Closing the Gap is an accessible overview of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) and the impact it is set to have on various sectors in South Africa and Africa. It explores the previous industrial revolutions that have led up to this point and outlines South Africa’s position been through each one.

With a focus on artificial intelligence as a core concept in understanding the 4IR, this book uses familiar concepts to explain artificial intelligence, how it works and how it can be used in banking, mining, medicine and many other fields.

Written from an African perspective, Closing the Gap addresses the challenges and fears around the 4IR by pointing to the opportunities presented by new technologies and outlining some of the challenges and successes to date

Reflecting changes in the current health and safety landscape, Occupational Health and Safety Management: A Practical Approach, Third Edition includes examples and tools to facilitate development and implementation of a safety and health management approach. This how-to book is not just an information providing text. It shows you how to write a program and identify hazards as well as involve workers and attain their cooperation. It emphasizes the need for better and more effective communication regarding safety and health.

What’s New in the Third Edition:

• Chapters on workers’ compensation, terrorism, and Lean safety/sustainability
• Additional coverage of flammable liquids and ventilation, accident reporting, and accident investigation
• New compliance requirements as well as expanded accident investigation, environmental, and risk analysis guidelines
• PowerPoint presentation slides for each chapter

A complete and practical guide for the development and management of occupational safety and health programs in any industry setting, the book supplies a management blueprint that can be used for occupational safety and health in any organization, from the smallest to the largest, beginning to develop or wanting to improve its safety and health approach. It includes comprehensive guidelines for development of occupational health and safety programs to a variety of industries and is especially useful for start-up companies.

The author takes a total management approach to the development of written programs, the identification of hazards, the mitigation of hazards by the use of common safety and health tools, the development of a safe workforce through communications, motivational techniques, involvement, and training. He addresses the tracking and acceptable risk from both safety and health hazards. He also discusses how to work with and within the OSHA compliance approach as well as how to deal with the OSHA regulations, workers’ compensation, terrorism, and Lean safety. As you understand and apply the guidelines in each chapter, you can put your company on the way toward building a successful and effective safety and health effort for its employers and employees.

The 24th European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering creates an international forum where scientific and industrial contributions of computer-aided techniques are presented with applications in process modeling and simulation, process synthesis and design, operation, and process optimization.

The organizers have broadened the boundaries of Process Systems Engineering by inviting contributions at different scales of modeling and demonstrating vertical and horizontal integration. Contributions range from applications at the molecular level to the strategic level of the supply chain and sustainable development. They cover major classical themes, at the same time exploring a new range of applications that address the production of renewable forms of energy, environmental footprints and sustainable use of resources and water.

For a long time, conventional reliability analyses have been oriented towards selecting the more reliable system and preoccupied with maximising the reliability of engineering systems. On the basis of counterexamples however, we demonstrate that selecting the more reliable system does not necessarily mean selecting the system with the smaller losses from failures! As a result, reliability analyses should necessarily be risk-based, linked with the losses from failures.
Accordingly, a theoretical framework and models are presented which form the foundations of the reliability analysis and reliability allocation linked with the losses from failures.
An underlying theme in the book is the basic principle for a risk-based design: the larger the cost of failure associated with a component, the larger its minimum necessary reliability level. Even identical components should be designed to different reliability levels if their failures are associated with different losses.
According to a classical definition, the risk of failure is a product of the probability of failure and the cost given failure. This risk measure however cannot describe the risk of losses exceeding a maximum acceptable limit. Traditionally the losses from failures have been 'accounted for' by the average production availability (the ratio of the actual production capacity and the maximum production capacity). As demonstrated in the book by using a simple counterexample, two systems with the same production availability can be characterised by very different losses from failures.
As an alternative, a new aggregated risk measure based on the cumulative distribution of the potential losses has been introducedand the theoretical framework for risk analysis based on the concept potential losses has also been developed. This new risk measure incorporates the uncertainty associated with the exposure to losses and the uncertainty in the consequences given the exposure. For repairable systems with complex topology, the distribution of the potential losses can be revealed by simulating the behaviour of systems during their life-cycle. For this purpose, fast discrete event-driven simulators are presented capable of tracking the potential losses for systems with complex topology, composed of a large number of components. The simulators are based on new, very efficient algorithms for system reliability analysis of systems comprising thousands of components.
An important theme in the book are the generic principles and techniques for reducing technical risk. These have been classified into three major categories: preventive (reducing the likelihood of failure), protective (reducing the consequences from failure) and dual (reducing both, the likelihood and the consequences from failure). Many of these principles (for example: avoiding clustering of events, deliberately introducing weak links, reducing sensitivity, introducing changes with opposite sign, etc.) are discussed in the reliability literature for the first time.
Significant space has been allocated to component reliability. In the last chapter of the book, several applications are discussed of a powerful equation which constitutes the core of a new theory of locally initiated component failure by flaws whose number is a random variable.
This book has been written with the intention to fill two big gaps in the reliability and riskliterature: the risk-based reliability analysis as a powerful alternative to the traditional reliability analysis and the generic principles for reducing technical risk. I hope that the principles, models and algorithms presented in the book will help to fill these gaps and make the book useful to reliability and risk-analysts, researchers, consultants, students and practising engineers.
- Offers a shift in the existing paradigm for conducting reliability analyses.
- Covers risk-based reliability analysis and generic principles for reducing risk.
- Provides a new measure of risk based on the distribution of the potential losses from failure as well as the basic principles for risk-based design.
- Incorporates fast algorithms for system reliability analysis and discrete-event simulators.
- Includes the probability of failure of a structure with complex shape expressed with a simple equation.

The definitive practical guide to choosing the optimum manufacturing process, written for students and engineers.
Process Selection provides engineers with the essential technological and economic data to guide the selection of manufacturing processes. This fully revised second edition covers a wide range of important manufacturing processes and will ensure design decisions are made to achieve optimal cost and quality objectives.
Expanded and updated to include contemporary manufacturing, fabrication and assembly technologies, the book puts process selection and costing into the context of modern product development and manufacturing, based on parameters such as materials requirements, design considerations, quality and economic factors. Key features of the book include: manufacturing process information maps (PRIMAs) provide detailed information on the characteristics and capabilities of 65 processes and their variants in a standard format; process capability charts detailing the processing tolerance ranges for key material types; strategies to facilitate process selection; detailed methods for estimating costs, both at the component and assemby level.
The approach enables an engineer to understand the consequences of design decisions on the technological and economic aspects of component manufacturing, fabrication and assembly.
This comprehensive book provides both a definitive guide to the subject for students and an invaluable source of reference for practising engineers.
* manufacturing process information maps (PRIMAs) provide detailed information on the characteristics and capabilities of 65 processes in a standard format
* process capability charts detail the processing tolerance ranges for key material types
* detailed methods for estimating costs, both at the component and assembly level

Devising optimal strategy for maintaining industrial plant can be a difficult task of daunting complexity. This book aims to provide the plant engineer with a comprehensive and systematic approach, a framework of guidelines, for tackling this problem, i.e. for deciding maintenance objectives, formulating equipment life plans and plant maintenance schedules, designing the maintenance organisation and setting up appropriate systems of documentation and control.
The author, Anthony Kelly, an experienced international consultant and lecturer on this subject, calls his approach BUSINESS-CENTRED MAINTENANCE (BCM) because it springs from, and is driven by, the identification of business objectives, which are then translated into maintenance objectives and which underpin the maintenance strategy formulation. For the first time maintenance management is analysed from the perspective of the whole company and thus makes sense not only technologically but also in economic and business terms.
Complete guide to maintenance from a whole-company perspective
Best-selling and world-renowned author
Complementary to RCM (Moubray) & TPM (Wilmott)

Written by international experts in this field, the book describes the principles of, and presents case studies for, the wide range of tomographic imaging techniques that can be used in the process industries. It includes sufficient introductory material
to this multi-disciplinary subject in order that readers from a variety of backgrounds will be able to fully understand the fundamental principles and features of the sensors and image reconstruction techniques needed for process tomography.

Understand microgrids and networked microgrid systems Microgrids are interconnected groups of energy sources that operate together, capable of connecting with a larger grid or operating independently as needed and network conditions require. They can be valuable sources of energy for geographically circumscribed areas with highly targeted energy needs, and for remote or rural areas where continuous connection with a larger grid is difficult. Microgrids' controllability makes them especially effective at incorporating renewable energy sources. Microgrids: Theory and Practice introduces readers to the analysis, design, and operation of microgrids and larger networked systems that integrate them. It brings to bear both cutting-edge research into microgrid technology and years of industry experience in designing and operating microgrids. Its discussions of core subjects such as microgrid modeling, control, and optimization make it an essential short treatment, valuable for both academic and industrial study. Readers will acquire the skills needed to address existing problems and meet new ones as this crucial area of power engineering develops. Microgrids: Theory and Practice also features: Incorporation of new cyber-physical system technologies for enabling microgrids as resiliency resources Theoretical treatment of a wide range of subjects including smart programmable microgrids, distributed and asynchronous optimization for microgrid dispatch, and AI-assisted microgrid protection Practical discussion of real-time microgrids simulations, hybrid microgrid design, transition to renewable microgrid networks, and more Microgrids: Theory and Practice is ideal as a textbook for graduate and advanced undergraduate courses in power engineering programs, and a valuable reference for power industry professionals looking to address the challenges posed by microgrids in their work.

Quality Analysis of Additively Manufactured Metals: Simulation Approaches, Processes, and Microstructure Properties provides readers with a firm understanding of the failure and fatigue processes of additively manufactured metals. With a focus on computational methods, the book analyzes the process-microstructure-property relationship of these metals and how it affects their quality while also providing numerical, analytical, and experimental data for material design and investigation optimization. It outlines basic additive manufacturing processes for metals, strategies for modeling the microstructural features of metals and how these features differ based on the manufacturing process, and more. Improvement of additively manufactured metals through predictive simulation methods and microdamage and micro-failure in quasi-static and cyclic loading scenarios are covered, as are topology optimization methods and residual stress analysis techniques. The book concludes with a section featuring case studies looking at additively manufactured metals in automotive, biomedical and aerospace settings.

Engineering Reliability and Risk Assessment explains how to improve the performance of a system using the latest risk and reliability models. Against a backdrop of increasing availability of industrial data, and ever-increasing global commercial competition, the standards for optimal efficiency with minimum hazards keep improving. Topics explained include Effective strategies for the maintenance of the mechanical components of a system, How to schedule necessary interventions throughout the product life cycle, How to understand the structure and cost of complex systems, Planning a schedule to improve the reliability and life of the system, software, system safety and risk informed asset management, and more.

Computational Intelligence in Manufacturing addresses applications of AI, machine learning and other innovative computational techniques across the manufacturing supply chain. The rapid development of smart or digital manufacturing known as Industry 4.0 has swiftly provided a large number of opportunities for product and manufacturing process improvement. Selecting the appropriate technologies and combining them successfully is a challenge this book helps readers overcome . It explains how to prepare different manufacturing cells for flexibility and enhanced productivity with better supply chain management, e.g., calibrating design machine tools for automation and agility. Computational intelligence applications for non-conventional manufacturing processes such as ECM and EDM are covered alongside recent advances in traditional processes like casting, welding and metal forming. As well as describing specific applications, this practical guide also explains the computational intelligence paradigm for enhanced supply chain management.

Digital Twin Driven Smart Service draws on the latest industry practice and research to explain how to implement digital twin service in a range of scenarios. It addresses relevant theory and methodologies, including product service, prognostic health management service, energy efficient service and testing service. Other sections discuss key enabling technologies supported by cutting-edge case studies of implementation. Drawing on the work of researchers at the forefront of this technology, this book is the ideal guide for anyone interested in product services, manufacturing services and digital twin services. This book is one part of a trilogy on digital twins, the other titles being Digital Twin Driven Smart Design and Digital Twin Driven Smart Manufacturing.

Control Theory Applications for Dynamic Production Systems Apply the fundamental tools of linear control theory to model, analyze, design, and understand the behavior of dynamic production systems In Control Theory Applications for Dynamic Production Systems: Time and Frequency Methods for Analysis and Design, distinguished manufacturing engineer Dr. Neil A. Duffie delivers a comprehensive explanation of how core concepts of control theorical analysis and design can be applied to production systems. Time-based perspectives on response to turbulence are augmented by frequency-based perspectives, fostering new understanding and guiding design of decision-making. The time delays intrinsic to decision making and decision implementation in production systems are addressed throughout. Readers will discover methods for calculating time response and frequency response, modeling using transfer functions, assessing stability, and design of decision making for closed-loop production systems. The author has included real-world examples emphasizing the different components of production systems and illustrating how practical results can be quickly obtained using straightforward Matlab programs (which can easily be translated to other platforms). Avoiding unnecessary theoretical jargon, this book fosters an in-depth understanding of key tools of control system engineering. It offers: A thorough introduction to core control theoretical concepts of analysis and design of dynamic production systems Comprehensive and integrated explorations of continuous-time and discrete-time models of production systems, employing transfer functions and block diagrams Practical discussions of time response, frequency response, fundamental dynamic behavior, closed-loop production systems, and the design of decision-making In-depth examples of the analysis and design of complex dynamic behavior requiring approaches such as matrices of transfer functions and modeling of multiple sampling rates Perfect for production, manufacturing, industrial, and control system engineers, Control Theory Applications for Dynamic Production Systems will also earn a place in the libraries of students taking advanced courses on industrial system digitalization, dynamics, and design.

Recent Advances in System Reliability Engineering describes and evaluates the latest tools, techniques, strategies, and methods in this topic for a variety of applications. Special emphasis is put on simulation and modelling technology which is growing in influence in industry, and presents challenges as well as opportunities to reliability and systems engineers. Several manufacturing engineering applications are addressed, making this a particularly valuable reference for readers in that sector.

Digital Twin Driven Smart Manufacturing examines the background, latest research, and application models for digital twin technology, and shows how it can be central to a smart manufacturing process. The interest in digital twin in manufacturing is driven by a need for excellent product reliability, and an overall trend towards intelligent, and connected manufacturing systems. This book provides an ideal entry point to this subject for readers in industry and academia, as it answers the questions: (a) What is a digital twin? (b) How to construct a digital twin? (c) How to use a digital twin to improve manufacturing efficiency? (d) What are the essential activities in the implementation of a digital twin? (e) What are the most important obstacles to overcome for the successful deployment of a digital twin? (f) What are the relations between digital twin and New Technologies? (g) How to combine digital twin with the New Technologies to achieve high efficiency and smartness in manufacturing? This book focuses on these problems as it aims to help readers make the best use of digital twin technology towards smart manufacturing.