The Use and Understanding of System Engineering by Management

System engineering has been used as a term for many years. It has been used primarily in the technical world and has many specifics that change from engineer to engineer, but it has rarely been described as something a business manager might want to engage in. This is curious since the idea of ‘systems’ or ‘systemic’ is not exclusive to technology-driven projects and in fact is popularized from time to time in business literature and practice. There are advantages in any industry to have the technical people and business people talking the same language and using the same basic practices. The practice of system engineering should be one of those. There would also be advantages specific to the heavy equipment industry particularly as horizontal alignment; vertical alignment and ‘realignment’ are affecting markets, products and organizations. Some steps to use system engineering in business and how it compares to usage in the technical world are discussed in this publication.