This book treats important topics in "Acoustic Echo and Noise Control" and reports the latest developments. Methods for enhancing the quality of transmitted speech signals are gaining growing attention in universities and in industrial development laboratories. This book, written by an international team of highly qualified experts, concentrates on the modern and advanced methods.

The fundamental motivation of this book is to contribute to the future advancement of Asset Management in the context of industrial plants and infrastructures. The book aims to foster a future perspective that takes advantage of value-based and intelligent asset management in order to make a step forward with respect to the evolution observed nowadays. Indeed, the current understanding of asset management is primarily supported by well-known standards. Nonetheless, asset management is still a young discipline and the knowledge developed by industry and academia is not set in stone yet. Furthermore, current trends in new organizational concepts and technologies lead to an evolutionary path in the field. Therefore, this book aims to discuss this evolutionary path, starting first of all from the consolidated theory, then moving forward to discuss: * The strategic understanding of value-based asset management in a company; * An operational definition of value, as a concept on the background of value-based asset management; * The identification of intelligent asset management, with the aim to frame a set of "tools" recommended to support the asset-related decision-making process over the asset lifecycle; * The emergence of new technologies such as cyber physical systems and digital twins, and the implications of this on asset management.

This book gathers extended versions of the best papers presented at the Global Joint Conference on Industrial Engineering and Its Application Areas (GJCIE), held as a hybrid event on October 29-30, 2022, in/from Istanbul Technical University. Continuing the tradition of previous volumes, it highlights recent developments of industrial engineering at the purpose of using and managing digital and intelligent technologies for application to a wide range of field, including manufacturing, healthcare, e-commerce and sustainable development. A special emphasis is given to engineering methods and strategies for managing pandemics and reducing their adverse effects on businesses.

This book examines the burgeoning revolution in the construction industry known as Construction 4.0, the attendant need for re-skilling human resources, and key stakeholders' roles in developing the required skills for Construction 4.0. It views the lack of 21st-century skills and skills gap in the industry as significant challenges limiting the uptake and implementation of Construction 4.0 technologies, especially in developing countries. In order to determine the skills required, this book examines the critical technologies of Construction 4.0, such as building information modelling (BIM), robotic construction, 3D printing and drones, which have transformed the construction industry, thereby creating digital, intelligent and sustainable construction solutions. Furthermore, the book considers the benefits, risks and relevant skills required to implement Construction 4.0 technologies.

This book examines the implementation of science, technology and innovation (STI) policy in eight Latin American countries and the different paths these policies have taken. It provides empirical evidence to examine the extent to which STI policies are contributing to the development of the region, as well as to the solution of market failures and the stimulus of the region s innovation systems.

Since the pioneering work of Solow (1957), it has been recognized that innovation is critical for economic growth both in developed and in less-developed countries. Unfortunately Latin America lags behind world trends and although over the last 20 years the region has established a more stable and certain macroeconomic regime, it is also clear that these changes have not been enough to trigger a process of innovation and productivity to catch-up. Against this rather grim scenario there is some optimism emerging throughout the region. After many years of inaction the region has begun to invest in science, technology and engineering once again. Furthermore, after many changes in innovation policy frameworks, there is now an emerging consensus on the need for a solution to coordination failures that hinder the interaction between supply and demand.

Offering an informative and analytic insight into STI policymaking within Latin America, this book can be used by students, researchers and practitioners who are interested in the design and implementation of innovation policies. This book also intends to encourage discussion and collaboration amongst current policy makers within the region.

The continuous search for efficiency gains and the goal of attaining a sustainable competitive advantage have steadily increased the volume of goods and services procured globally from third party vendors. In this context, named as "the next wave of globalization", the offshoring phenomenon has stimulated research and political debates. With the rise of services offshoring, international value chain disaggregation for services has reached a formerly unknown scale. Also, it is increasingly complex transactions, requiring a higher degree of qualification, which are becoming subject to offshoring as well. The Offshoring Challenge: Strategic Design and Innovation for Tomorrow's Organization features selected chapters by an international research community on the topic of offshoring. All potential business models from offshore outsourcing to third party providers are covered, from cooperative arrangements to internal organizational set-ups including captive offshore centers. Contributions have significant insights regarding: the increasing offshoring of knowledge-intensive services; the offshoring process; business models incorporating offshoring; the hidden costs of offshoring; and the administration of offshoring activities within firms The book is aimed at a broad audience of scholars, students and practitioners in the fields of strategy, international business and operations management.

This book gathers the latest advances, innovations, and applications in the field of construction design and management, as presented by researchers and engineers at the International Conference Industrial and Civil Construction 2021, held in Belgorod, Russia, on January 18-19, 2021. It covers highly diverse topics, including building materials, building constructions, structural mechanics and theory of structures, industrial and civil construction, environmental engineering and sustainability. The contributions, which were selected by means of a rigorous international peer-review process, highlight numerous exciting ideas that will spur novel research directions and foster multidisciplinary collaborations.

This book gathers selected peer-reviewed papers from the 16th World Congress on Engineering Asset Management (WCEAM), held in Seville from 5-7 October 2022. This book covers a wide range of topics in Engineering Asset Management, including: Asset management and decision support system Industry 4.0 tools and its impact on asset management Monitoring, diagnostics and prognostics for smart maintenance Asset life cycle management Asset management in the industrial sector Human dimensions and asset management performance Infrastructure Asset management Asset condition, risk, resilience, and vulnerability assessments Asset operations and maintenance strategies Reliability and resilience engineering Applications of international and local guidelines and standards The breadth and depth of this state-of-the-art, comprehensive proceedings make it an excellent resource for asset management practitioners, researchers and academics, as well as undergraduate and postgraduate students.

This book presents selected papers from the 1st International Conference on Industry 4.0 and Advanced Manufacturing held at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and includes deliberations from stakeholders in manufacturing and Industry 4.0 on the nature, needs, challenges, opportunities, problems, and solutions in these transformational areas. Special emphasis is placed on exploring avenues for creating a vision of, and enablers for, sustainable, affordable, and human-centric Industry 4.0. The book showcases cutting edge practice, research, and educational innovation in this crucial and rapidly evolving area. This book will be useful to researchers in academia and industry, and will also be useful to policymakers involved in creating ecosystems for implementation of Industry 4.0.

Highlights the utilization of nanofillers. Investigates the moisture absorption and ageing on the physio-chemical, mechanical, thermal properties of the vinyl ester-based composites. Considers the influence of hybridization, fibre architecture, and fibre-ply orientation on the mechanical and thermal properties of vinyl ester-based biocomposites. Discusses the effects of the alkali treatment. Chapters are written by global experts to cover a diverse scope of industry applications for fibre-reinforced polymer composites.

From the Foreword by Marshall Fisher, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania: As generation of academics and practitioners follows generation, it is worthwhile to compile long views of the research and practice in the past to shed light on research and practice going forward. This collection of peer-reviewed articles is intended to provide such a long view. This book contains a collection of chapters written by leading scholars/practitioners who have continued their efforts in developing and/or implementing innovative OR/MS tools for solving real world problems. In this book, the contributors share their perspectives about the past, present and future of OR/MS theoretical development, solution tools, modeling approaches, and applications. Specifically, this book collects chapters that offer insights about the following topics: * Survey articles taking a long view over the past two or more decades to arrive at the present state of the art while outlining ideas for future research. Surveys focus on use of a particular OR/MS approach, e.g., mathematical programming (LP, MILP, etc.) and solution methods for particular family of application, e.g., distribution system design, distribution planning system, health care. * Autobiographical or biographical accounts of how particular inventions (e.g., Structured Modeling) were made. These could include personal experiences in early development of OR/MS and an overview of what has happened since. * Development of OR/MS mathematical tools (e.g., stochastic programming, optimization theory). * Development of OR/MS in a particular industry sector such as global supply chain management. * Modeling systems for OR/MS and their development over time as well as speculation on future development (e.g., LINDO, LINGO, and What'sBest!) * New applications of OR/MS models (e.g., happiness) The target audience of this book is young researchers, graduate/advanced undergraduate students from OR/MS and related fields like computer science, engineering, and management as well as practitioners who want to understand how OR/MS modeling came about over the past few decades and what research topics or modeling approaches they could pursue in research or application.

This book consolidates the current state of knowledge on implementing cooperating robot-based systems to increase the flexibility of manufacturing systems. It is based on the concrete experiences of experts, practitioners, and engineers in implementing cooperating robot systems for more flexible manufacturing systems. Thanks to the great variety of manufacturing systems that we had the opportunity to study, a remarkable collection of methods and tools has emerged. The aim of the book is to share this experience with academia and industry practitioners seeking to improve manufacturing practice. While there are various books on teaching principles for robotics, this book offers a unique opportunity to dive into the practical aspects of implementing complex real-world robotic applications. As it is used in this book, the term "cooperating robots" refers to robots that either cooperate with one another or with people. The book investigates various aspects of cooperation in the context of implementing flexible manufacturing systems. Accordingly, manufacturing systems are the main focus in the discussion on implementing such robotic systems. The book begins with a brief introduction to the concept of manufacturing systems, followed by a discussion of flexibility. Aspects of designing such systems, e.g. material flow, logistics, processing times, shop floor footprint, and design of flexible handling systems, are subsequently covered. In closing, the book addresses key issues in operating such systems, which concern e.g. decision-making, autonomy, cooperation, communication, task scheduling, motion generation, and distribution of control between different devices. Reviewing the state of the art and presenting the latest innovations, the book offers a valuable asset for a broad readership.

This book deals with methodological issues in the field of management and industrial engineering. It aims to answer the following questions that researchers face every time they look to develop their research: How can we design a research project? What kind of paradigm should we follow? Should we develop a qualitative / phenomenological research or a quantitative / positivistic one? What technics for data collections can we use? Should we use the entire population or a sample? What kind of sampling techniques can we have? This book provides discussion and the exchange of information on principles, strategies, models, techniques, applications and methodological options possible to develop in research in management and industrial engineering. It communicates the latest developments and thinking on the research methodologies subject in the different areas, worldwide. It seeks cultural and geographic diversity in studies highlighting research methodologies that can be used in these different study areas. This book has a special interest in research on important issues that transcend the boundaries of single academic subjects. It presents contributions that challenge the paradigms and assumptions of individual disciplines or functions, with chapters grounded in conceptual and / or empirical literature. The main aim of this book is to provide a channel of communication to disseminate knowledge between academics and researchers, with a special focus on the management and industrial engineering fields. This book can serve as a useful reference for academics, researchers, managers, engineers, and other professionals in related matters with research methodologies. Contributors have identified the theoretical and practical implications of their methodological options to the development and improvement of their different study and research areas.

The efficient functioning of modern society depends on the smooth operation of many complex systems which provide products and services. These include transport systems, communication systems, utilities, manufacturing plants, processing plants, hospitals and banks. Such systems are unreliable in the sense that they degrade with age and/or usage and fail when they are no longer capable of delivering the products and services. When a complex system fails, the consequences can be dramatic. It can result in serious economic losses, affect humans and do serious damage to the environment. These failures can be controlled through preventive maintenance actions.

Due to advances in the understanding of the physics of failure, and in the technologies used to combat this failure; the literature on maintenance of unreliable systems is vast. Complex System Maintenance Handbook is the first book to integrate this vast literature with chapters written by internationally-renowned active researchers and experienced practitioners focussing on different aspects of maintenance. Each chapter will review the literature dealing with a particular aspect of maintenance, report on developments and trends in a particular industry sector or present a case study.

Complex System Maintenance Handbook narrows the gap between theory and practice and will trigger new research on different aspects of maintenance. It will be of interest to maintenance engineers and managers working in industry as well as researchers and graduate students in the fields of maintenance, industrial engineering and applied mathematics.

This book should be of interest to students and practitioners of materials science, production engineering and engineering design.

Highlights the performance of epoxy-based biocomposites with reinforced with various natural fibres and plant resources. Investigates the behavior of hybrid biocomposites and biocomposites reinforced with various nanofillers. Evaluates the response of epoxy-based biocomposites exposed to moisture absorption, accelerated weathering, and hygrothermal aging. Discusses the static and dynamic properties, such as creep, fatigue, and free vibration properties. Chapters are written by global experts to cover a diverse scope of industry applications for fiber-reinforced polymer composites.

This book presents the proceedings from the International Symposium for Production Research 2020. The cross-disciplinary papers presented draw on research from academics and practitioners from industrial engineering, management engineering, operational research, and production/operational management. It explores topics including: * computer-aided manufacturing; Industry 4.0 applications; simulation and modeling big data and analytics; flexible manufacturing systems; decision analysis quality management industrial robotics in production systems information technologies in production management; and optimization techniques. Presenting real-life applications, case studies, and mathematical models, this book is of interest to researchers, academics, and practitioners in the field of production and operation engineering.

Since 2007, the biennial International Conferences on Dynamics in Logistics (LDIC) offers researchersand practitioners from logistics, operations research, production, industrial and electrical engineering aswell as from computer science an opportunity to meet and to discuss the latest developments in thisparticular research domain. From February 23th to 25th 2022 for the eighth time, LDIC 2022 was held inBremen, Germany. Similar to its seven predecessors, the Bremen Research Cluster for Dynamics inLogistics (LogDynamics) organized this conference. The spectrum of topics reaches from the dynamicmodeling, planning and control of processes over supply chain management and maritime logistics toinnovative technologies and robotic applications for cyber-physical production and logistics systems.LDIC 2022 provided a forum for the discussion of advances in that matter. The conference programconsisted of keynote speeches and research papers selected by a severe double-blind reviewing process.Within these proceedings all the papers are published. By this, the proceedings give an interdisciplinaryoutline on the state of the art of dynamics in logistics as well as identify challenges and solutions forlogistics today and tomorrow.

A revised text that presents specific design methods within an overall strategy from concept to detail design The fifth edition of Engineering Design Methods is an improved and updated version of this very successful, classic text on engineering product design. It provides an overview of design activities and processes, detailed descriptions and examples of how to use key design methods, and outlines design project strategies and management techniques. Written by a noted expert on the topic, the new edition contains an enriched variety of examples and case studies, and up to date material on design thinking and the development of design expertise. This new edition opens with a compelling original case study of a revolutionary new city-car design by ex-Formula One designer Gordon Murray. The study illustrates the complete development of a novel design and brings to life the process of design, from concept through to prototype. The core of the book presents detailed instructions and examples for using design methods throughout the design process, ranging from identifying new product opportunities, through establishing functions and setting requirements, to generating, evaluating and improving alternative designs. This important book: Offers a revised and updated edition of an established, successful text on understanding the design process and using design methods Includes new material on design thinking and design ability and new examples of the use of design methods Presents clear, detailed and illustrated presentations of eight key design methods in engineering product design Written for undergraduates and postgraduates across all fields of engineering and product design, the fifth edition of Engineering Design Methods offers an updated, substantial, and reliable text on product design and innovation.

Computer Architectures is a collection of multidisciplinary historical works unearthing sites, concepts, and concerns that catalyzed the cross-contamination of computers and architecture in the mid-20th century. Weaving together intellectual, social, cultural, and material histories, this book paints the landscape that brought computing into the imagination, production, and management of the built environment, whilst foregrounding the impact of architecture in shaping technological development. The book is organized into sections corresponding to the classic von Neumann diagram for computer architecture: program (control unit), storage (memory), input/output and computation (arithmetic/logic unit), each acting as a quasi-material category for parsing debates among architects, engineers, mathematicians, and technologists. Collectively, authors bring forth the striking homologies between a computer program and an architectural program, a wall and an interface, computer memory and storage architectures, structures of mathematics and structures of things. The collection initiates new histories of knowledge and technology production that turn an eye toward disciplinary fusions and their institutional and intellectual drives. Constructing the common ground between design and computing, this collection addresses audiences working at the nexus of design, technology, and society, including historians and practitioners of design and architecture, science and technology scholars, and media studies scholars.

This book summarizes the effect of COVID-19 on the global supply chain. Eminent researchers, practitioners, and professors discuss the challenges faced by supply chain providers and supply chain strategies related to various global, retail, fast moving consumer goods, humanitarian, pharmaceutical, and agricultural supply chains. This book also suggests the resilient approach adopted by supply chain organizations for quick recovery and re-establishing their networks. This book helps the readers explore the pandemic's impact on the supply chain and rebuilding the same using suitable approaches.