This book presents the theoretical research and application results of a study on flexible mechatronics (flexonics). Formulating distributed models in both time and spatial domains using a geometric approach, it presents a simple yet practical field-based sensing method for robotics and manufacturing, and illustrates its applications with examples such as exoskeletons, mobile sensor network and intelligent sensing.The book is of interest to researchers, engineers and graduate students in robotics, manufacturing and automation engineering who wish to learn the core principles, theories, technologies, and applications of flexonics.

In this book, the history of the concepts critical to the discovery and development of aluminum, its alloys and the anodizing process are reviewed to provide a foundation for the challenges, achievements, and understanding of the complex relationship between the aluminum alloy and the reactions that occur during anodic oxidation. Empirical knowledge that has long sustained industrial anodizing is clarified by viewing the process as corrosion science, addressing each element of the anodizing circuit in terms of the Tafel Equation. This innovative approach enables a new level of understanding and engineering control for the mechanisms that occur as the oxide nucleates and grows, developing its characteristic highly ordered structure, which impact the practical function of the anodic aluminum oxide.

This book is a detailed introduction to selective maintenance and updates readers on recent advances in this field, emphasizing mathematical formulation and optimization techniques. The book is useful for reliability engineers and managers engaged in the practice of reliability engineering and maintenance management. It also provides references that will lead to further studies at the end of each chapter. This book is a reference for researchers in reliability and maintenance and can be used as an advanced text for students.

Technology Innovation discusses the fundamental aspects of processes and structures of technology innovation. It offers a new perspective concerning fundamentals aspects not directly involved in the complex relations existing between technology and the socio-economic system. By considering technology and its innovation from a scientific point of view, the book presents a novel definition of technology as a set of physical, chemical, and biological phenomena, producing an effect exploitable for human purposes. Expanding on the general model of technology innovation by linking the model of technology, based on a structure of technological operations, with the models of the structures for technology innovation, based on organization of fluxes of knowledge and capitals, the book considers various technological processes and the stages of the innovation process. Offers a perspective on the evolution of technology in the frame of an industrial platform network Explains a novel definition of technology as a set of physical, chemical, and biological phenomena producing an effect exploitable for human purposes Discusses technology innovation as result of structures organizing fluxes of knowledge and capitals Provides a technology model simulating the functioning of technology with its optimization Presents a technology innovation model explaining the territorial technology innovation process The book is intended for academics, graduate students, technology developers who are involved in operations management and research, innovation, and technology development.

This book offers an in-depth and systematic introduction to improved failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) methods for proactive healthcare risk analysis. Healthcare risk management has become an increasingly important issue for hospitals and managers. As a prospective reliability analysis technique, FMEA has been widely used for identifying and eliminating known and potential failures in systems, designs, products or services. However, the traditional FMEA has a number of weaknesses when applied to healthcare risk management. This book provides valuable insights into useful FMEA methods and practical examples that can be considered when applying FMEA to enhance the reliability and safety of the healthcare system. This book is very interesting for practitioners and academics working in the fields of healthcare risk management, quality management, operational research, and management science and engineerin. It can be considered as the guiding document for how a healthcare organization proactively identifies, manages and mitigates the risk of patient harm. This book also serves as a valuable reference for postgraduate and senior undergraduate students.

This book provides the key technologies involved in an organization's digital transformation. It offers a deep understanding of the key technologies (Blockchain, AI, Big Data, IoT, etc.) involved and details the impact, the decision-making process, and the interplay between technologies, business models, and operations. Managing the Digital Transformation: Aligning Technologies, Business Models, and Operations provides frameworks and models to support digital transformation projects. The book presents the importance of digital transformation as a resilience approach to the operations processes and business models. It covers the essential elements integrating the technology, the organizations, the operations, and supply chain management used to move toward digital transformation. Concepts and mini-case studies are included to provide a deeper understanding of digital transformation projects with a holistic view. The book also examines the role that digital transformation plays with consideration of inter-organizational and intra-organizational capabilities, along with the role of digital culture, the worker's skills, business models, reconfiguration, as well as an operations optimization angle. Practitioners, consultants, governments, managers, scholars, and anyone interested in digital transformation will find the contents of this book very useful.

This book encapsulates and highlights the most recent innovations, breakthroughs, and comparisons of advanced sustainable manufacturing and material processing techniques for high-performance materials applications with a focus on sustainability and using conventional available methods. Sustainable Advanced Manufacturing and Materials Processing: Methods and Technologies addresses the various sustainable manufacturing and materials processing techniques for advanced materials. It discusses advancements in conventional and non-conventional techniques used in casting, joining, drilling, surface engineering, sintering, and composite manufacturing. The book focuses on a wide range of manufacturing techniques and materials processing technologies along with their benefits, limitations, and sustainability quotient. The conventional and advanced processes are compared in parallel to understand the need for advanced methods in manufacturing technology. This book is helpful to academic scholars and commercial manufacturers in giving them a first-hand source of information on sustainable manufacturing and material processing technology.

Survival and thriving in today's business environment require companies to continuously strive for operational excellence at all levels of the organization. Simply working to maintain existing operations is not an adequate or sustainable business strategy, especially when competing in a global market. To remain relevant, companies must adopt a process control and continuous improvement mentality as an integral part of their daily work activities. These two operational disciplines form the foundation and stepping stones for manufacturing excellence. Processes must be stable, capable, and controlled as a prerequisite for sustainable improvement. Sustainable improvements must be strategic, continuous, and focused on process optimization. Modern-day manufacturing is rapidly changing in the face of technological, geopolitical, social, and environmental developments. These challenges are altering the way we think and act to transform raw materials into finished goods. Meeting these challenges requires particular attention to how we develop and engage people and apply technology for long-term sustainability and competitive advantage. This book takes you on a journey to explore the fundamental elements, management practices, improvement methods, and future direction of shop floor management. Part 1 of this five-part manuscript considers workplace culture, organizational structure, operational discipline, and employee accountability as the foundation for a robust manufacturing system. Part 2 studies the impact of process standardization, data analytics, information sharing, communication, and people on daily shop floor management. Once the management system has been adequately described, Part 3 concentrates on its effective execution, monitoring, and control with a deep look into the people, methods, machines, materials, and environment that make it possible. Like every good manufacturing text, efficiency and productivity are key topics. That's why Part 4 explores various methods, tools, and techniques associated with product and process development, productivity improvement, agile methods, shop floor optimization, and manufacturing excellence. The final section, Part 5, shifts focus to emerging technologies, engaging the reader to contemplate technology's impact on the digital transformation of the manufacturing industry.

This book presents the outcome of the European project "SERENA", involving fourteen partners as international academics, technological companies, and industrial factories, addressing the design and development of a plug-n-play end-to-end cloud architecture, and enabling predictive maintenance of industrial equipment to be easily exploitable by small and medium manufacturing companies with a very limited data analytics experience. Perspectives and new opportunities to address open issues on predictive maintenance conclude the book with some interesting suggestions of future research directions to continue the growth of the manufacturing intelligence.

This book is the first research collection by the Malaysian Society for Automatic Control Engineers (MACE). Numerous applications of control engineering, sensor, and instrumentation technology in robotics, industrial automation, and other mechatronic systems are presented in this book. The book begins by introducing control engineering in robotics and industrial automation. It progresses through a series of chapters, discussing the application of control engineering in various areas such as: brake-by-wire technology; web scrubber systems; robot localization; and, autonomous navigation systems. Coverage of swarm robotics behaviors and applications of sensor technology in the field of music, biomedical technology, and structural analysis takes the book beyond its core of mechatronic systems and demonstrates a more diverse application of the ideas it presents. Each chapter provides comprehensive and detailed coverage of the main ideas, design methods, and practical needs of its chosen topic, making this book accessible and useful to researchers, engineers, postgraduates, and undergraduate students.

This textbook presents the principal methods of stress analysis for the design of frame structures, beginning with a description of the basic criteria for probabilistic safety verification used in modern codes. The Force Method and the Displacement Method are dealt with, together with their applications to more common structural situations. A special chapter is dedicated to the second order analysis required for slender structures and for the elaboration of instability problems. In turn, a thorough set of numerical examples rounds out the text. Given its scope, the book offers an ideal learning resource for students of Civil and Building Engineering and Architecture, and a valuable reference guide for practicing structural design professionals.

This book includes a selection of reviewed papers presented at the 9th China Academic Conference on Printing and Packaging, which was held in November 2018 in Shandong, China. The conference was jointly organized by the China Academy of Printing Technology and Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences). With 8 keynote talks and over 200 presented papers on graphic communication and packaging technologies, the conference attracted more than 300 scientists.The proceedings cover the recent findings in color science and technology, image processing technology, digital media technology, mechanical engineering and numerical control, materials and detection, digital process management technology in printing and packaging, and other technologies. As such, the book is of interest to university researchers, R&D engineers and graduate students in the field of graphic arts, packaging, color science, image science, material science, computer science, digital media, and network technology.

While innovation can be defined in many ways, the author sees it as a process. It is not the sudden eureka moment in the middle of the night, nor is it a clear and linear path towards a final destination. Instead, it involves a strong sense of creativity and curiosity. An innovative mind has a natural inclination towards out-of-the-box thinking. It involves a willingness to try something new, without fear or judgment, to develop something no one else has ever articulated. While the mindset comes naturally, it requires fuel to keep it running. Innovators are voracious readers and researchers. They feed their mindset all of the fuel it needs to stay informed and relevant in their field. Many of the same things can be said for the Lean mindset. Lean management doesn't happen overnight, and it is very rarely a clear and linear path to true Lean thinking. Some might consider Lean a subset of innovative thinking, while others see it in reverse. Regardless of the relationship's directionality, one thing is certain: You cannot have one without the other. This book follows John Riley, the CEO of a medium-sized valve company just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who will stop at nothing to create an innovative work environment. Through the ups and downs of his journey, he learns a number of Lean and innovative skills, strategies, and mindsets to help him build the business he's always envisioned for himself. Throughout the book, you see examples of both strong and poor innovative leadership skills demonstrated by each of the main characters. The key messages are ones that help leaders build and access a mindset insistent on continuous improvement. Leadership techniques and abilities that bolster creative thought and problem-solving are the most successful throughout this book. To be truly innovative, you can never stop driving the learning process. For this to happen, leaders need to recognize when there is a need for a change or improvement. This is the beauty of the marriage between Lean and innovation: They both require continuous learning and growth. The desire to improve is only one piece of this equation, however. The other is the willingness to act. Without both of these factors, true innovation will always be out of reach.

This textbook presents a thorough overview of chemical and process industries. It describes the standard technologies and the state of the industries and the manufacturing processes of specific chemical and allied products. It includes examples of industries in Ghana, highlighting the real-world applications of these technologies. The book introduces new developments in the processes in chemical industry, focuses on the technology and methodology of the processes and the chemistry underlying them. It offers guidance on operating of processing units. Furthermore, it includes sections on safety and environmental pollution control in industry. With a pedagogical and comprehensive approach, utilizing illustrations and tables, this book provides students in chemical engineering and industrial chemistry with a concise and up-to-date overview of this diverse subject.

FAST Creativity & Innovation is a landmark work authored by the creator of the method called Function Analysis Systems Technique (FAST) and pioneer of value engineering and value analysis. FAST is a powerful mapping technique that can graphically model goals, objectives, strategies, plans, systems, projects, products, processes, and procedures in function terms to identify function dependencies by organizing them into a cause and effect relationship. This technique quickly brings clarity to whatever situation or problem it is applied and greatly enhances productive thinking, creativity, innovation, and complex problem solving. Some of the basic concepts of FAST have been used for several decades in value engineering, which focuses on decreasing costs, improving quality and increasing value and profits. Derivatives of this original method such as fishbone diagrams, theory of constraints and process mapping came into use in fields such as quality management, new product development, manufacturing, and supply chain and project management. However, despite these developments, many of the original FAST concepts were either overlooked or misunderstood as greater opportunities for success remained untapped. FAST Creativity & Innovation groups all the original concepts together in great detail so you can learn them using easily understood step-by-step examples developed by the creator of this method. The creator and author, Charles Bytheway, presents a procedure that standardizes the method for creating FAST diagrams and function trees for rapidly improving processes, innovation, new product development and value engineering, and for effectively solving a wide variety of complex problems quickly. After reading this book you will have gained not only the basic skills of using this method, but the original insight of its developer for mastering its use in any environment. This guide is an outstanding tool for use in industry, a variety of college courses and for value engineers.

The focus of this book is an application of Digital Twin as a concept and an approach, based on the most accurate view on a physical production system and its digital representation of complex engineering products and systems. It describes a methodology to create and use Digital Twin in a built environment for the improvement and optimization of factory processes such as factory planning, investment planning, bottleneck analysis, and in-house material transport. The book provides a practical response based on achievements of engineering informatics in solving challenges related to the optimization of factory layout and corresponding processes. This book introduces the topic, providing a foundation of knowledge on process planning, before discussing the acquisition of objects in a factory and the methods for object recognition. It presents process simulation techniques, explores challenges in process planning, and concludes by looking at future areas of progression. By providing a holistic, trans-disciplinary perspective, this book will showcase Digital Twin technology as state-of-the-art both in research and practice.

This book statistically confirms that complexity and changing technologies that affect the way operators interact within the systems of the nuclear facili-ties exacerbate the severity of incidents caused by human error and details the application of the systems engineering process to reduce human error given industries' rapidly advancing technology. Technology, Human Performance, and Nuclear Facilities: A Systems Engineering Approach to Reduce Human Error provides a basic understand-ing of Human Error/ P erformance and its relation to industrial operations and advancing technologies incorporated into facilities. The book discusses the context surrounding the complexity of changing technologies at nuclear facili-ties and the potential worsening of problems caused by human error when technology advancements concerning operator interaction with control sys-tems are implemented. It presents how to reduce human error propensity given the incorporation of advanced technology and covers ways to reduce human error using the systems engineering process. Also offered are several concepts related to the operator's involvement in the systems engineering process and the human performance integration with system operational requirements and system testing, evaluation, and validation, and the procedures and training development in the systems engineering process. This book presents empirical evidence for the importance of human performance management in the con-text of nuclear facilities and offers practical recommendations for the improve-ment of this function. Systems engineers, plant/ design engineers, the nuclear industry, plant operations management, and those involved in industrial and nuclear safety will find something of interest in this book.

Grain boundaries are important structural components of polycrystalline materials used in the vast majority of technical applications. Because grain boundaries form a continuous network throughout such materials, their properties may limit their practical use. One of the serious phenomena which evoke these limitations is the grain boundary segregation of impurities. It results in the loss of grain boundary cohesion and consequently, in brittle fracture of the materials. The current book deals with fundamentals of grain boundary segregation in metallic materials and its relationship to the grain boundary structure, classification and other materials properties.

This book provides a detailed instruction to virtually reproduce the processes of Additive Manufacturing on a computer. First, all mathematical equations needed to model these processes are presented. Due to their flexibility, meshfree methods represent optimal computational solution schemes to simulate Additive Manufacturing processes. On the other hand, these methods usually do not guarantee an accurate solution. For this reason, this monograph is dedicated in detail to the necessary criteria for computational solution schemes to provide accurate results. Several meshfree methods are examined with respect to these conditions. Two different 3D printing techniques are presented in detail. The results obtained from the simulation are investigated and compared with experimental data. This work is addressed to both scientists and professionals working in the field of development who are interested to learn the secrets behind meshfree methods or get into the modeling of Additive Manufacturing.

This second edition of the 2008 ASME publication on the same topic is an expanded and updated treatment of a broader range of pipeline geohazard management aspects to serve the global community of pipeliners - both those of a geotechnical background as well as their colleagues in the multi-disciplinary teams that deal practically with these issues. The book strikes a balance between overviews of certain topics and somewhat more detailed treatment of other topics. Recognized experts were invited to contribute entire chapters, short Invited Technical Briefs or longer Invited Perspectives in their areas of specialization. This book's comprehensive treatment of pipeline geohazards includes: Terrain analysis for corridor selection using data generation, integration and visualization techniques Geotechnical engineering and pipeline construction interface considerations Trenched and elevated river crossings Trenchless techniques for pipeline construction Practical overview for addressing several critical pipeline geohazard mechanisms, namely: buoyancy control; erosion and sediment control; pipelines in permafrost and the assessment and mitigation of seismic geohazards State-of-practice overview of quantitative geohazard assessment, monitoring and mitigation of various mechanisms Bibliography of related publications from prominent pipeline conferences

This book gathers selected contributions in the field of civil and structural engineering, as presented by international researchers and engineers at the International Conference on Materials Physics, Building Structures and Technologies in Construction, Industrial and Production Engineering (MPCPE), held in Vladimir, Russia on April 26-28 2021. The book covers a wide range of topics including the theory and design of capital construction facilities, engineering and hydraulic structures; development of innovative solutions in the field of modeling and testing of reinforced concrete, metal and wooden structures, as well as composite structures based on them; investigation of complex dynamic effects on construction objects, and many others directions. Intended for professional builders, designers and researchers. The contributions, which were selected by means of a rigorous international peer-review process, highlight numerous exciting ideas that will spur novel research directions and foster multidisciplinary collaborations.

This book comprises the proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Mechanical, System, and Control Engineering 2021. The contents of this volume focus on recent technological advances in the field of system dynamics and simulation, precision mechanics, production technology, structural dynamics, nanomaterial engineering, cloud computing and services, energy engineering and management, etc. This book proves a valuable resource for those in academia and industry.

In an attempt to make sense of changes that have taken place in the workplace worldwide, especially since the last quarter of the twentieth century, the two concepts of Fordism and Post-Fordism are often invoked. These volumes perform a valuable service to social scientists in bringing together important previously published contributions which explore this field. In their selection of articles, the editors range from the Fordism of Henry Ford to its oft-touted modern management successors - Japanisation and Toyotaism, flexible specialisation, lean production and McDonaldisation. They also provide useful criticisms of each of these developments. The editors have written an authoritative introduction which offers an informative discussion of the issues.

Estimating unknown parameters based on observation data conta- ing information about the parameters is ubiquitous in diverse areas of both theory and application. For example, in system identification the unknown system coefficients are estimated on the basis of input-output data of the control system; in adaptive control systems the adaptive control gain should be defined based on observation data in such a way that the gain asymptotically tends to the optimal one; in blind ch- nel identification the channel coefficients are estimated using the output data obtained at the receiver; in signal processing the optimal weighting matrix is estimated on the basis of observations; in pattern classifi- tion the parameters specifying the partition hyperplane are searched by learning, and more examples may be added to this list. All these parameter estimation problems can be transformed to a root-seeking problem for an unknown function. To see this, let - note the observation at time i. e. , the information available about the unknown parameters at time It can be assumed that the parameter under estimation denoted by is a root of some unknown function This is not a restriction, because, for example, may serve as such a function.

1) Covers different types of cranes including bridge cranes, tower cranes, aerial cranes and dual cranes 2) Provides different industrial applications 3) Demonstrates how to reduce unwanted vibrations to ensure safe and effective operations 4) Discusses how to use advanced control methods in order to reduce vibration