GEST1114-1

Duration

Number of credits

	Master in business engineering (120 ECTS)	10 crédits

Lecturer

Anne-Christine Cadiat, Anne Chanteux, Charlotte Moreau, Thierry Pironet

Language(s) of instruction

French language

Organisation and examination

All year long, with partial in January

Schedule

Schedule online

Units courses prerequisite and corequisite

Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program

Learning unit contents

The "Multidisciplinary Project" course, which forms part of the Masters in Industrial and Business Engineering (IBE) jointly organised by the HEC-Liège Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences and the HELMO-Gramme Institute of Industrial Engineering, takes place during the third year (M3). This course is therefore designed for students who already hold either a management engineering degree or an IBE industrial engineering degree.
The aim of this course is to practically implement technical and managements skills acquired in situations which are close to industrial reality. The economic world needs managers who are capable of working in multidisciplinary teams to develop innovative projects which are validated in commercial, economic and technical terms. This is why the course will cover five main themes:
1)    project management, dynamics, building groups and collaborative working;
2)    exploring and defining need;
3)    technical and economic feasibility;
4)    designing and technically creating a prototype
5)    validation of a marketing and sales communication plan;
In practical terms, this will involve teams of students (e.g. four: management engineers (2) and industrial engineers (2 or 3), designing and creating industrial prototypes of machines and related services (software), assessing their commercial potential, identifying their technical-commercial feasibility, and validating the associated business plan. They will need to demonstrate the technological proof-of-concept and the related business plan.
Moreover, students will need to be aware of and attentive to analysing the management of their work throughout the course and to raising critical questions on the pitfalls and success factors encountered as the innovative and shared project progresses.
In practical terms, each group will propose an innovation project or will select a project proposed by industrial partners.
Teams of teaching staff will provide support in their various areas of expertise: electricity, electronics, mechanisms, IT, chemistry, biochemistry, automation, material resistance, construction, marketing, finance, law, logistics, communication, etc.
The teaching staff are divided into three: a representative of each school, Frédéric Senny (HELMO-Gramme) and Thierry Pironet (HEC-ULiège), a hands-on support team of five teaching staff: Bernard Rausin, Sophie Pirard, Anne Chanteux, Anne-Christine Cadiat and Charlotte Moreau, as well as two members of the IBE programme (P. Deneye and P. Lousberg) and specialist experts who can be called upon from both institutions as needed.
Frédéric Sanny and Thierry Pironet are the academic and operational leaders of the course; the remainder are teaching staff and are all jury members.

Learning outcomes of the learning unit

To be able to explore need and situate an innovative product and associated services in a competitive context: define characteristics, legal aspects, target clients, competition, market objectives, sales potential and pricing policy.
To be able to understand the objectives and technical limitations of the product and associated services and be able to select technologies likely to be able to respond to these expectations.
To understand management difficulties in the logistics and production chain of this innovation.
To be able to calculate a provisional cost price to generate a financial and strategic business plan.
To be able to establish a provisional project schedule, to assess and readjust it over time and be able to critically assess the important factors in managing a team in order to be able to identify the conclusions that can be drawn from it.
To design and product a functional prototype of the product by integrating the TRIZ methodology, the machine directive and a risk analysis.
Be able to present the work orally and in writing as well as through a sales support (e.g. website, folder, videos, etc.).

Prerequisite knowledge and skills

Basic project management course:
NTE042 Project management seminar (HEC-ULiège)
Note: Management engineers follow this in M2, industrial engineers must follow it in M3. Course given on the first three days of the academic year. (e.g. 17 to 19 September 2018)

Planned learning activities and teaching methods

The course is essentially based on implementing skills which have students have already acquired, with a view to producing a functional prototype.
For project finance, marketing and management, documents (articles, videos, files) will be available on the class platform and may be used by each group according to their grasp of the issues ...
In addition, teams must plan their work and manage their time. However, several compulsory sessions are planned.
During the first semester:
-     prerequisite project management course for the Masters in Engineering Sciences;
-      Twelve 90-minute sessions during the first semester to predefine the project and conduct initial research and build first contacts;
-      Including an introductory session on the "Multidisciplinary Project";
-      As well as one or more other presentations by the industrial partners for potential projects (Start of October);
-      In addition, the remaining sessions will be devoted to meetings to refine the projects and prepare the practicalities by discipline (October-November);
-     End of October (26 October 2018), pre-report on defining needs and markets, technological needs and project planning.
-      Start of November, project validation by the teaching staff with any recommendations.
During the second semester:
-      from February to May, one working day per week is planned with an informal meeting between each group and one or two staff (F S, Th P,...) to set out the work that has been accomplished.
-      a pre-report and approximately 30-minute meeting on progress in March with each group, in the presence of the teaching staff from the support team, for a 10-15 minute presentation to all the other groups, followed by a question and answer session, recommendations, project adjustment.
-      a final written report by group to be submitted at the end of the semester (May)
-      an oral exam in front of a jury by group and consisting of a presentation, demonstration of the basic concept of a prototype and an individual question and answer session in the presence of the teaching staff from the support team, any experts used and partner companies.
Teaching methods:
Self-social construction of knowledge
Learning through practice

Mode of delivery (face-to-face ; distance-learning)

Refresher courses on line for theoretical concepts.
Access by appointment to the labs during weekly meetings.
Informal meetings with support teaching staff and experts.
Professional-level presentations during monthly interviews and free-form discussions during question and answer sessions.

Assessment methods and criteria

Joint grades
Presentations: 25% (2nd session 0%) Written reports: 25% (2nd session 50%) Individual grades Continuous assessment, oral exam and peer-group evaluation: 50% (2nd session 50% in individual grades)
The assessment criteria will focus on the evaluation of the following skills:
-      Marketing analysis capabilities and the ability to analyse an innovative concept:
-      Technical-economic analysis capacities and the ability to validate a business plan;
-      Technical analysis capacities and the ability to implement technologies and understand related theoretical concepts;
-      Ability to critically analyse upon the management of the project and work in a team.
-      Team work and individual contribution.

Work placement(s)

Organizational remarks

See timetable on the platform

Contacts

Course leader and HEC-Liège representative Professor Thierry Pironet
Logistics - Production management e-mail: thierry.pironet@uliege.be HEC-Liège Bâtiment N1 Rue Louvrex, 14, Bureau 328 B-4000 LIEGE
HELMO-Gramme representative Professor Frédéric Senny
Electronics - Automation - IT systems e-mail: f.senny@helmo.be HELMO-Gramme Campus de l'Ourthe, Quai du Condroz 29, B-4031 Liège
Lead professors by theme:
Anne Christine Cadiat (HEC-Liège) Marketing accadiat@uliege.be Anne Chanteux (HEC-Liège) Finance anne.chanteux@uliege.be Charlotte Moreau (HEC-Liège) Project Management charlotte.moreau@uliege.be Sophie Pirard (HELMO-Gramme) Chemistry s.pirard@helmo.be Bernard Rausin (HELMO-Gramme) Electro-mechanics b.rausin@helmo.be
IBE programme coordinators: Pierre Deneye (HEC-Liège) e-mail: pierre.deneye@uliege.be Pierre Lousberg (HELMO-Gramme) e-mail: p.lousberg@helmo.be
IBE programme manager Christine Puit e-mail: christine.puit@uliege.be

Transdisciplinary project