ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the role of engineers in the context of manufacturing and the relationship with management thinking and practice during the 1980s. The Finniston report started from the premise that the future of both the engineering profession and manufacturing industry are closely intertwined. The Finniston committee had recognized that the institutions’ joint body, called the Council of Engineering Institutions, had failed to establish ‘one voice and one ear’ for a unified engineering profession and it lacked authority with industry. The Engineering Council was created with a chairman and up to twenty-four members, two-thirds of whom have to be chartered engineers. Unlike the engineering profession in many other countries, the Engineering Council has avoided distancing a professional elite from all other types of technical worker. In the 1990s various events have been taking place which have important implications for the future of British engineering.
