All companies which reach a critical size are faced with outsourcing decisions that can increase the value of their products and services primarily through lower costs, greater reliability and improved efficiency. Successful outsourcing decisions have an important knowledge dimension, where the outsourcing professionals need to be supported by historical and contextual knowledge regarding their own products performance but also the performance of suppliers. "Outsourcing in Manufacturing: the Knowledge Dimension" explains in detail how a manager can acquire, create, transfer and use knowledge that optimizes their outsourcing decisions and improves the changes of marketplace success.

"Outsourcing in Manufacturing: the Knowledge Dimension" gives examples of the key decisions that needs to be taken by managers regarding effective outsourcing. Decisions are divided around the structural and infrastructural aspects of outsourcing and the key knowledge that needs to be managed to support good decisions. The book contains illustrations and examples of key processes throughout and concludes with a section dedicated to case studies. These case studies represent a variety of manufacturing system types and sizes focused on supply chain integration, and which deploy various manufacturing paradigms including craft, mass, lean, adaptive, and sustainable manufacturing.

"Outsourcing in Manufacturing: the Knowledge Dimension" covers many theoretical and practical examples of critical outsourcing decisions, their knowledge aspects and how knowledge challenges can be dealt with in a systematic way. It provides a key resource for students, lecturers and industry managers looking to solidify their understanding and application of outsourcing decision making strategies.

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There has been a great deal of progress in additive manufacturing (AM) during the past two decades and recent developments have been highlighted by many researchers. However, until now, there has been a limit to what is available for beginners in a step-by-step format, showcasing the different commercial AM technologies for field application. This book helps fill that gap. Additive Manufacturing: Applications and Innovations presents case studies of commonly used AM technologies with basic numerical problems for better understanding. It also includes hybrid processes and 4D printing applications, which currently are not offered in other AM books. Features Offers solved and unsolved problems in additive manufacturing Provides an understanding for additive manufacturing per international standards Includes case studies for better understanding of the individual processes Presents a review of specific technology highlights Introduces future research directions, mainly in 4D printing applications

LESLIE J. JARDINE Lmvrence Livermore National LaboratOlY Livermore, CA 94551 U. S. A. The Advanced Research Workshop (ARW) on Nuc1ear Materials Safety held lune 8-10, 1998, in St. Petersburg, Russia, was attended by 27 Russian experts from 14 different Russian organizations, seven European experts from six different organizations, and 14 V. S. experts from seven different organizations. The ARW was conducted at the State Education Center (SEC), a former Minatom nuc1ear training center in St. Petersburg. Thirty-three technical presentations were made using simultaneous translations. These presentations are reprinted in this volume as a formal ARW Proceedings in the NATO Science Series. The representative technical papers contained here cover nuc1ear material safety topics on the storage and disposition of excess plutonium and high enriched uranium (HEU) fissile materials, inc1uding vitrification, mixed oxide (MOX) fuel fabrication, plutonium ceramics, reprocessing, geologic disposal, transportation, and Russian regulatory processes. This AR W completed discussions by experts of the nuc1ear materials safety topics that were not covered in the previous, companion ARW on Nuc1ear Materials Safety held in Amarillo, Texas, in March 1997. These two workshops, when viewed together as a set, have addressed most nuc1ear material aspects of the storage and disposition operations required for excess HEV and plutonium (see Fig. 1, Opening Remarks).

Mass customization is an emerging paradigm that is gathering a growing interest in many different industrial fields. The EUROShoE project, financed by the European Commission, explored the applicability of and developed technologies for the adoption of such a paradigm in the footwear business. The three-year research made evident the benefits that shoe companies can obtain by switching to the new business models and contributed to the development of many of the enabling technologies that adopting the new paradigm appears to have. Mass Customization and Footwear: Myth, Salvation or Reality is the only monograph dedicated to the application of mass customization in a particular industry. Based on the outcomes of the EUROShoE project, the book is a detailed analysis of the most relevant case studies of early mass customizers in the footwear sector, highlighting reasons for their failure or success. Both the technological aspects and the business aspects of mass customization, together with some relevant economic indicators are covered in the book. By showing examples of how a mature manufacturing sector like shoe making can be thoroughly renovated in business and mentality by applying this paradigm; Mass Customization and Footwear: Myth, Salvation or Reality will interest both practitioners in the footwear sector and postgraduates, researchers and lecturers in the area of mass customization.

FRANCIS W. HOLM 7102 Meadow Lane, Chevy Chase, MD 20815 The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) sponsored an Advanced Research Workshop (ARW) in Prague, Czech Republic, on 1-2 July 1996, to collect and study information on mobile alternative and supplemental demilitarization technologies and to report these fmdings. The mobile, or transportable, technologies identified for assessment at the workshop are alternatives to incineration technology for destruction of munitions, chemical warfare agent, and associated materials and debris. Although the discussion focused on the treatment of metal parts and explosive or energetic material, requirements for decontamination of other materials were discussed. The mobile alternative technologies are grouped into three categories based on process bulk operating temperature: low (0-200 C), medium (200-600 C), and high (600- 3,500 C). Reaction types considered include hydrolysis, biodegradation, electrochemical oxidation, gas-phase high-temperature reduction, stearn reforming, gasification, sulfur reactions, solvated electron chemistry, sodium reactions, supercritical water oxidation, wet air oxidation, and plasma torch technology. These categories represent a broad spectrum of processes, some of which have been studied only in the laboratory and some of which are in commercial use for destruction of hazardous and toxic wastes. Some technologies have been developed and used for specific commercial applications; however, in all cases, research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT &E) is necessary to assure that each technology application is effective for destroying chemical warfare materiel.

Foldable Flex and Thinned Silicon Multichip Packaging Technology presents newly emerging methods used to make stacked chip packages in the so-called 2-1/2 D technology (3-D in physical format, but interconnected only through the circuits on folded flex). It is also being used in single chip packages where the thinness of the chips and the flex substrate made packages significantly thinner than through any other means.

This book is motivated by the need to understand and predict the complex stress distributions, transfer mechanisms, warpage, and potential failures arising from the encapsulation of devices in plastic. Failures like delaminations, package cracking, and metal shift occur due to the build-up of residual stress and warpage in the packages because of the TCE mismatch between the package materials as the package cools from its molding temperature to room temperature. The correct use of finite element tools for these problems is emphasised. F.E. techniques are used to predict the internal package stress distribution and help explain the stress transfer mechanism between the die, die paddle, and plastic after molding. Out-of-plane shear stress components are shown to be responsible for experimentally observed metal shift patterns on the die surface. Delaminations dramatically alter the internal stress state within a package, increasing the tensile stress in the plastic and so the likelihood of plastic cracks, the stress on wire bonds, and the incidence of wire bond failure. The application of F.E. techniques to predict the post-mold warpage of both thermally enhanced PQFPs and TQFPs is described. Simulations of a thermally enhanced PQFP warpage based on standard modelling assumptions alone fail to predict either the magnitude or its direction correctly. The modelling assumptions need to be modified to include the chemical shrinkage of the molding compound to enable accurate predictions of package warpage to be made, particularly when the packages are asymmetric in structure. Microsystem packaging in both plastic and 3D package body styles is reviewed. Although microsystem packaging is derivedfrom IC packaging, additional requirements for microsystems, not common to IC packaging are highlighted. The assembly stresses on a novel microsystem, incorporating a micromachined silicon membrane pump integrated into a 3D plastic encapsulated vertical multichip module package (MCM-V), are analysed.

Quality-Oriented Design of Business Processes introduces a modeling method, Integrated Enterprise Modelling' (IEM), which is related to ISO standards and provides manufacturing organizations with the means of analyzing, improving, and redesigning their business processes. The purpose of the book is to improve the quality of products and organizational performance through optimizing complex business processes and organizational design. Clearly, changing markets and innovative competitors force each company to study and improve its organization, its business processes, and the technologies it employs. Whoever drops behind in these times loses market share and endangers the long-term existence of the company. Hence, it is critical to realign the entire corporate planning and design throughout the value-added chain to speed up the business processes. The book is the result of a scientific study funded by the German Federal Ministry for Research and Technology. The authors develop the concept of Quality-Oriented Design of Business Processes, which is the underlying motivation for IEM. Moreover IEM is the engine for achieving the integration of quality management into the design and planning of business processes. The book discusses the IEM method thoroughly and applies it to the concept of Quality-Oriented Design of Business Processes' throughout the book. This concept is illustrated with an example of a company. A computer-aided tool kit, called MOOGO (on a CD-ROM), is provided with the book. This software tool kit enables an organization to involve all appropriate personnel for purposes of modelling and optimizing business processes. Finally, the book describes the entry of the IEM methodinto national, European and international standardization.

As manufacturing technology and its applications become more complex and beyond the scope of conventional approaches, there has been considerable interest in developing computational methods for optimizing manufacturing. Computational Methods for Optimizing Manufacturing Technology: Models and Techniques contains the latest research developments in manufacturing technology and its optimization, and demonstrates the fundamentals of new computational approaches and the range of their potential application. Including research on topics such as cellular manufacturing systems, evolutionary algorithms, mobile robots, and particle swarm optimization, this book serves as a useful reference for academics, manufacturing and computational science researchers, mechanical, industrial and manufacturing engineers, and professionals in related industries.

Asphaltenes have traditionally been viewed as being extremely complex, thus very hard to characterize. In addition, certain fundamental properties of asphaltenes have pre viously been inaccessible to study by traditional macroscopic methods, further limiting understanding of asphaltenes. These limitations inhibited development of descriptions regarding the microscopic structure and solution dynamics of asphaltenes. However, a variety ofmore recent studies have implied that asphaltenes share many chemical properties with the smaller, more tractable components of crude oils. Recent measurements have indicated that asphaltene molecular weights are not as arge as previously thought, perhaps in the range of 600 to I 000 amu. In addition, new experimental methods applied to asphaltene chemical structures have been quite revealing, yielding a broad understanding. Conse quently, the ability to relate chemical structure with physical and chemical properties can be developed and extended to the understanding of important commercial properties of asphal tenes. This book treats significant new developments in the fundamentals and applications of asphaltenes. In the first section ofthe book, new experimental methods are described that characterize asphaltene structures from the molecular to colloidallength scale. The colloidal properties are understandable in terms of asphaltene chemical structures, especially with regard to the heteroatom impact on bonding. However, quantitative measurements of the of asphaltene self-association still need to be determined. In the second section of enthalpy this book, the fundamental understanding of asphaltenes is related riirectly to asphaltene utilization."

Benefiting from Thermal and Mechanical Simulation in Micro-Electronics presents papers from the first international conference on this topic, EuroSimE2000. For the first time, people from the electronics industry, research institutes, software companies and universities joined together to discuss present and possible future thermal and mechanical related problems and challenges in micro-electronics; the state-of-the-art methodologies for thermal & mechanical simulation and optimization of micro-electronics; and the perspectives of future simulation and optimization methodology development. Main areas covered are:- The impact of simulation on industry profitability Approaches to simulation The state-of-the-art methodologies of simulation Design optimization by simulation GBP/LISTGBP Benefiting from Thermal and Mechanical Simulation in Micro-Electronics is suitable for students at graduate level and beyond, and for researchers, designers and specialists in the fields of microelectronics and mechanics.

Modular products are products that fulfill various overall functions through the combination of distinct building blocks or modules, in the sense that the overall function performed by the product can be divided into sub-functions that can be implemented by different modules or components. An important aspect of modular products is the creation of a basic core unit to which different components (modules) can be fitted, thus enabling a variety of versions of the same module to be produced. The core should have sufficient capacity to cope with all expected variations in performance and usage. Components used in a modular product must have features that enable them to be coupled together to form a complex product. Modularity will promote: reduction in product development time; customization and upgrades; cost efficiencies due to amortization; quality design standardization; and reduction in order lead time. The purpose of this book is to develop a structured approach to the design of products using the concept of modularity, assembly, and manufacturability. The book has proposed and developed a structured and systematic approach to product and systems design using the modularity concept. Mathematical and genetic algorithm models are developed to support the developed methodology.

Low-volume high-variety products like personalized cars or customized engines will be the key issues for manufacturing in the 21st century. The necessary control technology is based on the concept of holons, which are the units of production and behave as autonomous and cooperative agents, providing flexibility, adaptability, agility, and dynamic reconfigurability. This book presents the latest research results in agent-based manufacturing as carried out by researchers in academia and industry within the international "Holonic Manufacturing Systems" project. As this project was driven by industry, the results presented here are of vital interest not just to researchers in agent technologies or distributed artificial intelligence, but also to engineers and professionals in industry who have to respond to rapid changes and new demands in production.

This text covers the proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop which is devoted to the technical aspects of advanced interconnections and microassembly and also includes papers on the education issues needed to prepare students for work in these areas. The future direction that such technologies may take is also dealt with. The basic issue is that the miniaturization of electronic systems continues, and performance must continue to improve. The newest packages are often based on the selection of an appropriate interconnection method. Advances in chip-scale, chip-flip, and direct chip attachments are described. Although wire bonding currently dominates the market, the consensus is that flip chip interconnection will rapidly increase its market share. Tape automated bonding is also discussed, primarily for special applications. Solder metallurgy and flip chip production technology receive attention in several papers. Solderability, reliability and fatigue of the joints are modelled, and mechanical stresses resulting from temperature cycling are reported. Multichip module and thick-film hybrid substrate interconnections are reported in several papers. These include thick and thin film metals, as well as low temperature polymer inks. Several papers describe diffusion and other metallurgical interactions in thick film surfaces.

"This book contains overviews on technologically important classes of glasses, their treatment to achieve desired properties, theoretical approaches for the description of structure-property relationships, and new concepts in the theoretical treatment of crystallization in glass-forming systems. It contains overviews about the state of the art and about specific features for the analysis and application of important classes of glass-forming systems, and describes new developments in theoretical interpretation by well-known glass scientists. Thus, the book offers comprehensive and abundant information that is difficult to come by or has not yet been made public." Edgar Dutra Zanotto (Center for Research, Technology and Education in Vitreous Materials, Brazil) Glass, written by a team of renowned researchers and experienced book authors in the field, presents general features of glasses and glass transitions. Different classes of glassforming systems, such as silicate glasses, metallic glasses, and polymers, are exemplified. In addition, the wide field of phase formation processes and their effect on glasses and their properties is studied both from a theoretical and experimental point of view.

The technologies of hydrogen's energetic utilization have been known for a long time. But aspects of system analysis, energy economics, and ecology that would come into play in introducing it into energy systems nave received much less attention. For those reasons, this book attempts to show the development path of a hydrogen economy, based on assured technological knowledge. One special concern has been to demonstrate, on one hand, how these developments would fit into existing energy supply structures, and, on the other, how they would contribute to further development of the energy system as a whole. With that goal in mind it is necessary to contrast the obvious advantages of hydrogen with the large efforts that would be required for its introduction. This total-systems approach led to a three-part organization of the book that also aids the reader in quickly identifying those parts that are of special interest to him. Section A essentially explains why it is necessary today to think about a new synthetic energy carrier. It also describes the irreplacable and growing role of hydrogen as a chemical raw material, and it explains technologies that al ready exist for its energetic use or that need further development. An attempt has also been made to prove that hydrogen's safety characteristics indeed per mit its handling and use as an energy carrier. Hopefully, all this will show that hydrogen, together with electricity, could be the universally employable energy carrier of a future non-fossil energy supply system."

In todaya (TM)s competitive world, industries are focusing on shorter lead times, improved quality, reduced cost, increased profit, improved productivity and better customer service. As ERP and other information management systems have been widely implemented, information growth poses new challenges to decision makers in areas ranging from shop floor control to supply chain management and design.

Frontiers in Computing Technologies for Manufacturing Applications presents an overview of the state-of-the-art intelligent computing in manufacturing. Modelling, data processing, algorithms and computational analysis of difficult problems found in advanced manufacturing are discussed. It is the first book to bring together combinatorial optimization, information systems and fault diagnosis and monitoring in a consistent manner. Techniques are presented in order to aid decision makers needing to consider multiple, conflicting objectives in their decision processes. In particular, the use of metaheuristic optimization techniques for multi-objective problems is discussed. Readers will learn about computational technologies that can improve the performance of manufacturing systems ranging from manufacturing equipment to supply chains.

Frontiers in Computing Technologies for Manufacturing Applications will be of interest to students in industrial and mechanical engineering as well as information engineers needing practical examples for the successful integration of information in manufacturing applications. The book will also appeal to technical decision makers involved in production planning, logistics, supply chain, industrial ecology, manufacturing information systems, faultdiagnosis and monitoring.

Adsorption processes have experienced a significant growth in the last decades. This growth was a result of scientific and technological advances which generated new adsorbents as well as new concepts for processing systems (UOP's "Sorbex" process and PSA cycles). The expectations for a continued development of adsorption are high since process engineering is deeply concerned with intensive processes using less energy. Adsorption processes are also relevant to the increasingly important area of biotechonology. The development of affinity processes is a creative synthesis of biochemistry, molecular biology and chemical engineering. This NATO Advanced Study Institute on "ADSORPTION: SCIENCE and TECHNOLOGY" had as a primary objective to provide an updated treatment of the fundamentals of adsorption and adsorption processes. The lectures presented at the Institute are collected in this volume together with a few papers presented by participants. The material is arranged in four sections.Part I deals with the characterization of adsorption and thermodynamics of adsorption, namely the correlation of equilibrium data.Part II covers the kinetics of adsorption and fixed-bed processes (equilibrium theory, design aspects, adsorptive reactors).Part III is an extensive coverage of cyclic processes (pressure swing adsorption and thermal swing adsorption) and simulated moving beds (modeling for process optimization and industrial applications).Finally Part IV deals with applications mainly in biotechnolo gy (con tin uous adsorption, affini ty chrom atography, gel permeation, chromatographic reactors, scale-up methods).

Innovative technologies provide opportunities for making manufacturing and logistics operations cleaner and more resource-efficient. New technologies focus on lifecycle engineering and lifecycle management. This book will be valuable to both academics and practitioners who wish to deepen their knowledge of technology management. The book will cover technical, organizational, financial and social issues connected to the implementation of more sustainable technologies.

In determining the response of offshore structures, it is of utmost importance to determine, in the most correct manner, all factors which contribute to the total force acting on these structures. Applying the Morison formula (Morison et. al. , 1950) to calculate forces on offshore slender structures, uncertainties related to the understanding of the wave climate, the hydrodynamic force coefficients and the kinematics of ocean waves represent the most important contributions to the uncertainties in the prediction of the total forces on these structures (Haver and Gudmestad, 1992). Traditional calculation of forces on offshore structures involves the use of regular waves with the following non-linearities inco1porated use of regular wave theories inco1porating higher order terms use of Morison equation having a nonlinear drag term inclusion of the effect of the free surface by integrating all contributions to total forces and moments from the sea floor to the free surface of the waves In order to describe the sea more realistically, the ocean surface is to be described as an irregular sea surface represented by its energy spectrum. The associated decomposition of the sea surface is given as a linear sum of linear waves. The total force is found by integrating the contribution from all components in the wave spectrum to the free surface. The kinematics of each component must therefore be determined.