well communication skills and the intelligence to associate with people are the essential to become a successful engineering manager, or else, they will not be able to express their opinion for the business with the involved person. A successful engineering manager able to complete the task in all kind of responsibilities by cooperates with workers, technicians, managers and clients. Leadership Responsibilities Every organization requires certain people to take leadership responsibilities. Anyone can be a leader, as long as they are proficient in leadership skills. The organization will develop well if everyone expends their professional skills into proper leadership roles. A leader is someone who looks for works that havent been completed or pursue to improve the teams objectives to make it become more efficient. Leaders are responsible for employing, training, inspiring, counseling, and disciplining their employees. They always pursue to inspiring and utilize the energies and skills of employees to guarantee a productivity and efficient work. Besides that, they must always instill positive thinking or manners, to ensure that all the employees are working towards an achievement of same goal. Be a good example As usual, there are leaders and there are followers. Developing good leadership skills can bring about the excellence between the two. Some of the people claim that, a strong leader is born and not made. This is not to conclude that, the leadership skill does not be able to learn. As an engineering manager, try to developing yourself to stimulate become a good leader. People always follow a good leader due to he is stand for the beliefs of a team. This person is always well focused on a main objective and resolves the difficulties. In the same time, the employees will be happy to provide the support for the team in order to succeed in accomplishes their goals. Background Skills for a Manager In order to processing the effectively influencing of the teams activities, a leader should also need to influence their employees through some characters such as personal glamour, expertise, command of language, and the produce of mutual respect or polite. The engineering manager should also require to handling some background skills such as mentoring, decision making, group works, delegation and motivating others. Mentoring Become a trusted advisor and assistant with experience in a specific field. Actively sustaining and directing someone to develop their experience and knowledge in order to achieve career goals. A mentoring relationship could be formal or informal, but must include trust, respect, acceptance and commitment as both sides work together to accomplish a common goal. Group work Team work defines as any activity in which members work together. It also explains as an activity that has been specifically designed so that members can work in a team. An engineering manager should able to supervise the task for each member in the group. Help each other with their task given in order to achieve the common objective. Always corporately and working efficiently with other team members. Decision Making Evaluate proper evidence and balance up that evidence to make an option. As an engineering manager, should always taking responsibility for a decision and its consequence. Delegation An engineering manager should taking responsibilities for ensuring when to request someone else to carry out a decision for the task. In order to increasing the efficiency and productivity of the task, engineering manager should assigning responsibilities and power in a team by giving someone else the judgment to carry out the decision. Network Building As a leader, should always creating contacts with other people and keeping those contacts. For example, meeting and bring together with someone at a seminar with similar interests, and interchanging email addresses with them. Obtaining and keeping information about those who might be beneficial contacts for certain intention. Make use of a contact in an ethical way to help each other achieve particular goals. Motivating Others Engineer should always produce devotion and capability by being positively. Besides that, focusing on researching solutions and holding a positive manner even when thing are going bad. A good leader should always ask his employees about the ways to overcome the problem. Inspiring the team member to come out the solutions, and try to listening carefully to their opinion. Always prepared to support employees in taking agree with them, calculated risk, and not criticizing and blaming others when the thing is going wrong. Counseling Counseling defines as a personal talk with someone who need for helps in individual problem. Everyone has confronted with problems from time to time. As a good leader, employees will grow to respect him, and they will ready to come to him with problems. A leader always recognizes employees with problems, and he cannot let them suffer or just move them away. If the serious problem has been ignored, that will almost consequently become a group problem. Furthermore, counseling can also defines as listening. From the view of employees, when they get into trouble, they just need to talk it out about their worries and show the difficulties faced. After their worries and difficulties have been heard by leader gives the sufferer a feeling that his/her worries and difficulties are rational. Hence, by using this way, the self-confidence of employees might increase, handling the problem easily. Management Skills Engineering manager requires understanding many aspects of the business in running a task. The important skills related on special skill or knowledge in the area of organization, finance, marketing surveying, communication, and human resources. Based on the research, great majority of the projects fail because the management skills distribution of the project has not obtained enough notice. The human element has not been sufficiently concerned. For an organization or individual, the transform or change is stressful. It the manager is capability to develop this kind of change; he will accomplish his objective or goal easily. Planning Planning is an essential skill. It provides a common conceptual system to integrate a variety of related skills, involving problem solving skills, scheduling, to develop estimates of the time and resources needed to complete the project, negotiation with client, and conflict resolution. Planning is a sequential process, where a decision at certain stage helps transparent your choices in the next stage. As a manager, he can utilize the suggestion after each stage to help define the particulars for each task. The efficient utilize of planning will do more than any other technical skill to advance both obtaining the job done and managing the group together. Planning is advantage in team organization and individual. Managing Risk Engineering manager can also learned how to recognize problem of risk by establish a project permit that transparent the objectives, opportunity, limits, resources, and timing for the project. Manager require to know how to apply management skills to develop these ricks, Some of the organizations had provided certain kind of certification courses of training for this specific skills for new of future engineering managers. Budgeting An engineering manager should understand how to use the budget. It is another fundamental management skill, even though the organization has hired a team of profession accountants to manage the financial path. There are three important steps to a budgeting, first is preparing it, second is writing it, and final step is monitoring it. Although the finance department are responsible to charged with perform these matters for manager, but as a good engineering manager have the responsibility for the projects budget planning. Besides that, engineering manager also require to understand what have been told about the projects budget. To fully integrate into budgeting, engineering manager need to know about the logically challenge of project cost overrun. By develop this essential skill; engineering manager can be able to managing the budget efficiency. Team work The effective team work will assist an engineering manager to developing his/her project effectively. A good engineering manager also is a team leader as well. Always prepared to help and work with team member to accomplish the common goals. A good manager will able to set up a culture of teamwork into all direction of the task given. Furthermore, there will be a high self-respect within all of the team members, and it sense that they already feel personally included in the whole process of the project. Hence, the project will be success. Decision Making Decision making defines as an action of selecting between two or more type of option. Nevertheless, it might often be bear in mind that there may not always be a right decision making among the available choices. Sometimes there may have been a greater choice that had not been regarded at the suitable time. It is important for a manager to take notes of all decision and the reasons for each decision were made in order to make the improvement in the future time. Besides that, by using this way, we can easy to justify for any decision taken when problem is occurs. Time Management Engineering managers require the ability to organize themselves and others by implement of time management. Always require to examine precisely what had spending your time on and how significant are those task and distributions of time to the successful accomplish of the project give. For example, as an engineering manager, you could spend a lot of time per day just for reading the emails. Actually, this task can be distributed to your clerk or personal assistant. They might tell you what needs follow up with immediately and what can be keep until later or just ignore. By using this way, a manager could save a lot of time and concentrate in another part of the project like checking on progression or inspecting the quality and so on. The time management skills should be applies, and do take note that, it is not necessary to manage the entire task by yourself. The greatest way to improve the time management skills is to further up our self-control and hence can develop the task without terribly upset. Communication Communication is fundamental for effective operation in every stage of an organization. Even though finance, marketing, production, and technical department, may receive guidance from overall objectives and goals, the communication will connects them together and easier become organizational achievement. Communication is required to improves efficiency, quality, give satisfaction for customer, and hence create renovation products. Effective communication is very crucial for company success. That shouldnt only for manager, but also their employees and team members must be efficient in communication. The responsibilities of an engineering manager is to assist their employees improve their communication skills. The good manger must be able to established collaborative relationships through active listening. If all of the team members can communicate efficiently with each other, the performance of the team will be improved. Several ways to improve the relationship between manager and employees: Manager should Always identify employees training requires. Give feedback or suggestion on employees performance. Form a principle for staff decision is necessary, such as promotions, disciplinary actions, allowances, and salary increases. Offer the chance for company diagnosis and development. Demonstrate staff hiring techniques and human resource policies. Interact with client Beside that, interacting with the client also act as an important stage of the role of engineering manager. An engineering manager is usually involved in the beginning meeting, examining, designing of the product, and supervising of the team members. Frequently scheduled meetings with clients are normally planned by the engineering. The ability to operate well with an extensive range of people, and always share opinion and experience with employees is important. Now, many engineering manager attend additional courses in order to advance their communication skills that will help them to managing the employees. Controlling the Group As a good manager, always balances getting the job completed and managing the team together. Control is always a public behavior of the engineering manager. To control the team efficiency, an engineering manager should: Set the tempo A good manager should illustrate his volunteer to do anything asked from team members. Beside that, always sets a good model and example. Observes Observes the team and communicates with the team members but it is not necessary to dominate. Always tends to give suggestions for improvement, it is better than orders. Instructs Communicate clearly with employees. A good manager always allows team members to use their own idea. Although there is a mistake occurs, try to correct the mistake with mutual respect and without blaming. If the work is going well by employees, do not disturb. If necessary, try to offer direct support and instruction. Counsels A leader should be ready and willing to support their employees with certain needs. Always recognizes employees with problems, and he cannot let them suffer or just move them away. Beside that, encourages all of the team members to show their best. Inspects Practice and manage a positive thinking and does not appraise or blaming. Praises good work, in the same time silently provides suggestions to correct the errors. Avoid making employees fall into contempt. Reacts Identifies that responsibilities for lose or breakdown is on the leader, do not shift the blame on employees or team members. Always remain humble and constantly work hard to give service to the team. Human Resources Responsibilities Broadcast and Advertises Engineering Duty Moreover to supervising production, engineering managers always undertake human resources responsibilities as well. Manager broadcast and advertises engineering duty open to public in order to hire new workman and offer practically training. Human resources consist of all elements of employee management, such as recruiting, hiring, training, reserving and dismissal. Within each given area, they are verified effective human resource administration strategies. Effective human resources management skills The successful human resources management skills are needed for a productive organization that can accomplish the goal which is higher profit. All of the employees are a required resource in any organization. If the company does not using effective human resources management skills can be a bad bargain for a business. Human resource management skill is the anticipative developing of people. It needs opinion in advance, and planning methods for an organization to meet the requirement of its employees. In the same time, it also the employees also will meet the requirements of the organization. By using this way, the effective improvement of productivity will appear. A good human resource management should always improve everything from recruiting, hiring, training to evaluate skill and discipline. By improving the employees keeping proportion can reduce the cost for organization to training or hiring new employees. CHAPTER 3 CONCEPTUAL SKILLS Conceptual skills are skills that use the capability of a human to produce concepts. Conceptual skills also defines as a skills that manager should have to think and to conceptualize about digest, abstract and complicated condition. By using this essential skill, managers should be able to observe the company as an integrated, know the relationships between different subunits, and imagine how the company suits to its wider environment. These substantial skills are most significant at the highest grade of management. An engineering manager at the highest level of the companies have the responsibility for making the decision for whole sense of organization and set up the objective and goal that impact the whole organization. In the business field, these essential skills are regard as a fundamental need for managers who located in highest level of management position. Good engineering managers with specific skills normally have brilliant cognitive abilities to deliberate creatively hence resolve problems. A manager be provided with these essential skills are able to investigate a complicated issue and visualize details, and effective practice of behavior. To apply conceptual skills to produce concepts, progressing solution and resolving difficulties. They are some important steps need to follow: Ensure the outcome to be accomplished or explain the problem. Investigate and analyze all required information Evaluate the choices by using problem solving skills Analyze the feasibility of each option. Determine and perform most appropriate solution. Thinking Creativity and Visualizing Abstractions A concept is a series of ideas. A concept manages many ideas jointly; an idea is similar to a brick, it is not a final formation for a building. The final formation is the concept. Do not start a project without a creative concept. The creative concept is the way or the plan that you will use to produce the required outcome. As an engineering manager, you are requiring the ability to comprehend a situation or difficulties by evaluating and cope with possible issues and limits. Conceptual thinking involves organizing the sections of an issues or condition is a regular way and being able to visualize opinions and ideas. Hence, you can extend abstract ideas from certain case. Analysis and Diagnosis A manager should observe at models in events or objects. Always understand how to visualize the ideas. Engineering manager requires analyzing and diagnosis complicated situations which need them to learn conceptual skills. They are able to make the process rationally and make clear with available information. Beside that, engineering manager must be able to determine problems, identify correct option, estimate them and pick the greatest one in order to make a rational decision. Nevertheless, some managers lose in the direction due to lack of ability in rationally processing and illustrating information, managing the results in mind. An individual with conceptual skills can determine how ideas are relevance. They effectually see individual compositions in relationship to the entire project. Inspecting complicated situations and difficulties are important for an engineering manager. Furthermore, problem solving is an important skill that includes both creativity and analysis. A leader with strong conceptual skills always recognized as effective managers, due to their ability to comprehend the whole organization and develop the creativity strategies. Recognizes Recognizing how the different functions and operations of the company depend on one another, and how varies in any one part impact all the other. Recognizing also extends to visualizing the relationship of the personal business to the manufacture, the society, and the governmental, social and financial condition forces of the whole country. Recognizing also involves the thinking in terms of the following: Relative emphasis and proprieties among debating the standards and objectives. Relative tendencies and probabilities, rather than determinate case. Difficult relevancies and patterns among compositions, rather than legible and cause/effect relationships. Training Skills Training can improve previously developed conceptual skills. In developing the conceptual skills, some of the best consequences have been accomplish through guiding of employees by managers. By using the training techniques, manager can help his employees by supervising a specific responsibility. If there is an employee who confront with problem, try to reply with expedition question or opinion, rather than straight way giving answer. By using this way, the employees might learn to solve the problem, and hence their work performance also improved

The Respect Kid :: essays research papers

The author of this novel is Margarat Atwood. She was born in Ottawa, Canada in 1939. She attended the University of Toronto, Radcliffe College, and Harvard University. This book is about a future dystopia. It shows a future in which the United States no longer exists. A knew society, known as Gilead, is created. Women are stripped of their rights. This novel shows what may lie ahead for women, if they do not begin to stand up for themselves. In this novel fertile women are scarce. These fertile women are called Handmaids. Sexual activity is regulated and monitored in order to control the population. Two of the main characters in this novel are the Commander and Offred. The Commander is the head of the household were Offred is stationed as a Handmaid. Offred is the narrator of this story. She belongs to the class of women know as Handmaids. Since the opportunity for men to have pleasure is controlled, men do not rebel against society. Promotion and wives are promised for any man who is loyal. Harsh penalties for irregular satisfaction of sexual desire including homosexuality and masturbation have been created. Marriage is completely arranged. The Handmaids are told that their old society was unstable and immoral. Women suffered a lot. The women in Gilead are told that those problems have been solved.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Offred looses her identity in this new society. Before the new religious group of Gilead took over the world she was a very normal every day woman. She did what was expected of her time and continued to do so after the take over. She had a husband and a daughter who she loved very much. But in the new society, love is not permitted. Before the takeover social class was not a problem and each individual was treated equally. But slowly people of high social groups became much more powerful. They were chosen as Commander’s and the poorer individuals went to Colonies. Young woman were screened, and the ones who passed were used as Handmaids. These Handmaid’s had children for the infertile Commander’s wives. They would be sent away to special schools where they were taught how to give birth and to obey their masters without question. The woman’s lives were controlled by this society; and were taught to forget the society which they once live d. Things that once were, no longer existed. The Respect Kid :: essays research papers The author of this novel is Margarat Atwood. She was born in Ottawa, Canada in 1939. She attended the University of Toronto, Radcliffe College, and Harvard University. This book is about a future dystopia. It shows a future in which the United States no longer exists. A knew society, known as Gilead, is created. Women are stripped of their rights. This novel shows what may lie ahead for women, if they do not begin to stand up for themselves. In this novel fertile women are scarce. These fertile women are called Handmaids. Sexual activity is regulated and monitored in order to control the population. Two of the main characters in this novel are the Commander and Offred. The Commander is the head of the household were Offred is stationed as a Handmaid. Offred is the narrator of this story. She belongs to the class of women know as Handmaids. Since the opportunity for men to have pleasure is controlled, men do not rebel against society. Promotion and wives are promised for any man who is loyal. Harsh penalties for irregular satisfaction of sexual desire including homosexuality and masturbation have been created. Marriage is completely arranged. The Handmaids are told that their old society was unstable and immoral. Women suffered a lot. The women in Gilead are told that those problems have been solved.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Offred looses her identity in this new society. Before the new religious group of Gilead took over the world she was a very normal every day woman. She did what was expected of her time and continued to do so after the take over. She had a husband and a daughter who she loved very much. But in the new society, love is not permitted. Before the takeover social class was not a problem and each individual was treated equally. But slowly people of high social groups became much more powerful. They were chosen as Commander’s and the poorer individuals went to Colonies. Young woman were screened, and the ones who passed were used as Handmaids. These Handmaid’s had children for the infertile Commander’s wives. They would be sent away to special schools where they were taught how to give birth and to obey their masters without question. The woman’s lives were controlled by this society; and were taught to forget the society which they once live d. Things that once were, no longer existed.