yes kind of.  My boss hired a guy who has no experience in our field at all.  He put him in charge of one of our crews that does very technical work and requires knowledge of the work that is done.  Needless to say, that crew experienced alot of extra work and headaches caused by this guy's inexperience.. I didn't understand my boss's reasoning.  Now things are a little better, the field supervisor of the crew has been working with this guy and together they are able to avoid some of the stupid problems he caused befor.  I kind of figured out why my boss did it.  

One reason was to get someone in there that he could mold and tell how he wanted things done specifically and not try and change the way someone else would do it due to past experience.  

The other main reason why my boss did it was that this man had some prior business experience and he felt that this adversity would help the company... and from what I understand it has.... even though many of the guys still hate him.

There could be other reasons as well...
maybe they see this new young employee as a long term investment.
maybe he/she has experience outside the industry that will help him do his job.
maybe this person has been trained in things that are new and that the company wishes to implement.  
quite honestly he might have known someone upstairs too... you never know.

It could be a bunch of things... its really hard to say.  My best suggestion is to keep an open mind and maybe you will understand it someday.... than again... alot of higher-ups never make sense...

I had a similar experience happen to me. I was interviewed for a position which I knew I was the best candidate for at the time. I was confident of this because our robot systems which we sold in the uk were used predominently by the company I was seeking a job with.

We had only 4 service engineers in the uk and I was the most experienced in the company.

When I had the first interview I was virtually guarenteed the job by the Engineering Manager who I had supported for years whilst working for the robot company.

The final interviews were taken away from the engineering manager and were held by Human resources.
I was asked by the HR people why I thought I was the best candidate, so I explained my years of experience, my technical ability, qualifications and the fact that I had designed and installed and programmed every robot cell on there site etc etc..............I still didnt get the job.

They employeed a bloke with no experience to do the job.

Concequently he was sent to the company I was working for so I could train him...he was embarresed. I later found out that his wife was best friends with the person from the HR department.

So sometimes its not what you know, its who you know...!!!!!

Here's a piece of advice I read many years ago, and all young engineers should be aware of it:

"Never complain about nepotism because you never know who's relative you're talking to."

I once had an old navy cook tell me a story about having been put in charge of the power plant on Iceland for a period of time during WWII.

Seems they had a machinist mate petty officer who was qualified in the power plant field, but the plant was constantly tripping off line, putting the island in the dark.

THe MM was transferred out, and the cook, (who was just passing through Iceland on a ship that had stopped there) was asked these questions.

Do you know anything about an engine?  The answer he gave was "if it is running you can hear it."

Do you know anything about electricity?  He answered "I know it can kill you."

They said "you are the man we want, come with us," and they put him in charge of the power plant where he stayed for some time.

Seems that the MM was alway "diddling" with something, and tripped the plant off the line in the process on a frequent basis, while the cook, once he got it started, just let it run.

There is a moral to this story that is in answer to your question.  Sometimes knowing nothing about the process is more beneficial for a person in a managerial position, than intimate knowledge.

I have seen sharp competent I/C tecnicians, for example, who upon being promoted to shop foreman, had to be eventually transferred out, because they could not keep their hands off their men's work.  Someone with no specific instrumentation knowledge, but with good department management skills had to be transferred in.

Perhaps this is what is going on in your situation.

rmw

In my career of over 20 years I have seen this type of promotion occur frequently.  I have rarely seen the "logical" person get the promotion.  I have never seen a case where this type of promotion was a success for the department or the company.

Why do companies do it then?  I still don't know.
I am pretty sure that the truly successful companies have a
policy of promoting from within.   Maybe the companies that consistently bring outsiders in to run departments they they know little about are acting out of desparation.
Maybe they perceive that the status quo isn't good enough, and the things need to be shaken-up.

Quite often the hiring manager does not understand what the superviser needs to know or what the real job consists of. How can a HR person hire someone like this? Its beyond me.

More times than not, as already stated, its because he is the owners niece/nephew or other relative. If you want a supervisory position then the best way to get it is to pucker your lips and start following the hiring managers hiney. That or get to know a relative of a relative. Or perhaps start being a butthead. Managers like putting buttheads in these positions. However, I have found that the manager with the best team is the one who treats those under him with respect. More work gets done more efficiently. I am not sure what is so hard to understand about this concept but most just don't get it.

In any case, dont let it get to you because no matter where your at the same thing will happen again. Another reason to go out on your own. Good luck.  

Overheard at my old job:

"I don't need to understand what's going on to manage it!"

That statement was made by a vice president who didn't get a high school diploma, let alone a college degree, yet he ran our department since he did have a PE license (no idea how many times he had to take the test).  He is older than I by many years, but after a discussion of HVAC controls, design & such, I decided I would let him worry about the budgets and I would do the design.  Should something happen with the design it would be my fault; no problem with me.  And if we ran out of money on the contract for added scope it was his problem.  It worked out ok for 2+ years before I got fed up with his incompetance and undermining my work, after I had expressed my discontent to him, HR and another VP.  

Overall the more you communicate to the managers and others who want things to run smoothly, the more it will run smoothly as long as all are willing to listen, discuss what bothers them then execute a solution.  Chances are some inexperienced punk won't be able to right away, but drag him through the entire process of what and why things aren't going as well as they used to.  

Dang, can you tell I am working on my MBA?

One reason I've heard for hiring people without the technical skill sets they need is "They'll pick that up along the way.  We want someone with a different background so he can bring new ideas and broaden our horizons."  What a load of BS.  I've never seen this work.

One of the great contants in the universe (at least my universe) is that this guy will ask, "Why don't you do it this way?"  The problem is, if he even had the most rudimentary engineering knowledge he would know why we don't do it "this way".

At least they are asking which shows that he wants to know why or why not.  Everybody has to start somewhere.  At one point you didn't know.  Oh, and don't give the answer that I hear all the time, "because, this is how we've always done it."  
As for the companies looking for someone with a different background, that is not really true.  If I am wrong, please tell me where these companies are.  I always hear, we decided to go with someone that has more experience in this area.