This is the first book to examine the "nuts and bolts" of production processes. It proposes a truly consilient approach to modeling production processes - one that goes beyond the vague principles found in standard economics - and provides details that are consistent with the applied mechanics and engineering literature. Providing a credible analysis of some of the most pressing questions of our era, such as the productivity slowdown and the information paradox, and bridging the gap between engineering, applied physics, economics, and management science, this book is a fascinating read for anyone interested in industry, the modern economy, and how physical factors constrain productivity growth.

This book is purposefully styled as an introductory textbook on circular economy (CE) for the benefit of educators and students of universities. It provides comprehensive knowledge exemplified by practices from policy, education, R&D, innovation, design, production, waste management, business and financing around the world. The book covers sectors such as agriculture/food, packaging materials, build environment, textile, energy, and mobility to inspire the growth of circular business transformation. It aims to stimulate action among different stakeholders to drive CE transformation. It elaborates critical driving forces of CE including digital technologies; restorative innovations; business opportunities & sustainable business model; financing instruments, regulation & assessment and experiential education programs. It connects a CE transformation for reaching the SDGs2030 and highlights youth leadership and entrepreneurship at all levels in driving the sustainability transformation.

Competitive pressure demands that firms create a good balance of their technology, people, and organization, and that they sustain it with well-meshed business, technology, and human resources strategies. But the acceleration of technological change over the last decade has made it more difficult to find this balance. Moreover, the intensification of global competition has made any imbalance debilitating for business performance. This book explores the emergent new models of balance among technology, people, and organization. The common premise of the contributions that the effective implementation of automation in manufacturing and engineering operations will typically require a work force with a higher skill profile. Examining the experience of countries in Europe, Australia, Asia, and the U.S., the chapters analyze four themes: the new competency required for effective implementation of new technologies; how firms can develop these new competencies; the implications of these changes for industrial relations; and how firms can weave together business strategy, technology strategy, and personnel strategy, to build competitive advantage. Integrating sociological, economic, and organizational perspectives, this book will interest both academics and professionals. It presents an up-to-date review of international trends in industry's response to the challenge of the new technologies. It draws compelling conclusions regarding the changes needed in the management of operations, human resources, industrial relations, and business strategy.

Drawing on their experiences in successfully executing hundreds of MEMS development projects, the authors present the first practical guide to navigating the technical and business challenges of MEMS product development, from the initial concept stage all the way to commercialization. The strategies and tactics presented, when practiced diligently, can shorten development timelines, help avoid common pitfalls, and improve the odds of success, especially when resources are limited. MEMS Product Development illuminates what it really takes to develop a novel MEMS product so that innovators, designers, entrepreneurs, product managers, investors, and executives may properly prepare their companies to succeed.

This book comprises the select proceedings of the International Conference on Materials, Design and Manufacturing for Sustainable Environment (ICMDMSE 2020). The primary focus is on emerging materials and cutting-edge manufacturing technologies for sustainable environment. The book covers a wide range of topics such as advanced materials, vibration, tribology, finite element method (FEM), heat transfer, fluid mechanics, energy engineering, additive manufacturing, robotics and automation, automobile engineering, industry 4.0, MEMS and nanotechnology, optimization techniques, condition monitoring, and new paradigms in technology management. Contents of this book will be useful to students, researchers, and practitioners alike.

This book is about applied materials research in industry. It presents various important topics and challenges and gives guidance to materials researchers who move to industry. The book focuses on the materials manufacturing issues for industrial application. It deals with developments and challenges in traditional materials areas, such as metals and ceramics, and new opportunities that have risen from nanotechnology and additive manufacturing. The chapters, written by senior people from large companies, include successful manufacturing undertakings, several distinct and unresolved manufacturing challenges, with the focus on approaches, timelines and the skills needed for future company research and development. The book provides a cross-section of current and future approaches valuable for new employees and academics working in industry.

The book includes the latest research advances and cutting-edge analyses of real case studies in the disciplines of Industrial Engineering and Operations Management from diverse international contexts. This work presents a revised version of the best papers presented at the XIII International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Industrial Management promoted by ADINGOR (Asociacion para el Desarrollo de la Ingenieria de Organizacion), which took place at the Polytechnic School of Engineering of Gijon (University of Oviedo), Asturias, Spain, from July 11th to 12th, 2019.

This book presents the tools used in machine learning (ML) and the benefits of using such tools in facilities. It focus on real life business applications, explaining the most popular algorithms easily and clearly without the use of calculus or matrix/vector algebra. Replete with case studies, this book provides a working knowledge of ML current and future capabilities and the impact it will have on every business. It demonstrates that it is also possible to carry out successful ML and AI projects in any manufacturing plant, even without fully fulfilling the five V (Volume, Velocity, Variety, Veracity and Value) usually associated with big data. This book takes a closer look at how AI and ML are also able to work for industrial area, as well as how you could adapt some of the standard tips and techniques (usually for big data) for your own needs in your SME. Organizations which first understand these tools and know how to use them will benefit at the expense of their rivals.

Written by international contributors, Learning Curves: Theory, Models, and Applications first draws a learning map that shows where learning is involved within organizations, then examines how it can be sustained, perfected, and accelerated. The book reviews empirical findings in the literature in terms of different sources for learning and partial assessments of the steps that make up the actual learning process inside the learning curve.

Traditionally, books on learning curves have focused either on cost accounting or production planning and control. In these books, the learning curve has been treated as a forecasting tool. This book synthesizes current research and presents a clear picture of organizational learning curves. It explores how organizations improve other measures of organizational performance including quality, inventory, and productivity, then looks inside the learning curve to determine the actual processes through which organizations learn.

Defines the correct cost optimization process Provides detailed explanation of cost estimating techniques Presents cost estimating techniques for various manufacturing processes Offers cost based negotiation training Explains how to build a cost engineering organization

The authors joined forces professionally when Kathy hired Shannon to be a member of her leadership team. This book describes the transformation they led to convert operations from traditional manufacturing to a lean enterprise. Kathy (executive leader responsible for profitability) and Shannon (transformation leader) share the finer points of a comprehensive change process, the challenges and triumphs, and the real emotion involved during their quest for success. Each describes the professional journey from their unique perspective and the highlights of an endearing friendship that was formed along the way. This story will inspire female leaders in any organization, showcasing an example of high-performing women thriving in an intense and fast-paced world. Kathy and Shannon are role models for those juggling intense, fulfilling careers, alongside life's complexities such as dual-career marriages and raising children. Their story provides a powerful case study of women supporting each other in the workplace to drive positive culture and significantly improved business results by leading with authenticity and inclusivity.

This book highlights the environmental and economic benefits of recycling in textiles and fashion; vis-a-vis virgin textiles. Recycling plays an inevitable part when it comes to sustainable innovations in textiles and fashion sector. As basic information pertaining to the benefits, challenges of recycling in textiles are discussed to the sufficient extent in the literature, this book deals with the innovative at the same time, sustainable products made from the recycled textiles.

This textbook introduces design students to key principles of three-dimensional form, bridging aesthetics and practical design objectives. It explores how we see and what it is that characterises visually appealing and satisfactory design. Written by an experienced designer, educator and researcher, The Aesthetics of Industrial Design equips students with the knowledge and understanding of how aesthetically superior design is distinct from lesser work. It explains the key principles and concepts they can incorporate into their own designs, encourages readers to investigate and experiment with real design problems and enables them to verbally communicate their design intentions. The book prompts readers to critically reflect on their work and surroundings. Through numerous clear examples and illustrated case studies, which are guided by cognitive science and the application of aesthetic theory, the book brings together the basic aspects of design as form-giving. It explores the balance of function, material and appearance in detail and explains the reasons for common aesthetic faults and how to avoid them. Aimed at undergraduate- and postgraduate-level students within the design fields, this book reveals the secrets to aesthetically successful products that readers can take from education into future practice.

This book develops and describes a general methodology that can be applied to any complex human activity (activity with a non-trivial, multi-level internal structure). The structural components of complex activities are considered, and their logical, cause-and-effect, and process structures are functionally described. Considerable attention is paid to organization and management, uncertainties, and the lifecycles of activities, as well as the actors, subject matter, resources, knowledge, and methods involved. Several typical examples are used throughout the text to illustrate the implementation of common approaches involving the functioning of work groups, organizational units, projects, and organizations in general: a retail bank, an aircraft manufacturer, a fire department, and a nuclear power plant. In addition, the book employs a system of connected technical models, in order to ensure that the results are of practical applicability for both experts on the ground and scholars engaged in research on the general principles of how activities (practical, scientific, etc.) are organized or on the management of socio-technical systems.

This book deals with the problems related to planning motion laws and t- jectories for the actuation system of automatic machines, in particular for those based on electric drives, and robots. The problem of planning suitable trajectories is relevant not only for the proper use of these machines, in order to avoid undesired e?ects such as vibrations or even damages on the mech- ical structure, but also in some phases of their design and in the choice and sizing of the actuators. This is particularly true now that the concept of "el- tronic cams" has replaced, in the design of automatic machines, the classical approach based on "mechanical cams." The choice of a particular trajectory has direct and relevant implications on several aspects of the design and use of an automatic machine, like the dimensioning of the actuators and of the reduction gears, the vibrations and e?orts generated on the machine and on the load, the tracking errors during the motion execution. For these reasons, in order to understand and appreciate the peculiarities of the di?erent techniques available for trajectory planning, besides the ma- ematical aspects of their implementation also a detailed analysis in the time and frequency domains, a comparison of their main properties under di?erent points of view, and general considerations related to their practical use are reported.

In this book, basic sciences and applied technologies in 3D printing and 2D coating-including 2D surface modulations on 3D printed objects-are described to explore and to image novel multidimensional additive manufacturing. Renowned researchers were selected from universities and national institutes as authors by the editorial board established in the Surface Modification Research and Technology Committee of the Japan Welding Engineering Society. The main readers of this book are expected to be graduate students, professional researchers, and engineers. Here, they can acquire abundant knowledge of digital design concepts and functional evaluations, enabling them practice material selection and process parameter optimization in novel additive manufacturing.

This book comprises select proceedings of the International Conference on Future Learning Aspects of Mechanical Engineering (FLAME 2018). The book discusses different topics of industrial and production engineering such as sustainable manufacturing systems, computer-aided engineering, rapid prototyping, manufacturing management and automation, metrology, manufacturing process optimization, casting, welding, machining, and machine tools. The contents of this book will be useful for researchers as well as professionals.

The first handbook to focus exclusively on industrial engineering calculations with a correlation to applications, Handbook of Industrial Engineering Equations, Formulas, and Calculations contains a general collection of the mathematical equations often used in the practice of industrial engineering. Many books cover individual areas of engineering and some cover all areas, but none covers industrial engineering specifically, nor do they highlight topics such as project management, materials, and systems engineering from an integrated viewpoint. Written by acclaimed researchers and authors, this concise reference marries theory and practice, making it a versatile and flexible resource. Succinctly formatted for functionality, the book presents: Basic Math Calculations Engineering Math Calculations Production Engineering Calculations Engineering Economics Calculations Ergonomics Calculations Facility Layout Calculations Production Sequencing and Scheduling Calculations Systems Engineering Calculations Data Engineering Calculations Project Engineering Calculations Simulation and Statistical Equations It has been said that engineers make things while industrial engineers make things better. To make something better requires an understanding of its basic characteristics and the underlying equations and calculations that facilitate that understanding. To do this, however, you don't have to be computational experts; you just have to know where to get the computational resources that are needed. This book elucidates the underlying equations that facilitate the understanding required to improve design processes, continuously improving the answer to the age-old question: What is the best way to do a job?

This book contains a selection of revised and extended research articles written by prominent researchers participating in the 27th World Congress on Engineering and Computer Science (WCECS 2019) which was held in San Francisco, USA, on October 22-24, 2019. Topics covered include engineering mathematics, electrical engineering, communications systems, computer science, chemical engineering, systems engineering, manufacturing engineering, and industrial applications. With contributions carefully chosen to represent the most cutting-edge research presented during the conference, the book contains some of the state-of-the-art in engineering technologies and the physical sciences and their applications and serves as a useful reference for researchers and graduate students working in these fields.

Rapid prototyping (RP) has revolutionized how prototypes are made and small batch manufacturing is carried out. With rapid prototyping, the strategies used to produce a part change a number of important considerations and limitations previously faced by tool designers and engineers. Now in its third edition, this textbook is still the definitive text on RP. It covers the key RP processes, the available models and specifications, and their principles, materials, advantages and disadvantages. Examples of application areas in design, planning, manufacturing, biomedical engineering, art and architecture are also given. The book includes several related problems so that the reader can test his or her understanding of the topics. New to this edition, the included CD-ROM presents animated illustrations of the working principles of today's key RP processes.

Rapid prototyping (RP) has revolutionized how prototypes are made and small batch manufacturing is carried out. With rapid prototyping, the strategies used to produce a part change a number of important considerations and limitations previously faced by tool designers and engineers. Now in its third edition, this textbook is still the definitive text on RP. It covers the key RP processes, the available models and specifications, and their principles, materials, advantages and disadvantages. Examples of application areas in design, planning, manufacturing, biomedical engineering, art and architecture are also given. The book includes several related problems so that the reader can test his or her understanding of the topics. New to this edition, the included CD-ROM presents animated illustrations of the working principles of today's key RP processes.

Provides an up-to-date, single-source reference for all aspects of the gear industry Presents an integrated approach to gear design and manufacture Includes new coverage of direct gear design and ready-to-use gear design Contains coverage of finite element analysis, gear vibration, load ratings, and gear failures

This book addresses optimization in robotics, in terms of both the configuration space and the metal structure of the robot arm itself; and discusses, describes and builds different types of heuristics and algorithms in MATLAB. In addition, the book includes a wealth of examples and exercises. In particular, it enables the reader to write a MATLAB code for all the related problems in robotics. The book also offers detailed descriptions of and builds from scratch several types of optimization algorithms using MATLAB and simplified methods, especially for inverse problems and avoiding singularities. Each chapter features examples and exercises to enhance the reader's comprehension. Accordingly, the book offers the reader a better understanding of robot analysis from an optimization standpoint.

This book highlights selected papers from the Mechanical Engineering track, with a focus on mechatronics and manufacturing, presented at the "Malaysian Technical Universities Conference on Engineering and Technology" (MUCET 2019). The conference brings together researchers and professionals in the fields of engineering, research and technology, providing a platform for future collaborations and the exchange of ideas.

This volume gathers the latest advances, innovations, and applications in the field of structural health monitoring (SHM) and more broadly in the fields of smart materials and intelligent systems. The volume covers highly diverse topics, including signal processing, smart sensors, autonomous systems, remote sensing and support, UAV platforms for SHM, Internet of Things, Industry 4.0, and SHM for civil structures and infrastructures. The contributions, which are published after a rigorous international peer-review process, highlight numerous exciting ideas that will spur novel research directions and foster multidisciplinary collaboration among different specialists. The contents of this volume reflect the outcomes of the activities of EWSHM (European Workshop on Structural Health Monitoring) in 2020.