If you are a mechanical or an electrical engineer working for a private firm, the decisions you may be involved in can be related to design, manufacturing, marketing, financing, staffing, or acquiring equipment.  If you are a civil engineering or a construction management professional the decisions you will have to make may involve design, construction, operation, maintenance, staffing, or equipment purchases.  If you are working for a governmental or other non-profit or not-for-profit institutions your decision making tasks may be slightly different.  But as an engineer at some time in your career you will make engineering economic decisions.  This course will train you for that role.

The time frame of interest will be different for different types of engineering decisions.  For example, decisions related to the acquisition of equipment will have to have a longer time frame of interest.  Such expenditures are called capital expenditures and to justify them you have to be able to estimate your profits or cash flow over a period of time at least equal to the service period of the equipment.  As you can see, for analyses of this type, predictions about the future are needed.   Inaccurate estimates of future cash flow can be very costly.  If too much is invested, you will get a lower return from your expenditure.  If too little is invested, you may not be able to compete with others and may lose your market share.

There are other instances in which the time frame of interest is shorter.   Decisions related to operations are usually short-term.  They do not involve the expenditure of large sums of money on items, such as equipment, that will last for a long time.