GEST1114-1

Duration

Number of credits

	Master in business engineering (120 ECTS) (Industrial Business Engineering)	10 crédits

Lecturer

Anne-Christine Cadiat, Anne Chanteux, Magali Herman, 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 or a proof of concept;

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) or a proof of concept in a report. Within this document, they will assess their commercial potential, identify their technical-commercial feasibility, and validate 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.

Each student from each group is assigned the responsibility for one theme. If possible, once per month, each student-manager have to meet the "coaching" teacher responsible for this theme. According to the group size (4 or 5), there is one student-manager responsible for marketing (MKTG), one student-manager for finance (FIN), one or 2 for technique (TECH), one for project management (PROJ).

Students with a business engineering degree will have technical responsibility, while students with an industrial engineering degree will have finance and marketing responsibility.

Teams of teaching staff 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 Magali Herman (HEC-ULiège), a hands-on support team of six teaching staff: Bernard Rausin, Sophie Pirard, Alban Van Laethem, Anne Chanteux, Anne-Christine Cadiat and Thierry Pironnet, as well as two members of the IBE programme (P. Deneye and V. Lenaerts) and specialist experts who can be called upon from both institutions as needed.

Frédéric Senny and Magali Herman 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, sources of financing 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 and margins to generate a financial and strategic business plan and/or to compute the profitability of the investments to be made and/or to find sources of financing.
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 TRIIP 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

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 or a proof of concept as well as its potential commercialisation on a market.
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:
-     An introductive session to the lecture "Projet transdiciplinaire" and presentation of potential projects from industrial partners;
-      In the beginning of October, during a session, projects are validated by the teachers with some advices.
-      Following sessions according to the schedule are devoted to an introduction to marketing and the notions of "customers' requirements" and "client", to the financial methodologies as well as project management and 2 sessions for the TRIIP method;
-      During November sessions, each group presents to the teachers a summary of its project, the task to be performed and the methodologies to be followed in each theme and a plan of the project. The provided canvas has to be followed.
-      In December, this summary is submitted again taking into account the comments and remarks from the presentation. -     Each month from October to November, each student-manager (MKTG, FIN, TECH, PROJ) has to meet if possible once the coaching teacher of his theme. Appointments are scheduled at best convenience either at HEC-Liège, or at Gramme on the Ourthe Campus (TECH).
-      If the work involves a company, remaining sessions and blank hours are devoted to meeting with this company and particularly, a meeting is organized in December with a teacher to validate the objectives of the project;
During the second semester:
-     In addition to periods without sessions, from February to May, one working day per week is planned.
-      The third Monday of February, a pre-report including a 10 page summary as well as a chapter developed per theme has to be posted with the non-significant appendixes. In the beginning of March, a 10 to 15 minute presentation of this report is taking place in front of the other groups (except confidentiality issues) and the company under invitation. This presentation is followed by a question and answer session, recommendations, project adjustment.
- Meetings per theme with student manager and the coaching teachers are also taking place in March and April.
-   A 50 page final written report including each theme + appendix has to be submitted at the end of the semester (early 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, hybrid learning)

Face-to-face course

Additional information:

Refresher courses for theoretical concepts.
Access by appointment to the labs
Formal meetings during the appointments with the coaching teachers and informal with experts.
Professional-level presentations during monthly interviews and free-form discussions during question and answer sessions.

Work placement(s)

Organisational remarks and main changes to the course

See timetable on the platform

Contacts

Course leader HEC-Liège Magali Herman
Finance - Management e-mail: magali.herman@uliege.be HEC-Liège Bâtiment N1 Rue Louvrex, 14,
Office 309 B-4000 LIEGE
Course leader HELMO-Gramme 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
Sophie Pirard ((HELMO-Gramme) s.pirard@helmo.be
Bernard Rausin (HELMO-Gramme) Electro-mechanics b.rausin@helmo.be
Alban Van Laethem (HELMO-Gramme) a.vanlaethem@hemo.be
Thierry Pironet (HEC-Liège) Logistique thierry.pironet@uliege.be
IBE programme coordinators:
Pierre Deneye (HEC-Liège) e-mail: pierre.deneye@uliege.be
Vincent Lenaerts (HELMO-Gramme) e-mail: v.lenaerts@helmo.be
IBE programme manager
Christine Puit e-mail: christine.puit@uliege.be

IBE transdiciplinary project