What makes the Apple iPhone "cool"? Bang & Olufsen and Samsung's televisions "beautiful"? Any of a wide variety of products and services "special"? The answer is not simply functionality or technology, for competitors' products are often as good.
"The Soul of Design" explores the uncanny power of some products to grab and hold attention--to create desire. To understand what sets a product apart in this way, authors Lee Devin and Robert Austin push past personal taste and individual response to adopt a more conceptual approach. They carefully explore the hypothesis that there is something within a "special" product that makes it--well, special. They argue that this "je ne sais quoi" arises from "plot"--the shape that emerges as a product or service arouses and then fulfills expectations. Marketing a special product is, then, a matter of helping its audience perceive its plot and comprehend its qualities.
Devin and Austin provide keys to understanding why some products and services stand out in a crowd and how the companies that make them create these hits. Part One of the book introduces the authors' definition of plot in this context; Part Two breaks down the components needed to build a plot; Part Three describes what makes a plot coherent; Part Four takes on the challenges of making coherent products and services attractive to consumers. Part Four also presents detailed casework, which shows how innovators and makers have successfully brought special products to market.
Readers will come away with a sensible and clear approach to conceiving of artful products and services. This book will help managers and designers think about engaging with plot, taking aesthetic factors into account to provide consumers with more special things.

- Written in a humorous and accessible style by an experienced designer and educator - Features over 100 colourful and engaging illustrations to demonstrate concepts - Encourages professionals and students to find creative and playful solutions to complex global issues.

Two of the most important yet often overlooked aspects of a medical device are its usability and accessibility. This is important not only for health care providers, but also for older patients and users with disabilities or activity limitations. Medical Instrumentation: Accessibility and Usability Considerations focuses on how lack of usability and accessibility pose problems for designers and users of medical devices, and how to overcome these limitations. Divided into five broad sections, the book first addresses the nature and extent of the problem by identifying access barriers, human factors, and policy issues focused on the existing infrastructure. The subsequent sections examine responses to the problem, beginning with tools for usability and accessibility analysis and principles of design for medical instrumentation. Building on this foundation, the third section focuses on recommendations for design guidelines while the fourth section explores emerging trends and future technologies for improving medical device usability. The final section outlines key challenges, knowledge gaps, and recommendations from accomplished experts in the field presented at the recent Workshop on Accessible Interfaces for Medical Instrumentation. Integrating expert perspectives from a wide array of disciplines, Medical Instrumentation traces a clear roadmap for improving accessibility and usability for a variety of stakeholders and provides the tools necessary to follow it.

One of the primary applications of human factors engineering is in the aviation domain, and the importance of human factors has never been greater as U.S. and European authorities seek to modernize the air transportation system through the introduction of advanced automation. This handbook provides regulators, practitioners, researchers, and educators a comprehensive resource for understanding and applying human factors to air transportation.

Operations Management (OM) is a multi-faceted blend of myriad academic andpractical disciplines - from engineering and economics via mathematics and marketing, to systems and psychology. To capture the state of the art, the bookreviews contemporary and classic scholarship in one of the oldest business and management disciplines. To offer the reader a thought-provoking point of entry into the selected sources, the book curates its content as an imaginary exhibit, eachchapter a thematic OM 'gallery' (process; planning and control; people; strategy and measurement; technology) introduced by a description of some extraordinary artefacts, paintings, sculptures and architecture. The content has been curated around three principles intended to benefit the casual reader and both new and established OM scholars. First, it incorporates works that build on, or help to distinguish, fundamental tenets from more transitory fads. Second, the text makes significant efforts to try and balance the gravitational pull of the factory, (even though this may not offer an accurate representation of the majority of the field) and third, to try to keep managerial rather than technical/ analytical concerns to the fore. This concise book provides a useful overview of current and classic OM research. Written by a leading authority, it is intended to be a valuable and engaging resource for both students and scholars of business.

The potential of software applications to solve an array of office and administrative problems is increasing faster than the ability of users to exploit it. We need to make systems easier to learn and more comfortable to use. This book reports a major advance in the effort to accomplish both goals. Flexcel enables users to modify access and dialog dynamics to their specific requirements. Relying on a plan recognition feature, the system proposes adaptations or uses of adaptations. The ongoing conflict between the adaptive and the adaptable is resolved in an integration: user and system share the responsibility for the initiatives, decision-making and execution. A "critic" component of the system then analyzes the user's handling of the adaptation tools and suggests improvements. The system offers an environment in which users can explore as they learn. HyPlan implements the context-sensitive help that facilitates learning on demand. When the PLANET plan-recognition feature identifies the kinds of support for work that may possibly be required, HyPlan provides, on request, specific assistance in the form of hypermedia or animated displays and tutorials. Developmental research has shown that users take advantage of opportunities to adapt interfaces only in conjunction with help-functions -- which are accepted when they do not interrupt work. And studies by social scientists have shown that adaptations of technical systems have to be integrated into the overall process of organizational innovation and undertaken cooperatively. This book will stimulate all those concerned with software -- from computational, cognitive, ergonomic, or organizational standpoints -- to reconceive the relationship between design and user support.

Identifies the cost sensitive areas for each activity in the logistical system. Illustrates how packaging in addition to protecting and preserving contents can affect total system cost efficiency if designed to adapt well to unitized shipping methods and equipment: efficiently utilize warehouse stor

"Focuses on functional, aesthetically pleasing, mechanically reliable, and easily made products that improve profitability for manufacturers and provide long-term satisfaction for customers. Offers concrete, practical insight immediately applicable to new product design and development projects."

This book will change the way you think about problems. It focuses on creating solutions to all sorts of complex problems by taking a practical, problem-solving approach. It discusses not only what needs to be done, but it also provides guidance and examples of how to do it. The book applies systems thinking to systems engineering and introduces several innovative concepts such as direct and indirect stakeholders and the Nine-System Model, which provides the context for the activities performed in the project, along with a framework for successful stakeholder management. A list of the figures and tables in this book is available at https://www.crcpress.com/9781138387935. FEATURES * Treats systems engineering as a problem-solving methodology * Describes what tools systems engineers use and how they use them in each state of the system lifecycle * Discusses the perennial problem of poor requirements, defines the grammar and structure of a requirement, and provides a template for a good imperative construction statement and the requirements for writing requirements * Provides examples of bad and questionable requirements and explains the reasons why they are bad and questionable * Introduces new concepts such as direct and indirect stakeholders and the Shmemp! * Includes the Nine-System Model and other unique tools for systems engineering

Design Materials and Making for Social Change spans the two interconnected worlds of the material and the social, at different scales and in different contexts, and explores the value of the knowledge, skills and methods that emerge when design researchers work directly with materials and hold making central to their practice. Through the social entanglements of addressing material impacts, the contributors to this edited volume examine homelessness, diaspora, migration, the erosion of craft skills and communities, dignity in work and family life, the impacts of colonialism, climate crisis, education, mental health and the shifting complexities in collaborating with and across diverse disciplines and stakeholders. This book celebrates the role of materials and making in design research by demonstrating the diverse and complex interplay between disciplines and the cultures it enables, when in search of alternative futures. Design Materials and Making for Social Change will be of interest to scholars in materials design, textile design, product design, fashion design, maker culture, systemic design, social design, design for sustainability and circular design.

Since the publication of the first edition of Integrated Product and Process Design and Development: The Product Realization Process more than a decade ago, the product realization process has undergone a number of significant changes. Reflecting these advances, this second edition presents a thorough treatment of the modern tools used in the integrated product realization process and places the product realization process in its new context. See what's new in the Second Edition: Bio-inspired concept generation and TRIZ Computing manufacturing cost, costs of ownership, and life-cycle costs of products Engineered plastics, ceramics, composites, and smart materials Role of innovation New manufacturing methods: in-mold assembly and layered manufacturing This book discusses how to translate customer needs into product requirements and specifications. It then provides methods to determine a product's total costs, including cost of ownership, and covers how to generate and evaluate product concepts. The authors examine methods for turning product concepts into actual products by considering development steps such as materials and manufacturing processes selection, assembly methods, environmental aspects, reliability, and aesthetics, to name a few. They also introduce the design of experiments and the six sigma philosophy as means of attaining quality. To be globally viable, corporations need to produce innovative, visually appealing, quality products within shorter development times. Filled with checklists, guidelines, strategies, and examples, this book provides proven methods for creating competitively priced quality products.

Even when products and systems are highly localized, rarely is there one design suitable for a single, mono-cultural population of users. The products and systems created and used are cultural artifacts representing shared cognitions that characterize mental models that result from interactions with physical environments. Thus, culture is embedded and impacts the extent to which products are usable, accessible, useful, and safe. Products and systems that deviate from users' mental models may have negative consequences for users, ranging from minor annoyance to more serious consequences such as severe injury or death. Both an introduction and a primer, Cultural Ergonomics: Theory, Methods, and Applications demonstrates how cultural ergonomics can be applied in research and practitioner contexts. It covers selection of theories, descriptions of research designs, methods to analyze the results, case studies, and strategies used to draw inferences and conclusions in a vast array of areas including occupational safety, global issues, emergency management, human-computer interaction, warnings and risk communications, and product design. Human factors/ergonomics, as a discipline, is slowly integrating cultural ergonomics into efforts to explore human capabilities and limitations in the context of design and evaluation. Edited by experts and containing contributions from pioneers in this area, this book provides examples and methodologies within a human factors framework. It provides systematic methods to apply what is learned from analysis of culture to the design, development, and evaluation of products and systems.

With stock market swings due to unethical behavior, fuel price escalation due to increased demand, and climate disasters due to global warming, operating in a socially responsible manner is quickly moving from the realm of a nice idea to a business imperative. Taking a continuous improvement approach to social responsibility, Social Responsibility: Failure Mode Effects and Analysis offers a process for driving actions that can be taken by those interested in the "doing of" rather than the "talking about," who are ready to move toward making positive change. Although many books cover market response and interest in this global concern, this is quite possibly the first one to focus on methods for assessing an organization's path to social responsibility performance. Authors Holly Duckworth and Rosemond Moore move beyond talking about improving social responsibility risk to doing something about it, using a well worn tool-Failure Mode Effects and Analysis. They define social responsibility, explain the ramifications of the new ISO 26000 standards in the market place, and provide problem-solving methods that can be put to immediate use. With vast experience and solid credentials in engineering and management, Duckworth and Moore are both old school types. Their point of view is not academic, political, or theoretical, but firmly based in hands-on, action oriented shop-floor work. It may seem unusual for authors with such traditional backgrounds to be writing about a topic that, on the surface, seems untraditional. But from their experience with continuous improvement as Six Sigma Master Black Belts, they have personally witnessed the waste that can be so easily removed from the work place. This book proves that when hard-hitting experts tackle a subject perceived to be as fuzzy as social responsibility, the result is methods and strategies that work.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tagging is now mandated by the department of defense and many of the world's largest retailers including Wal-Mart. In order to stay competitive, more than 200,000 manufacturers and suppliers must develop strategies for integrating RFID technologies into their supply chains. RFID in Logistics: A Practical Introduction provides businesses and other relevant concerns with an authoritative step-by-step guide to the implementation and diverse applications of this revolutionary communications technology. Survey RFID applications in entertainment, credit devices, wireless communications, healthcare, and libraries Learn about both active and passive system components testing models Examine best practices for integrating RFID technology into the supply chain Combining techniques from computer, electrical, and industrial engineering, RFID in Logistics: A Practical Introduction supplies the basic instruction needed to develop and implement RFID technology.

Most books on standardization describe the impact of ISO and related organizations on many industries. While this is great for managing an organization, it leaves engineers asking questions such as "what are the effects of standards on my designs?" and "how can I use standardization to benefit my work?" Standards for Engineering Design and Manufacturing provides hands-on knowledge for incorporating standards into the entire process from design bench to factory floor. The book's five self-contained sections consider the scope of design and manufacturing, standards for the design of discrete products, standards for the manufacture of discrete products, standards for the use of discrete products, as well as support standards. The authors survey in detail the major standards-setting organizations and outline the procedure for developing standards. They consider standards from the perspective of product, equipment, and end-user, using this as a platform to explain the economic benefits of standardization. Case studies in every section illustrate the concepts and offer practical insight for using standards in CAD/CAM, selection of components, process planning, human/machine interaction, and computer interfacing. With its modular approach and practical wisdom based on the authors' years of broad experience, Standards for Engineering Design and Manufacturing supplies the tools to incorporate standards into every stage of design and manufacturing. For a summary of chapters, as well as illustrations and tools from the book, visit

The application of engineering principles in divergent fields such as management science and communications as well as the advancement of several approaches in theory and computation have led to growing interest in queueing models, creating the need for a comprehensive text. Emphasizing Markovian structures and the techniques that occur in different models, A Course on Queueing Models discusses recent developments in the field, different methodological tools - some of which are not available elsewhere - and computational techniques. While most books essentially address the classical methods of queueing theory, this text covers a broad range of methods both in theory and in computation. The first part of the textbook exposes you to many fundamental concepts at an introductory level and provides tools for practitioners. It discusses the basics in queueing theory for Markovian and regenerative non-Markovian models, statistical inference, simulation and some computational procedures, network and discrete-time queues, algebraic and combinatorial methods, and optimization. The second part delves deeper into the topics examined in the first part by presenting more advanced methods. This part also includes general queues, duality in queues, and recent advancements on computational methods and discrete-time queues. Each chapter contains a discussion section that summarizes material and highlights special features. Incorporating different queueing models, A Course on Queueing Models achieves an ideal balance between theory and practice, making it compatible for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, applied statisticians, and engineers.

Currently people deal with various entities (such as hardware, software, buildings, spaces, communities and other people), to meet specific goals while going about their everyday activities in work and leisure environments. These entities have become more and more complex and incorporate functions that hitherto had never been allocated such as automation, use in virtual environments, connectivity, personalization, mobility and friendliness. This book contributes to the analysis of human-system interactions from the perspective of ergonomics, regardless of how simple or complex they are, while incorporating the needs of users and workers in a healthy safe, efficient and enjoyable manner. This book provides a comprehensive review of the state of the art of current ergonomic in design methods and techniques that are being applied to products, machinery, equipment, workstations and systems while taking new technologies and their applications into consideration. Ergonomics in Design: Methods and Techniques is organized into four sections and 30 chapters covering topics such as conceptual aspects of ergonomics in design, the knowledge of human characteristics applied to design, and the methodological aspects of design. Examples are shown in several areas of design including, but not limited to, consumer products, games, transport, education, architecture, fashion, sustainability, biomechanics, intelligent systems, virtual reality, and neurodesign. This book will: Introduces the newest developments in social-cultural approaches Shows different ergonomics in design methodological approaches Divulges the ways that ergonomics can contribute to a successful design Applies different subjects to support the design including -ergonomics, engineering, architecture, urbanism, neuro, and product designs. Presents recent technologies in ergonomic design, as applied to product design. With the contributions from a team of 75 researchers from 11 countries, the book covers the state-of-the-art of ergonomics in a way to produce better design.

A substantial amount of research has been conducted on consecutive k-out-of-n and related reliability systems over the past four decades. These systems have been used to model various engineering systems such as the microwave stations of telecoms network, oil pipeline systems, and vacuum systems in an electron accelerator. As such, studies of reliability properties of consecutive k-out-of-n structures have attracted significant attention from both theoretical and practical approaches. In the modern era of technology, the redundancies are employed in the various industrial systems to prevent them from failure/sudden failure or to recover from failures. This book is meant to provide knowledge and help engineers and academicians in understanding reliability engineering by using k-out-of-n structures. The material is also targeted at postgraduate or senior undergraduate students pursuing reliability engineering.

Engineering systems are an important element of world economy. Each year billions of dollars are spent to develop, manufacture, operate, and maintain various types of engineering systems about the globe. The reliability and usability of these systems have become important because of their increasing complexity, sophistication, and non-specialist users. Global competition and other factors are forcing manufacturers to produce highly reliable and usable engineering systems. Along with examples and solutions, this book integrates engineering systems reliability and usability into a single volume for those individuals that directly or indirectly are concerned with these areas.

The Fuzzy Front End Gets Demystified in This Next-Generation User Research Guide The first phase of the design thinking process is arguably the most crucial, as this is when human insights are leveraged to define value for customers. Yet this so-called "empathize" phase is often deemed optional or is executed poorly. This degrades the entire innovation process that follows by permitting preexisting biases and guesswork that make value creation a precarious bet. In User Experience Research: Discover What Customers Really Want, a human factors psychologist and an industrial designer have devised a foolproof first phase that addresses the shortcomings of the design thinking process. Based on their forty years of generative research experience in multiple industries, this is the definitive guide to user experience research. This repeatable approach is grounded in six key principles that connects users' desired emotional states to an actionable articulation of an experience. It also provides guidance on creating ideal experience frameworks that communicate clearly with all stakeholders, from business leaders to design practitioners. User Experience Research: Discover What Customers Really Want is an indispensable, fully illustrated, step-by-step manual for anyone seeking a more predictable pathway to the design of new or improved experiences that users truly desire and would find valuable.

Additive Manufacturing (AM) has altered manufacturing as we know it, with shortened development time, increased performance, and reduced product costs. Executive management in industry are bombarded by marketing from their competitors showcasing design solutions leveraged through AM. Therefore, executive management ask their project management teams to figure out how to utilize AM within their own company. Clueless on how to approach the problem, managers start learning about AM from experts and become overwhelmed at the highly technical information. Unlike other AM books that focus on the technical output of AM technology, this new book focuses solely on the managerial implementation. Features Presents the impacts of AM technology Provides engaging, practical, and entertaining "war stories" from the front line of AM industrialization Describes in detail, the significant hurdles in AM certification and implementation Offers templates of proven change management best practices, as practical solutions Omits the technical verbiage that gets in the way of management understanding how the process is implemented

Thinking: A Guide to Systems Engineering Problem-Solving focuses upon articulating ways of thinking in today's world of systems and systems engineering. It also explores how the old masters made the advances they made, hundreds of years ago. Taken together, these considerations represent new ways of problem solving and new pathways to answers for modern times. Special areas of interest include types of intelligence, attributes of superior thinkers, systems architecting, corporate standouts, barriers to thinking, and innovative companies and universities. This book provides an overview of more than a dozen ways of thinking, to include: Inductive Thinking, Deductive Thinking, Reductionist Thinking, Out-of-the-Box Thinking, Systems Thinking, Design Thinking, Disruptive Thinking, Lateral Thinking, Critical Thinking, Fast and Slow Thinking, and Breakthrough Thinking. With these thinking skills, the reader is better able to tackle and solve new and varied types of problems. Features Proposes new approaches to problem solving for the systems engineer Compares as well as contrasts various types of Systems Thinking Articulates thinking attributes of the great masters as well as selected modern systems engineers Offers chapter by chapter thinking exercises for consideration and testing Suggests a "top dozen" for today's systems engineers

3D Printing for Product Designers closes the gap between the rhetoric of 3D printing in manufacturing and the reality for product designers. It provides practical strategies to support the adoption and integration of 3D printing into professional practice. 3D printing has evolved over the last decade into a practical proposition for manufacturing, opening up innovative opportunities for product designers. From its foundations in rapid prototyping, additive manufacturing has developed into a range of technologies suitable for end-use products. This book shows you how to evaluate and sensitively understand people, process, and products and demonstrates how solutions for working with additive manufacturing can be developed in context. It includes a practical, step-by-step plan for product designers and CEOs aimed at supporting the successful implementation of 3D printing by stakeholders at all levels of a manufacturing facility, tailored to their stage of technology integration and business readiness. It features a wide range of real-world examples of practice illustrated in full colour, across industries such as healthcare, construction, and film, aligning with the strategic approach outlined in the book. The book can be followed chronologically to guide you to transform your process for a company, to meet the unique needs of a specific client, or to be used as a starting point for the product design entrepreneur. Written by experienced industry professionals and academics, this is a fundamental reference for product designers, industrial designers, design engineers, CEOs, consultants, and makers.

Strategic success of industry depends upon manufacturing competencies (i.e., the competitive advantage to ensure better quality and reliability), which will increase sales and create a sound customer base. Competitive priorities are the operating advantages that are assessed, evaluated, and measured within the parameters of cost, quality, time, design, and flexibility. The book explains the manufacturing competencies upon which the strategic success of the automobile industry depends. The impact of manufacturing competency on strategic success is analyzed and modelled using suitable qualitative and quantitative techniques. Key Features Outlines manufacturing competencies in correlation with successful strategic planning for current manufacturing environment Provides methodology or guidelines for linking defined strategic plans with manufacturing competencies Defines strategic success in the context of the automobile industry Analyses and models manufacturing competency impacts using qualitative and quantitative techniques Develops qualitative models with real-time case studies

The exponential increase in the development of technology coupled with the customers' immense desire to possess the newest technological products makes for truncated product lifespans, which instigates a substantial upsurge in their rate of disposal. Attempts have been made to establish specialized product recovery facilities with the intention of diminishing the volume of accumulated waste delivered to landfills using product recovery procedure such as remanufacturing. The economic benefits produced by remanufacturing also portray the role of product recovery in a more attractive light. The quality of a remanufactured product is uncertain for some consumers. Therefore, these consumers possess insecurities in deciding whether or not the remanufactured products will render the same expected performance. This ambiguity regarding a remanufactured product could possibly result in the consumer deciding against its purchase. With such consumer apprehension, remanufacturers often seek market mechanisms that provide reassurance as to the stable durability that these products still maintain. One strategy that the remanufacturers often use is the utilization of the premise of offering product warranties with preventive maintenance on their products. This book is concerned with the practice and theory of warranty management and preventive maintenance, particularly in relation to remanufactured products' warranties. Models developed in this book can be used for making the right decisions in offering renewable, nonrenewable, one and two dimensional warranty policies, and for managerial decision in considering maintenance contracts or outsourcing maintenance for remanufactured components and products. Features Discusses a variety of warranty policies and preventive maintenance of remanufactured products (first book to do so) Presents mathematical models and applications for warranty policies using examples and simulation results Considers cost and optimization problems from the remanufacturer's and buyer's points of views Provides a foundation for academicians interested in building models in the area of warranty and preventive maintenance analysis of remanufactured products Offers the essential methodology needed by practitioners involved with warranty and preventive maintenance analysis, along with extensive references for further research