Today's society is completely dependent on critical networks such as water supply, sewage, electricity, ICT and transportation. Risk and vulnerability analyses are needed to grasp the impact of threats and hazards. However, these become quite complex as there are strong interdependencies both within and between infrastructure systems. Risk and Interdependencies in Critical Infrastructures: A guideline for analysis provides methods for analyzing risks and interdependencies of critical infrastructures. A number of analysis approaches are described and are adapted to each of these infrastructures. Various approaches are also revised, and all are supported by several examples and illustrations. Particular emphasis is given to the analysis of various interdependencies that often exist between the infrastructures. Risk and Interdependencies in Critical Infrastructures: A guideline for analysis provides a good tool to identify the hazards that are threatening your infrastructures, and will enhance the understanding on how these threats can propagate throughout the system and also affect other infrastructures, thereby identifying useful risk reducing measures. It is essential reading for municipalities and infrastructure owners that are obliged to know about and prepare for the risks and vulnerabilities of the critical infrastructures for which they are responsible.

In the industrial design and engineering field, product lifecycle, product development, design process, Design for X, etc., constitute only a small sample of terms related to the generation of quality products. Current best practices cover widely different knowledge domains in trying to exploit them to the best advantage, individually and in synergy. Moreover, standards become increasingly more helpful in interfacing these domains and they are enlarging their coverage by going beyond the single domain boundary to connect closely different aspects of the product lifecycle. The degree of complexity of each domain makes impossible the presence of multipurpose competencies and skills; there is almost always the need for interacting and integrating people and resources in some effective way. These are the best conditions for the birth of theories, methodologies, models, architectures, systems, procedures, algorithms, software packages, etc., in order to help in some way the synergic work of all the actors involved in the product lifecycle. This brief introduction contains all the main themes developed in this book, starting from the analysis of the design and engineering scenarios to arrive at the development and adoption of a framework for product design and process reconfiguration. In fact, the core consists of the description of the Design GuideLines Collaborative Framework (DGLs-CF), a methodological approach that generates a collaborative environment where designers, manufacturers and inspectors can find the right and effective meeting point to share their knowledge and skills in order to contribute to the optimum generation of quality products.

This book studies storage policies in warehousing systems and maintenance-support strategies for critical operational systems in warehouses, which are the most important issues affecting operational efficiency of warehousing systems. It expands on the theory of class-based storage by considering a finite number of items in store, and also introduces the maintenance-support strategy founded on performance-based contract theory. It is a valuable resource for researchers, practitioners and engineers in the fields of industrial engineering, operations management, operations research and management science.

The book is a selection of invited chapters, all of which deal with various aspects of mathematical and statistical models and methods in reliability. Written by renowned experts in the field of reliability, the contributions cover a wide range of applications, reflecting recent developments in areas such as survival analysis, aging, lifetime data analysis, artificial intelligence, medicine, carcinogenesis studies, nuclear power, financial modeling, aircraft engineering, quality control, and transportation.

"Mathematical and Statistical Models and Methods in Reliability" is an excellent reference text for researchers and practitioners in applied probability and statistics, industrial statistics, engineering, medicine, finance, transportation, the oil and gas industry, and artificial intelligence.

Integral processes with dead time are frequently encountered in the process industry; typical examples include supply chains, level control and batch distillation columns. Special attention must be paid to their control because they lack asymptotic stability (they are not self-regulating) and because of their delays. As a result, many techniques have been devised to cope with these hurdles both in the context of single-degree-of-freedom (proportional-integral-differential (PID)) and two-degree-of-freedom control schemes.

Control of Integral Processes with Dead Time provides a unified and coherent review of the various approaches devised for the control of integral processes, addressing the problem from different standpoints. In particular, the book treats the following topics:

how to tune a PID controller and assess its performance;

how to design a two-degree-of-freedom control scheme in order to deal with both the set-point following and load disturbance rejection tasks;

how to modify the basic Smith predictor control scheme in order to cope with the presence of an integrator in the process; and

how to address the presence of large process dead times.

The methods are presented sequentially, highlighting the evolution of their rationale and implementation and thus clearly characterising them from both academic and industrial perspectives. Control of Integral Processes with Dead Time will serve academic researchers in systems with dead time both as a reference and stimulus for new ideas for further work and will help industry-based control and process engineers to solve their control problems using the most suitable technique and achieving the best cost: benefit ratio."

In continuation of the FRINGE Workshop Series this Proceeding contains all contributions presented at the 7. International Workshop on Advanced Optical Imaging and Metrology. The FRINGE Workshop Series is dedicated to the presentation, discussion and dissemination of recent results in Optical Imaging and Metrology. Topics of particular interest for the 7. Workshop are: - New methods and tools for the generation, acquisition, processing, and evaluation of data in Optical Imaging and Metrology (digital wavefront engineering, computational imaging, model-based reconstruction, compressed sensing, inverse problems solution) - Application-driven technologies in Optical Imaging and Metrology (high-resolution, adaptive, active, robust, reliable, flexible, in-line, real-time) - High-dynamic range solutions in Optical Imaging and Metrology (from macro to nano) - Hybrid technologies in Optical Imaging and Metrology (hybrid optics, sensor and data fusion, model-based solutions, multimodality) - New optical sensors, imaging and measurement systems (integrated, miniaturized, in-line, real-time, traceable, remote) Special emphasis is put on new strategies, taking into account the active combination of physical modeling, computer aided simulation and experimental data acquisition. In particular attention is directed towards new approaches for the extension of existing resolution limits that open the gates to wide-scale metrology, ranging from macro to nano, by considering dynamic changes and using advanced optical imaging and sensor systems.

Focusing on the theory and applications of point processes, Point Processes for Reliability Analysis naturally combines classical results on the basic and advanced properties of point processes with recent theoretical findings of the authors. It also presents numerous examples that illustrate how general results and approaches are applied to stochastic description of repairable systems and systems operating in a random environment modelled by shock processes. The real life objects are operating in a changing, random environment. One of the ways to model an impact of this environment is via the external shocks occurring in accordance with some stochastic point processes. The Poisson (homogeneous and nonhomogeneous) process, the renewal process and their generalizations are considered as models for external shocks affecting an operating system. At the same time these processes model the consecutive failure/repair times of repairable engineering systems. Perfect, minimal and intermediate (imperfect) repairs are discussed in this respect. Covering material previously available only in the journal literature, Point Processes for Reliability Analysis provides a survey of recent developments in this area which will be invaluable to researchers and advanced students in reliability engineering and applied mathematics.

The pace of development in knowledge and know-how in the Organisation Sciences, Logistics and Information Technology is rapid. However, the gap between those who practice these sciences and the practicing manager is becoming larger rather than smaller. The Delft Systems Approach sets out to close the gap between theory and practice, and to achieve the following goals:

• To improve the conception of a design in order to obtain a better match between expected and real operation of a (future) industrial system.
• To integrate structural and behavioural conceptions of a system to be designed.
• To support the communication between different specialists, both being involved in the same processes and projects.
• To guide managers in applying this knowledge to the problems with which they are confronted in practice.
• To communicate knowledge and understanding of that part of Systems Theory, which will enable managers to further improve their performance and/or to reduce their workload.

The Delft Systems Approach is divided into three parts. Part I principally describes a fundamental approach for analysing industrial systems, which emphasizes a concept that can be used by all disciplines involved, and makes a logical systematic combination of quantitative and qualitative modelling. This approach is used for the analysis of industrial systems. Part II is concerned with the use of these models in the design of (future) systems. Finally, Part III contains three comprehensive cases from the authorsa (TM) own practical experiences. All theoretical concepts are directly illustrated with a practical example.

This book deals with a novel and practical advanced method for control of tandem cold metal rolling processes based on the emerging state-dependent Riccati equation technique. After a short history of tandem cold rolling, various types of cold rolling processes are described. A basic mathematical model of the process is discussed, and the diverse conventional control methods are compared. A detailed treatment of the theoretical and practical aspects of the state-dependent algebraic Riccati equation technique is given, with specific details of the new procedure described and results of simulations performed to verify the control model and overall system performance with the new controller coupled to the process model included. These results and data derived from actual operating mills are compared showing the improvements in performance using the new method. Material is included which shows how the new technique can be extended to the control of a broad range of large-scale complex nonlinear processes.

Supervision, condition-monitoring, fault detection, fault diagnosis and fault management play an increasing role for technical processes and vehicles in order to improve reliability, availability, maintenance and lifetime. For safety-related processes fault-tolerant systems with redundancy are required in order to reach comprehensive system integrity.

This book is a sequel of the book Fault-Diagnosis Systems published in 2006, where the basic methods were described. After a short introduction into fault-detection and fault-diagnosis methods the book shows how these methods can be applied for a selection of 20 real technical components and processes as examples, such as:

Electrical drives (DC, AC)

Electrical actuators

Fluidic actuators (hydraulic, pneumatic)

Centrifugal and reciprocating pumps

Pipelines (leak detection)

Industrial robots

Machine tools (main and feed drive, drilling, milling, grinding)

Heat exchangers

Also realized fault-tolerant systems for electrical drives, actuators and sensors are presented.

The book describes why and how the various signal-model-based and process-model-based methods were applied and which experimental results could be achieved. In several cases a combination of different methods was most successful.

The book is dedicated to graduate students of electrical, mechanical, chemical engineering and computer science and for engineers.

This book provides readers an understanding of the implementation of Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) for international construction operations. In an extended case study, it primarily focuses on Chinese construction firms (CCFs) based in Singapore. In this regard, the book explains the differences and similarities between Risk Management (RM), Project Risk Management (PRM) and ERM in the construction industry, and examines their linkages for international construction operations in a broader context. The explanation elaborates on how companies may adopt and implement RM, PRM and ERM as appropriate in their various operations, both in their home market as well as in overseas host markets. The book also reviews the whole spectrum of work relating to organizational behavior (OB) as one of the key underpinnings for companies to evaluate and implement ERM. It will benefit practitioners from the industry as well as academics interested in the implementation of ERM practices in international construction operations.

This book aims to give readers a basic understanding of commonly used additive manufacturing techniques as well as the tools to fully utilise the strengths of additive manufacturing through the modelling and design phase all the way through to post processing. Guidelines for 3D-printed biomedical implants are also provided. Current biomedical applications of 3D printing are discussed, including indirect applications in the rapid manufacture of prototype tooling and direct applications in the orthopaedics, cardiovascular, drug delivery, ear-nose-throat, and tissue engineering fields. Polymer-Based Additive Manufacturing: Biomedical Applications is an ideal resource for students, researchers, and those working in industry seeking to better understand the medical applications of additive manufacturing.

Quality control in pharmaceutical products and medical devices is vital for users as failing to comply with national and international regulations can lead to accidents that could easily be avoided. For this reason, manufacturing a quality medical product will support patient safety. Microbiologists working in both the pharmaceutical and medical device industries face considerable challenges in keeping abreast of the myriad microbiological references available to them and the continuously evolving regulatory requirements. Quality Control Applications in the Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Manufacturing Industry presents the importance of quality control in pharmaceutical products and medical devices, which must have very high-quality standards to not cause problems to the health of patients. It reinforces and updates the knowledge of analytical, instrumental, and biological methods to demonstrate the correct quality control and good manufacturing practice for pharmaceutical products and medical devices. Covering topics such as pharmaceutical nano systems, machine learning, and software validation, this book is an essential resource for managers, engineers, supervisors, pharmacists, chemists, academicians, and researchers.

Non destructive testing aimed at monitoring, structural identification and di- nostics is of strategic importance in many branches of civil and mechanical - gineering. This type of tests is widely practiced and directly affects topical issues regarding the design of new buildings and the repair and monitoring of existing ones. The load bearing capacity of a structure can now be evaluated using well established mechanical modelling methods aided by computing facilities of great capability. However, to ensure reliable results, models must be calibrated with - curate information on the characteristics of materials and structural components. To this end, non destructive techniques are a useful tool from several points of view. Particularly, by measuring structural response, they provide guidance on the validation of structural descriptions or of the mathematical models of material behaviour. Diagnostic engineering is a crucial area for the application of non destructive testing methods. Repeated tests over time can indicate the emergence of p- sible damage occurring during the structure's lifetime and provide quantitative estimates of the level of residual safety.

The Toolset is a comprehensive collection of the relevant Design for Six Sigma+Lean tools, which are necessary for successfully implementing innovations. All tools are presented in a clear structure, providing a good overview of the methodology.

The chronology of the listed tools corresponds to the procedure in a Design for Six Sigma+Lean development project with the stages Define, Measure, Analyze, Design, and Verify. Due to this unique structure by which tools can be found and applied quickly we created a book that facilitates project work in practical use enormously.

Migrating from a tool based approach to a question based approach is a decisive success factor in our opinion enabling firstly, increased efficiency of project work for the Project Leader, his team and the associated Stakeholders, and secondly, significantly increasing the probability of success for the respective innovation projects.

In this probing critique of aviation security since 9/11, Andrew R. Thomas, a globally recognized aviation security expert, examines the recent overhaul of the national aviation security system.
Despite the complete federal takeover of aviation security in November 2001, Thomas notes many continuing problems, including: millions of passenger bags that are still not screened or matched; the unresolved problem of air rage and unruly passenger behavior; the "forgotten chasm" of air cargo, which remains largely unchecked due to inadequate resources; and lax standards, the hiring of high-risk employees, and the failure to secure critical areas in many of our nation's airports.
Thomas also considers many of the proposed solutions to these vulnerabilities: biometrics, profiling, air marshals, bomb-detection devices, and smart technology that links reservations systems to private and government databases. How practical are these proposals? Will they work? What will they cost? How much time will be needed to implement any or all of them? In light of the restructuring of airline security, what new roles will be played by the airline industry, government, airports, and the Transportation Security Administration? Thomas's thorough analysis and command of all the facts create an enlightening overview of the airline security dilemma and its numerous formidable challenges.
Finally, he considers the future, outlining a strategic approach for government and industry to meet new and existing threats while continuing to serve the public in an efficient manner.

In this global wake-up call, nuclear physicist Jeff Eerkens explores remedies for the impending energy crisis, when oil and natural gas are depleted. The Nuclear Imperative demonstrates that solar, wind, and biomass power are incapable of supplying the enormous quantities of electricity and heat needed for manufacturing portable synthetic fuels to replace our current use of fossil fuels. It offers a fresh look at uranium-produced energy as the optimal affordable solution.

To be able to compete successfully both at national and international levels, production systems and equipment must perform at levels not even thinkable a decade ago. Requirements for increased product quality, reduced throughput time and enhanced operating effectiveness within a rapidly changing customer demand environment continue to demand a high maintenance performance. In some cases, maintenance is required to increase operational effectiveness and revenues and customer satisfaction while reducing capital, operating and support costs. This may be the largest challenge facing production enterprises these days. For this, maintenance strategy is required to be aligned with the production logistics and also to keep updated with the current best practices. Maintenance has become a multidisciplinary activity and one may come across situations in which maintenance is the responsibility of people whose training is not engineering. This handbook aims to assist at different levels of understanding whether the manager is an engineer, a production manager, an experienced maintenance practitioner or a beginner. Topics selected to be included in this handbook cover a wide range of issues in the area of maintenance management and engineering to cater for all those interested in maintenance whether practitioners or researchers. This handbook is divided into 6 parts and contains 26 chapters covering a wide range of topics related to maintenance management and engineering.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th IFIP WG 5.5 International Precision Assembly Seminar, IPAS 2012, held in Chamonix, France, in February 2012. The 15 revised full papers were carefully reviewed and selected from numerous submissions. The papers are organized into the following topical sections: micro processes and systems; handling and manipulation in assembly; tolerance management and error compensation methods; metrology and quality control; intelligent control of assembly systems; and process selection and modelling techniques.

This book examines pedestrian shoe-floor slip resistance from an engineering standpoint in order to better understand friction and wear behavior. This analysis includes an extensive investigation into the surface properties of shoes and flow, and the measurement of dynamic friction and other mechanical and physical aspects of shoe-floor tribology. Lastly, the book proposes a measurement concept for the identification and classification of operational floor surfaces under a range of different conditions. Novel techniques and methods are proposed that can improve the reliability of slip resistance assessments. The current state of knowledge is critically examined and discussed from a tribological perspective, including aspects like friction, wear, lubrication and the mechanical behavior of shoes, floors and their wider environment. Further, the book reports on extensive experimental investigations into the topographical characteristics of shoe and floor surfaces and how they affect slip resistance. Slips resulting in pedestrian falls are a major cause of injuries and deaths for all age groups. This important book provides essential insights for researchers, practicing engineers and public safety officials wishing to learn about how the risk of pedestrian slips can be assessed and understood.

This book contains advanced-level research material in the area of lubrication theory and related aspects, presented by eminent researchers during the International Conference on Advances in Tribology and Engineering Systems (ICATES 2013) held at Gujarat Technological University, Ahmedabad, India during October 15 17, 2013. The material in this book represents the advanced field of tribology and reflects the work of many eminent researchers from both India and abroad. The treatment of the presentations is the result of the contributions of several professionals working in the industry and academia. This book will be useful for students, researchers, academicians, and professionals working in the area of tribology, in general, and bearing performance characteristics, in particular, especially from the point-of-view of design. This book will also appeal to researchers and professionals working in fluid-film lubrication and other practical applications of tribology. A wide range of topics has been included despite space and time constraints. Basic concepts and fundamentals techniques have been emphasized upon, while also including highly specialized topics and methods (such as nanotribology, bio-nanotribology). Care has been taken to generate interest for a wide range of readers, considering the interdisciplinary nature of the subject."

Innovative Management in Information and Production is based on the proceedings of the Third International Symposium on Innovative Management, Information and Production. This symposium is held by International Society of Management Engineers. The symposium took place on October 8-10, in HCMC, Vietnam. This book examines recent innovative management of information and productions such as digital collection management and operations planning, scheduling and control.

The book is concerned with production planning problems arising in the context of make-to-order assembly. After introducing the general decision context, a survey of the relevant literature in the fields of assembly management, make-to-order manufacturing, and project scheduling is given. The main part of the book provides a hierarchical planning approach with three levels: order selection, manufacturing planning, and operations scheduling. The decision problem of each level is carefully elaborated and stated in terms of a mathematical programme. Suited solution procedures such as list scheduling, tabu search, and linear programming are proposed and experimentally tested.

This study presents exploratory work and seeks to identify and evaluate the success and failure factors that could form a guideline for further study and to some extent help professionals to understand some critical aspects that impact project performance concerning construction in India. A total of 55 attributes affecting the performance of construction projects are analysed in terms of their level of influence on four key performance criteria - schedule, cost, quality, and no disputes - using a two-stage questionnaire survey. These attributes are then further analysed, interpreted and evaluated. Based on the critical success factors obtained from the study, a neural network model-based predictive model for project performance has been developed. The performance prediction models have been derived for all four project performance criteria. Further, a hypothesis that 'project success' is influenced by 'success traits' has also been formulated. The hypothesized positive inter-relationships between success traits and project success have been tested using the structural equation modelling technique. Besides supporting the intuition of past researchers in recognizing 'coordination' as a key success factor, this study has revealed that coordination is not an isolated and independent activity, but is a typical management function with an inherent role in all major management activities. Key elements affecting coordination have also been identified and their influence on coordination effort has been studied. Furthermore, the present study has also identified three broad skill groups required of effective project coordinators. The results are validated through case studies of live projects and structured interviews with experts in the field of construction management.

In today's global economy, supply chains are an essential ingredient to corporate survival and growth. Operations strategy in supply chains must assume an ever-expanding and strategic role of risks that modern enterprises face when they operate in an interdependent supply chain environment. These operational and strategic facets entail a brand new set of operational problems and risks that have not always been understood or managed very well. It falls to supply chain managers to identify and to educate corporate managers on what these critical operational problems and risks involve. This book provides business students and practitioners with the means to understand, to model and to analyze these outstanding issues and problems that are the essential elements in managing supply chains today. This book will consider these problems in depth and draw essential conclusions regarding their management in supply chains. As a textbook treatment, it will examine traditional operational problems, expressing them in a strategic context, understanding their complexity, and recognizing their interdependency with other firms within a supply-chain environment. Used throughout the book will be application examples that illustrate all the aspects of dealing with and solving these kinds of problems. The content of SUPPLY CHAIN GAMES: Operations Management and Risk Valuation is presented in three sections, each of which will emphasize important facets of supply chain management operations. (1) Supply chains and operations modeling and management section will provide static and time models and their gradual extension to a supply chain environment. The section will give special attention tothe new concerns and issues at this level of analysis. (2) Inter-temporal supply chain management section will address this aspect as differential games. The differential games will be presented as natural continuous-time extensions of static models so that the effect of various types of dynamics on supply chains can be assessed and insights can be developed. (3) Risk and supply chain management section will deal with risk and supply chains as well as providing numerous applications regarding the management of interdependent operations and quality in a supply chain environment.