Business: between engineering and economics
A recently published essay describes the relationships between these two aspects of how all production is organised.
Technology and organisation. Engineering and economics. These two aspects of business have always interpenetrated, despite frequently not achieving complete mutual understanding. They are the starting and end points of the same path. Economics and industrial engineering have accompanied the entire development of industry and will continue to do so. Understanding their origins and developments helps us understand not only the present but also the future.
This makes reading Riccardo Gallo’s paper “Economia e Ingegneria industriale. Storia di una relazione su cui investire” (Economics and industrial engineering: story of a relationship to invest in) something which it is useful to read with care. The title indicates its core: the relationship between economics and engineering, a story in which we need to maintain our faith.
Gallo (part of the Sapienza University of Rome’s Businesses Observatory), effectively condenses the history of relations between these two aspects of doing business from the birth of industry to the present day into a small space. Gallo then explains how after the first Industrial Revolution of the 18th century, industrial engineering and industrial economics engaged in dialogue on large-scale enterprises, both private and state-owned, sometimes led by engineers. This is how Business Schools and new university courses came into existence. In the second half of the 20th century, however, systems theory developed alongside mathematical economics or engineering management. At the end of that century, technological engineering then promoted the birth of many industrial districts in Italy, which were studied from the perspective of schemes for interpreting the reality of industrial organisation and of industrial policy.
Gallo demonstrates how much industrial development owes to the effective combination of economics and engineering, and how complex business organisation can be, between the technicality and humanity of its activity. Gallo’s essay is well worth reading, a useful guide for a better understanding of a relationship characterised by a wealth of content, but one which requires good understanding if one wishes to take advantage of it.
Economia e Ingegneria industriale. Storia di una relazione su cui investire
Riccardo Gallo
L’industria, Early access, 14/07/2024
A recently published essay describes the relationships between these two aspects of how all production is organised.
Technology and organisation. Engineering and economics. These two aspects of business have always interpenetrated, despite frequently not achieving complete mutual understanding. They are the starting and end points of the same path. Economics and industrial engineering have accompanied the entire development of industry and will continue to do so. Understanding their origins and developments helps us understand not only the present but also the future.
This makes reading Riccardo Gallo’s paper “Economia e Ingegneria industriale. Storia di una relazione su cui investire” (Economics and industrial engineering: story of a relationship to invest in) something which it is useful to read with care. The title indicates its core: the relationship between economics and engineering, a story in which we need to maintain our faith.
Gallo (part of the Sapienza University of Rome’s Businesses Observatory), effectively condenses the history of relations between these two aspects of doing business from the birth of industry to the present day into a small space. Gallo then explains how after the first Industrial Revolution of the 18th century, industrial engineering and industrial economics engaged in dialogue on large-scale enterprises, both private and state-owned, sometimes led by engineers. This is how Business Schools and new university courses came into existence. In the second half of the 20th century, however, systems theory developed alongside mathematical economics or engineering management. At the end of that century, technological engineering then promoted the birth of many industrial districts in Italy, which were studied from the perspective of schemes for interpreting the reality of industrial organisation and of industrial policy.
Gallo demonstrates how much industrial development owes to the effective combination of economics and engineering, and how complex business organisation can be, between the technicality and humanity of its activity. Gallo’s essay is well worth reading, a useful guide for a better understanding of a relationship characterised by a wealth of content, but one which requires good understanding if one wishes to take advantage of it.
Economia e Ingegneria industriale. Storia di una relazione su cui investire
Riccardo Gallo
L’industria, Early access, 14/07/2024