Engineering managers are constantly seeking ways to spur innovation, improve designs, facilitate more effective communication and collaboration, increase efficiency, reduce waste, and improve complex systems and processes. This issue contains five articles, some of which explore the impacts of innovation, collaboration, and communication in engineering design organizations as well as others that explore application of lean thinking in a healthcare organization and the integration of reliability tools and techniques in systems engineering management. We would like to thank our peer reviewers for their invested time and expertise as well as managing editors Jennifer Cross and Brian Smith and associate editors Gosavi, Gandhi, Handley, Van Landeghem, and Calvo-Amodio for their contributions to this issue. Our issue begins with an article entitled “Integrating Multiple Stakeholder Interests into Conceptual Design” by Yip, Phaal, and Probert. Their article explores how multiple stakeholder interests can be integrated into the engineering design of a product-service system. The authors develop a product-service system characterization scheme using 25 new products, services, and product-service systems from the healthcare industry. Their research findings extend the work for new product designs to new product-service system designs. These findings may have significant implications for engineering managers and engineering practitioners, especially those responsible for transforming stakeholder needs and desires into design specifications. The authors develop a novel way to way to incorporate multiple stakeholder interests into the design of new product-service systems. The authors conclude their study with some discussion on additional research areas that warrant further investigation as a result of their findings. The second article in this issue “The Relationship Among Organizational Symbols, Firm Absorptive Capacity, and Product Innovativeness” by Akgün, Keskin, Kocoglu, and Zehir investigate the relationships between organizational verbal symbols (including stories, metaphors, and common language), firm absorptive capacity variables (external knowledge, acquisition, assimilation, transformation, and utilization), and firm product innovativeness. Using data from 203 companies, their analysis shows that using heuristicmetaphors, telling process related stories, and developing a common language have a positive impact on a firm’s absorptive capacity. Their analysis also shows that when organizations successfully recognize the value of external knowledge and subsequently transform and utilize that knowledge, those firms develop better products than their competitors. The authors summarize the limitations of their research and suggest opportunities for further research in this area. Bacalan, Cupin, Go, Manuel, Ocampo, Kharat, and Promentilla, in their article “The Incubatees’ Perspective on Identifying Priority Enabling Factors for Technology Business Incubators,” explore the impact of enabling factors on technology business incubators by using the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) to prioritize the various enabling factors impact on business incubators. The authors provide a comprehensive case study using the University of Philippines Technology Incubator. Their research findings suggest that on-site business expertise, suggested ideas on situational experience, and confidential techniques or information that improve the incubatees know how are the most relevant enablers. Surprisingly, in-kind financial support emerged as one of the least important factors. Their findings can guide engineering managers and decision makers for both incubators and incubatees on how to improve their competitiveness and reduce their risk of failure. Our fourth article in this issue is “Lean-Thinking: Implementation and Measurement in Healthcare Settings” coauthored by Mazur, Stokes, and McCreery. In this article, the authors investigate the use of lean thinking in the healthcare industry and develop a survey instrument and conceptual model to measure individual transformation to lean thinking. A detailed case study from the University of North Carolina’s Radiation Oncology department is used to develop and test a survey instrument and conceptual model for individual transformation to lean thinking. The authors suggest that the survey instrument and conceptual model can be used by organizations to measure, understand, and improve their lean implementation efforts aimed at transforming individuals to lean thinkers. The authors conclude with a discussion of the limitations of the existing survey instrument and model and make suggestions for additional research. Our fifth and final paper in this issue is an Applied Engineering Management article entitled “Integrating Reliability in Systems Engineering Management” by Sols and Salado, which seeks to help engineering managers in product development and manufacturing understand how to identify, prioritize, and integrate reliability tools and techniques into their systems engineering and management process for their product designs and process improvements The authors discuss how reliability activities effectively integrate into the system life cycle, enabling engineering managers to understand what has to be done, when, and why from a reliability perspective. The authors utilize eight real-world engineering case studies to demonstrate the negative impact of managing complex system engineering projects without a systematic understanding of reliability. The authors conclude with series of recommendations for engineering mangers. The Engineering Management Journal publishes rigorous and relevant research and applications that add value not only to the academic community but also to the engineering management practitioner community. We invite articles from both academics and practitioners and welcome all types of research methodologies that address the engineering management domain areas. For questions or inquiries, please contact us at: epohl@uark.edu and hln@uark.edu.

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来自编辑

工程经理一直在寻找方法来刺激创新、改进设计、促进更有效的沟通和协作、提高效率、减少浪费以及改进复杂的系统和流程。本期包含五篇文章，其中一些探讨了工程设计组织中创新、协作和交流的影响，另一些则探讨了精益思维在医疗保健组织中的应用以及可靠性工具和技术在系统工程管理中的集成。我们要感谢我们的同行审稿人投入的时间和专业知识，以及执行编辑 Jennifer Cross 和 Brian Smith 以及副编辑 Gosavi、Gandhi、Handley、Van Landeghem 和 Calvo-Amodio 对本期的贡献。我们的问题始于 Yip、Phaal 和 Probert 的一篇题为“将多个利益相关者利益整合到概念设计中”的文章。他们的文章探讨了如何将多个利益相关者的利益整合到产品服务系统的工程设计中。作者使用来自医疗保健行业的 25 种新产品、服务和产品服务系统开发了一个产品服务系统表征方案。他们的研究成果将新产品设计的工作扩展到新的产品服务系统设计。这些发现可能对工程经理和工程从业者具有重要意义，尤其是那些负责将利益相关者的需求和愿望转化为设计规范的人。作者开发了一种将多个利益相关者的利益纳入新产品服务系统设计的新方法。作者通过对其他研究领域的一些讨论来结束他们的研究，这些领域值得根据他们的发现进行进一步调查。本期第二篇文章“组织符号、企业吸收能力和产品创新之间的关系”，作者 Akgün、Keskin、Kocoglu 和 Zehir 研究了组织语言符号（包括故事、隐喻和共同语言）与企业吸收能力之间的关系。能力变量（外部知识、获取、同化、转化和利用）和企业产品创新。使用来自 203 家公司的数据，他们的分析表明，使用启发式隐喻，讲述与流程相关的故事，发展共同语言对企业的吸收能力有积极影响。他们的分析还表明，当组织成功地认识到外部知识的价值并随后转化和利用这些知识时，这些公司就会开发出比竞争对手更好的产品。作者总结了他们研究的局限性，并提出了在该领域进一步研究的机会。Bacalan、Cupin、Go、Manuel、Ocampo、Kharat 和 Promentilla 在他们的文章“孵化器对确定技术企业孵化器优先支持因素的看法”中，通过使用订单技术探讨了支持因素对技术企业孵化器的影响通过与理想解决方案相似的偏好 (TOPSIS) 优先考虑影响企业孵化器的各种促成因素。作者提供了使用菲律宾大学技术孵化器的综合案例研究。他们的研究结果表明，现场业务专业知识、关于情境体验的建议想法以及改善孵化器的机密技术或信息是最相关的推动因素。令人惊讶的是，实物金融支持成为最不重要的因素之一。他们的发现可以指导孵化器和孵化器的工程经理和决策者如何提高竞争力并降低失败风险。我们本期的第四篇文章是由 Mazur、Stokes 和 McCreery 合着的“精益思维：医疗保健环境中的实施和测量”。在本文中，作者调查了精益思维在医疗保健行业的使用，并开发了一种调查工具和概念模型来衡量个人向精益思维的转变。北卡罗来纳大学放射肿瘤学系的详细案例研究用于开发和测试用于个人向精益思维转变的调查工具和概念模型。作者建议组织可以使用调查工具和概念模型来衡量、理解和改进其旨在将个人转变为精益思想家的精益实施工作。作者最后讨论了现有调查工具和模型的局限性，并提出了进一步研究的建议。我们在本期的第五篇也是最后一篇论文是 Sols 和 Salado 的一篇名为“在系统工程管理中集成可靠性”的应用工程管理文章，旨在帮助产品开发和制造领域的工程经理了解如何识别、优先排序和集成可靠性工具以及将技术融入系统工程和管理过程以进行产品设计和过程改进 作者讨论了可靠性活动如何有效地集成到系统生命周期中，使工程经理能够从可靠性的角度了解必须做什么、何时以及为什么要做。作者利用八个真实世界的工程案例研究来证明在没有系统地了解可靠性的情况下管理复杂系统工程项目的负面影响。作者最后为工程经理提出了一系列建议。《工程管理杂志》发表了严谨且相关的研究和应用，不仅为学术界而且为工程管理从业者社区增加了价值。我们邀请学者和从业者发表文章，并欢迎针对工程管理领域的所有类型的研究方法。如有问题或疑问，请联系我们：epohl@uark.edu 和 hln@uark.edu。我们邀请学者和从业者发表文章，并欢迎针对工程管理领域的所有类型的研究方法。如有问题或疑问，请联系我们：epohl@uark.edu 和 hln@uark.edu。我们邀请学者和从业者发表文章，并欢迎针对工程管理领域的所有类型的研究方法。如有问题或疑问，请联系我们：epohl@uark.edu 和 hln@uark.edu。