A strategic engineering philosophy

Abstract

Economic and productive utilization of natural resources are central to fundamental Industrial Engineering science, whereas capitalistic corporate strategy is aimed at growth of shareholders capital investments made into capitalistic systems of organizations and industries. In this thesis it is established that Industrial Engineering principles are applicable, as a strategic tool, in the economic and productive utilization of corporate resources such as organizations within unrelated industries aimed at achieving the capitalistic corporate goal. In this expanded field of Industrial Engineering termed Strategic Industrial Engineering, scientific engineering knowledge is therefore applied to capitalistic systems with the strategic aim of accumulating capital for the corporate shareholders. The proposition of this thesis, termed A Strategic Industrial Engineering Philosophy, is primarily justified by applying the philosophical principle of sufficient reasoning. Secondary to this, scientific frameworks are proposed that support this expanded philosophy of Industrial Engineering by demonstrating the achievement of the capitalistic corporate goal. This is achieved through the following: -- Setting return on equity (ROE) as the scientific measure of capital accumulation; -- proposing a Strategic Industrial Engineering Process, aimed at achieving the capitalistic corporate goal, for further research. This process is based on the following: --- the relationship between the fundamental strategy and engineering processes; and --- fundamental corporate performance-regulating principles. -- demonstrating the validity of these performance-regulating principles through explorative statistical analyses. The proposed Strategic Industrial Engineering Process, to be fully defined through further research, is illustrated in Figure 1. See figure 1 in 00front Fundamental corporate strategies are proposed based on applying the Strategic Industrial Engineering Process as a strategic tool. These corporate strategies are based on the following, as indicated in Figure 2. -- Organisational competitiveness -- industry competitiveness; and -- cost of equity. See figure 2 in 00front In figure 3 it is illustrated that the following performance-regulating principles influence the accumulation of capital (ROE) for the benefit of capitalistic corporate shareholders. -- The competitiveness of its individual organizations; -- The individual organisations’ accumulation of capital relative to the cost of equity; -- The competitiveness of the industry structures that the corporation is exposed to; and -- Strategic fit benefits that improve the corporate performance too more than the average performance of its individual organizations. See figure 3 in 00front A corporation’s accumulation of capital is influence by the positions of its individual organizations on the industry ROE life cycle. The proposed industry ROE life cycle is illustrated in Figure 4. See figure 4 in 00front Lastly, the foremost intent with this thesis is to establish and demonstrate a specific way of thinking about the role of Industrial Engineering in corporate strategy.