Understanding of Society, Economic, Environmental, impact

of engineering decision

An engineer has to beware or think about STEEP in his/her mind in order to produce a best
engineering decision. STEEP refers as S-Society, T-Technology, E-Economy, E-Environment
and P-Politics. Engineers have to understand those factors if not their decision is not optimized
one or useless to implement or for practice.
Here I am going to consider the importance of understanding the Society, Economy and
Environment to make a best engineering decision. Before that I like to define what is engineering
with help of The Free Dictionary.com which defines the Engineering as The application of
scientific and mathematical principles to practical ends such as the design, manufacture, and
operation of efficient and economical structure, machines, process, and systems. it is crystal
clear that the difference between other people and engineers is the engineers decisions are more
concerned with efficiency and optimum in order to maintain or build up more quality decisions
an engineer has to understand very clearly the Society, Economy, and Environment.
In any engineering projects WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) there is a time slot for feasibility
study. This is the place where engineers study or understand the STEEP (Society, Technology,
Economy, Environment, and Politics).
Now let take society, it is quite clear that most engineering stuffs are designed for society that
means engineering products are finally consumed by society known as end users. So engineer has
a responsibility to understand the related society not only this but also engineer has to discuss
his/her idea or solution with the society and engineer should be transparent to the society that
means engineer has to reveal the negative and positive impacts of the particular project to the
society and he/she should obtain societal approval before implementing a solution.
Examples of electrical and computer engineering solutions with significant societal impact:

Power
Automobile
Airplanes
Radio
Television
Microwave oven
Computers
Internet
Video/DVD
Mobile Phones

Above I mentioned electrical and computer engineering stuffs because nowadays those
disciplines are the most concerned engineering fields in the world related e-waste why I linked
these e-wastes is it will help me to explain the environmental factor in the following article. Now
we come back to the view of society, from the above example we can see how engineering stuffs
are bond with the society. For deep analyzing I am going to take the first example Power.

Let take an engineer who got a nuclear power plant implementing project in Sri Lanka. Just you
think can he put up that in any place where he wants in Sri Lanka, if he done this manner we can
say he is not an engineer because 90% of people know about nuclear power plant radiation side
effects and engineer also. So the major issue or main highlighted considerable factor is Society,
society health and future in this project so he must give the first priority to the society and
definitely he will face so many problems from the society during the whole project span
definitely that means an engineer has to consider the society throughout the project span not only
this but also after the implementation.
Now we have a look at economy part. There is a part in feasibility study called Engineering
Economy. Professor C.S.Park discussed in the title of What is Engineering Economy? in 2005.
I like to share his thoughts in my article in point forms.
Economic decision making for engineering systems is called engineering economy. This
definition may seem restricted to engineering projects and systems only, engineering
economy however is also the study of industrial economics and the economic and
financial factors which influence industry.
Engineers are the people who are familiar with all the technicalities of machinery and
production therefore they are the best judges of the useful lives of an asset and they also
have the technical knowledge to calculate the number of units a proposed plant would
produce when operational.
In todays competitive world of business it has become essential that engineers should
practice financial project analysis for engineering projects and make rational decisions.
Engineering economy also includes the study of accounting practices for manufacturing
concerns. Unique features of accounting for manufacturing concerns are process costing,
batch costing, cost allocation.
Engineering economy deals with justification and selection of projects. Many engineers
work on projects which address a specified activity or a problem. Any decision regarding
the project must be justified.
In business environments, many if not all, decisions are justified using monetary criteria
such as profit. Such decisions are made at the managerial level and many engineers
become managers in manufacturing environment.
Therefore, all engineers, regardless of their employment, should know methods and tools
used in evaluation of projects.
The purpose of engineering economy is to expose all engineering students to the methods
which are widely used for evaluation of projects.
Even though, engineering economy deals mostly with selection of projects in business
environment, the tools and methods can be and are used by individuals and non-profit
organizations such as government, hospitals, and charitable entities, etc.

Engineering is one of a business. Every human wants profit with efficiency known as optimum.
There should be a sponsor in a project as a stakeholder. An engineers job is, use the money in
optimum way in other words makes profit but he has the responsible to make quality out-put so
he has to have a look between expenditure and quality, according these parameters he wants to
work.
The major two factors in engineering economic decisions are Time and Uncertainty.

Manufacturing

Planning

Investment

Marketing

Profit

Figure 1.1-Engineering Economic Decision

Now we have a look at my final point and major point that is Environment. Just refresh the word
as I mentioned above e-waste. This is the major problem now in the world. Most electrical and
electronics engineers are attracted by this topic because more and more electrical and electronics
appliances are produced and consumed users simply through their old appliances when they are
buying new one. The thrown electronics trashes are known as e-waste. More e-wastes are
contaminated in the planet that means those toxins are harmful to the environment.
More natural resources are consumed for manufacturing a product so there is an unstable
situation occurred in the environment. When there is a word manufacturing that means there
should be at least one engineer should take part.
I like to share my own experience at this end that is house sparrows when I was child I saw so
many sparrow birds around my home (environment) now I cant see even one of them. We know
the reason now that is due to radio waves which are used as communication transmission media
in cellular networks. What we want as a human cell phone or sparrow bird? Definitely answer is
Cell phone that is why the number of mobile subscribers in Sri Lanka is almost equal to the
population of Sri Lanka. So engineers are the persons who have to consider this factor
Environment. As an engineering student I like to concerned and work with this problem in order
make a better world and brighter future for House Sparrow Birds.