There is a wide consensus that introduction of technology to the production process contributes to an overall economic value, however, confusion between technology, knowledge and capital often makes value calculations ambiguous and non-objective. The Contribution of Technology to Added Value addresses not only this issue of definition but also provides a production model to assess the value contribution of technology within the production process. A clarification of fundamental semantics provides a significant taxonomy for technology dependence, and allows understanding and modeling of how knowledge, technology and capital individually contribute to production and to value adding. A new technology dependence taxonomy is proposed and assessed following chapters explaining growth models, the KTC model and technology index values. Balancing theoretical knowledge with real-world data and applications The Contribution of Technology to Added Value clarifies the issue of value adding for a range of different viewpoints and purposes; from academic to industry and service across engineering, economics and management.

This book focuses on new developments in polytopic projects, particularly on implementation domains and case studies, as well as high-dimensional methodology. Polytopic projects are based on a general reference architecture inspired and shared by the functional organization of organisms and enterprises as informational and cognitive systems, the scientific and engineering methodology and the operational structure of existing self-evolvable and self-sustainable systems.

Considering the overall situation of the current pandemic and pertinent recommendations, this book focuses on the use of augmented reality (AR) applications for preventing COVID-19 outbreaks along with techniques, tools, and platforms to achieve social distancing.and sanitization. COVID-19 Public Health Measures: An Augmented Reality Perspective contains theoretical and practical knowledge of AR and remedies on how to cope with the pandemic, including multiple use cases along with a set of recommendations. This book illustrates application building using open-source software with an interactive interface to aid impaired users. The initial part of this book emphasizes the basic knowledge of AR, technology, devices, and rest of the relevant theories. This book is aimed at researchers, students of AR, technical healthcare professionals, and practitioners. Key Features: * Consists of an extensive introduction to the terminologies and components of AR * Provides in-depth knowledge of various tools and techniques used in AR * Introduces various platforms and software development kits (SDKs) such as Unity Engine, Unreal Engine, and Vuforia * Gives a step-by-step guide for the development of an AR app * Describes how AR can be used specifically by impaired users not only in the situation of current pandemic but also in normal situations thus simplifying day-to-day activities

With an updated edition including new material in additional chapters, this one-of-a-kind handbook covers not only current standardization efforts, but also anthropometry and optimal working postures, ergonomic human computer interactions, legal protection, occupational health and safety, and military human factor principles. While delineating the crucial role that standards and guidelines play in facilitating the design of advantageous working conditions to enhance individual performance, the handbook suggests ways to expand opportunities for global economic and ergonomic development. This book features: Guidance on the design of work systems including tasks, equipment, and workspaces as well as the work environment in relation to human capacities and limitations Emphasis on important human factors and ergonomic standards that can be utilized to improve product and process to ensure efficiency and safety A focus on quality control to ensure that standards are met throughout the worldwide market

This textbook draws on the authors' experience gained by teaching courses for engineering students on e.g. vehicle mechanics, vehicle system design, and chassis design; and on their practical experience as engineering designers for vehicle and chassis components at a major automotive company. The book is primarily intended for students of automotive engineering, but also for all technicians and designers working in this field. Other enthusiastic engineers will also find it to be a useful technical guide. The present volume (The Automotive Chassis - Volume 1: Component Design) focuses on automotive chassis components, such as:* the structure, which is usually a ladder framework and supports all the remaining components of the vehicle;* the suspension for the mechanical linkage of the wheels;* the wheels and tires;* the steering system;* the brake system; and* the transmission system, used to apply engine torque to the driving wheels. This thoroughly revised and updated second edition presents recent developments, particularly in brake, steering, suspension and transmission subsystems. Special emphasis is given to modern control systems and control strategies.

This book introduces readers to the core principles and methodologies of product development, and highlights the interactions between engineering design and industrial design. It shows to what extent the two cultures can be reconciled, and conversely what makes each of them unique. Although the semantic aspect is fundamental in industrial design, while the functional aspect is essential for the industrial product, the interaction between the two worlds is strategically vital. Design is also a strategic problem-solving process that drives innovation, builds business success and leads to better quality of life through innovative products, systems, services and experiences. The book connects product development with the concepts and strategies of innovation, recognizing that product design is a complex process in which invention, consumers' role, industrial technologies, economics and the social sciences converge. After presenting several examples of artifacts developed up to the conceptual phase or built as prototypes, the book provides a case study on a packaging machine, showcasing the principles that should underlie all design activities, and the methods that must be employed to successfully establish a design process. The book is primarily targeted at professionals in the industry, design engineers and industrial designers, as well as researchers and students in design schools, though it will also benefit any reader interested in product design.

The aim of Mechano-Electric Correlations in the Human Physiological System is to present the mechanical and electrical properties of human soft tissues and the mathematical models related to the evaluation of these properties in time, as well as their biomedical applications. This book also provides an overview of the bioelectric signals of soft tissues from various parts of the human body. In addition, this book presents the basic dielectric and viscoelastic characteristics of soft tissues, an introduction to the measurement and characteristics of bioelectric signals and their relationship with the mechanical activity, electromyography and the correlation of electromyograms with the muscle activity in normal and certain clinical conditions. The authors also present a case study on the effect of lymphatic filariasis on the mechanical and electrical activity of the muscle. Features: Explains the basics of electrical and mechanical properties of soft tissues in time and frequency domain along with the mathematical models of soft tissue mechanics Explores the correlation of electrical properties with the mechanical properties of biological soft tissues using computational techniques Provides a detailed introduction to electrophysiological signals along with the types, applications, properties, problems and associated mathematical models Explains the electromechanics of muscles using electromyography recordings from various muscles of the human physiological system Presents a case study on the effect of lymphatic filariasis on the mechanical and electrical activity of the muscle Mechano-Electric Correlations in the Human Physiological System is intended for biomedical engineers, researchers and medical scientists as well graduate and undergraduate students working on the mechanical properties of soft tissues.

This book promotes an understanding of the purposeful muddling that health care workers rely on to be better able to function and operate in the multitude of complex ecosystems we call "health care." The book argues the case for the importance of recognising and understanding muddling behaviours, practices and activities in order to create resilient care. The book demonstrates how resilient health care principles can enable managers as well as those on the frontlines to work more effectively towards interdisciplinary care by gaining a deeper understanding of real-world practices that manifest in everyday clinical settings. This is done by presenting a set of case studies, theoretical chapters and applications that relate experiences, bring forth ideas and illustrate practical solutions. Primarily aimed at people who are directly involved in the running and improvement of health care systems, it provides practical guidance. It is also of direct interest to health care professionals in clinical and managerial positions as well as researchers. Jeffrey Braithwaite is Founding Director of the Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Professor of Health Systems Research and Director of the Centre for Healthcare Resilience and Implementation Science, Macquarie University (Australia). His research examines the changing nature of complex health systems and he has received over 50 different national and international awards for his teaching and research. Erik Hollnagel is Senior Professor of Patient Safety at Joenkoeping University (Sweden). He is a highly regarded international expert with significant contributions to a variety of fields ranging from nuclear power generation, aerospace and aviation to industry, transportation and, most notably, health care. Garthe Hunte is a Clinical Professor and Emergency Physician holding multiple academic and clinical leadership appointments across Canada. His research programme centres around how safety is created in complex socio-technical systems, and in the application of resilience engineering in health care.

The mathematical description of the properties of a shell is much more elaborate than those of beam and plate structures. Therefore many engineers and architects are unacquainted with aspects of shell behaviour and design, and are not familiar with sufficiently reliable shell theories for the different shell types as derived in the middle of the 20th century. Rather than contributing to theory development, this university textbook focuses on architectural and civil engineering schools. Of course, practising professionals will profit from it as well. The book deals with thin elastic shells, in particular with cylindrical, conical and spherical types, and with elliptic and hyperbolic paraboloids. The focus is on roofs, chimneys, pressure vessels and storage tanks. Special attention is paid to edge bending disturbance zones, which is indispensable knowledge in FE meshing. A substantial part of the book results from research efforts in the mid 20th century at Delft University of Technology. As such, it is a valuable addition to the body of shell research literature of continuing importance. This work can be used for university courses. It also shows professionals how to perform manual calculations of the main force flow in shell structures, and provides guidance for structural engineers estimating stresses and deformations.

A continually evolving discipline, human reliability assessment (HRA) has elements of controversy from the definition of terms to the application of appropriate methods for the representation of human failure probability. The idea that human error is a random event is falling out of favor and the concept that humans can be set up to fail or succeed depending on context is gaining credibility. An in-depth exploration of current theories, Human Reliability Assessment Theory and Practice demonstrates how to model, change, and apply new approaches to a number of different high-risk industries. The book covers data and data sources, choice of methods, training of individuals, use of simulators for HRA purposes, and the relationship between psychology, human factors, accident analyses, and human reliability. Author Anthony Spurgin has been in the forefront of HRA development for the past 20 years and has contributed to developing human reliability methods and tools that have been applied to the enhancement of nuclear power plant and space vehicle safety. He explores reactor performance and the demands it makes on operators to ensure plant safety. He also covers the roles of plant management in the decision-making applied to both design and operation. The book includes a number of accident studies that illustrate the key roles of operators and managers in accident mitigation and control. The heart of HRA will always be to find creative ways of helping designers, management, operators, and authorities increase the safety and profitability of technological systems. Drawing on his personal experience, Spurgin reviews HRA from the viewpoint of the operator. The book uses examples from the nuclear industry, always on the forefront of safety, and translates how to apply the concepts to other high risk industries.

In this new work, Arthur O. Eger and Huub Ehlhardt present a 'Theory of Product Evolution'. They challenge the popular notion that we owe the availability of products solely to genius inventors. Instead, they present arguments that show that a process of variation, selection, and accumulation of 'know-how' (to make) and 'know-what' (function to realize) provide an explanation for the emergence of new types of products and their subsequent development into families of advanced versions. This theory employs a product evolution diagram as an analytical framework to reconstruct the development history of a product family and picture it as a graphical narrative. The authors describe the relevant literature and case studies to place their theory in context. The 'Product Phases Theory' is used to create predictions on the most likely next step in the evolution of a product, offering practical tools for those involved in new product development.

This book is about how to be a design academic. In another words, how to manage the various challenges, requirements, and processes that come with both the everyday and extra-ordinary parts of an academic role in design fields (from architecture, urban design, interior design and landscape architecture, to fashion, industrial, interaction and graphic design). The book is organised in two parts - Part 1, Starting out and Part 2, Becoming a Leader. It includes real-life experiences of actual academics and offers a wide range of experiences of authors from early career researchers to full professors and heads of schools. It contains all aspects of academic life, including the highs and lows of teaching, research, leadership, and managing your working life and your career. This book is perfect for academics, aspiring academics, and research students in a wide range of design fields.

The key to success and reaching peak performance is integrating three processes to optimize business through the use of human performance improvement tools, lean thinking, operational excellence, along with a strong organizational culture as the underpinning. These components form the basis of the Peak Performance Model. The tools presented in this book, along with the case studies, demonstrate how the model is applied and integrated into company practices. Companies and organizations want to improve their performance, but many have not integrated the right tools and processes. Through the application of the Peak Performance Model, every company can achieve and sustain Peak Performance.

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.

This book discusses all spacecraft attitude control-related topics: spacecraft (including attitude measurements, actuator, and disturbance torques), modeling, spacecraft attitude determination and estimation, and spacecraft attitude controls. Unlike other books addressing these topics, this book focuses on quaternion-based methods because of its many merits. The book lays a brief, but necessary background on rotation sequence representations and frequently used reference frames that form the foundation of spacecraft attitude description. It then discusses the fundamentals of attitude determination using vector measurements, various efficient (including very recently developed) attitude determination algorithms, and the instruments and methods of popular vector measurements. With available attitude measurements, attitude control designs for inertial point and nadir pointing are presented in terms of required torques which are independent of actuators in use. Given the required control torques, some actuators are not able to generate the accurate control torques, therefore, spacecraft attitude control design methods with achievable torques for these actuators (for example, magnetic torque bars and control moment gyros) are provided. Some rigorous controllability results are provided. The book also includes attitude control in some special maneuvers, such as orbital-raising, docking and rendezvous, that are normally not discussed in similar books. Almost all design methods are based on state-spaced modern control approaches, such as linear quadratic optimal control, robust pole assignment control, model predictive control, and gain scheduling control. Applications of these methods to spacecraft attitude control problems are provided. Appendices are provided for readers who are not familiar with these topics.

Advances in engineering precision have tracked with technological progress for hundreds of years. Over the last few decades, precision engineering has been the specific focus of research on an international scale. The outcome of this effort has been the establishment of a broad range of engineering principles and techniques that form the foundation of precision design. Today's precision manufacturing machines and measuring instruments represent highly specialised processes that combine deterministic engineering with metrology. Spanning a broad range of technology applications, precision engineering principles frequently bring together scientific ideas drawn from mechanics, materials, optics, electronics, control, thermo-mechanics, dynamics, and software engineering. This book provides a collection of these principles in a single source. Each topic is presented at a level suitable for both undergraduate students and precision engineers in the field. Also included is a wealth of references and example problems to consolidate ideas, and help guide the interested reader to more advanced literature on specific implementations.

This book presents a set of tools that will aid in deciding whether a project should go ahead, be improved, or abandoned altogether by pinpointing its vulnerabilities. It offers a review of project feasibility analysis, and more critically, psychodynamic aspects that are often neglected, including how stakeholders interact. It provides a complement to the common techniques used for analyzing technical, financial, and marketing feasibility. The goal is to identify "hidden truths" and eliminate those gray areas that jeopardize the success of a given project. The focus is on uncovering points of vulnerabilities in four key aspects of a project: People, Power, Processes, and Plan.

This handy book provides a single, up-to-date source of information for increasing the life of tool steels through optimized design and manufacturing. Supplying a solid understanding of the metallurgy involved, the text explains how material compositions, manufacturing processes, heat treatments, surface hardening techniques, and coatings affect tool steel properties, grades, and performance. It also explores real-life case studies and failure analyses, offering examples of die-life parameters and hints for modifying tool steels and heat treatments during cutting or forming processes. While the book offers deep coverage of properties, microstructure, and manufacturing, its focus is on describing the performance of each application of this special class of ferrous materials. Provides a single, up-to-date source of information for increasing the life of tool steels through optimized design and manufacturing. Explains how material compositions, manufacturing processes, heat treatments, surface hardening techniques, and coatings affect tool steel properties, grades, and performance. Supplies a solid understanding of the metallurgy involved in tool steel manufacturing, machining, hot and cold working, and molding. Offers examples of die-life parameters and hints for modifying tool steels and heat treatments during cutting or forming processes. Includes real-life case studies and failure analyses from the Villares Metals plant in Brazil.

The robotic mechanism and its controller make a complete system. As the robotic mechanism is reconfigured, the control system has to be adapted accordingly. The need for the reconfiguration usually arises from the changing functional requirements. This book will focus on the adaptive control of robotic manipulators to address the changed conditions. The aim of the book is to summarise and introduce the state-of-the-art technologies in the field of adaptive control of robotic manipulators in order to improve the methodologies on the adaptive control of robotic manipulators. Advances made in the past decades are described in the book, including adaptive control theories and design, and application of adaptive control to robotic manipulators.

As robots are used more and more to perform a variety of tasks in a range of fields, it is imperative to make the robots as reliable and safe as possible. Yet no book currently covers robot reliability and safety within one framework. Robot System Reliability and Safety: A Modern Approach presents up-to-date information on robot reliability, safety, and related areas in a single volume, eliminating the need to consult diverse sources. After introducing historical, mathematical, and introductory aspects, the book presents methods for analyzing robot system reliability and safety. It next focuses on topics related to robot reliability, including classifications of robot failures and their causes and hydraulic and electric robots' reliability analysis. The book then explains the analysis of robot-related safety and accidents, covers key elements of robot maintenance and robotics applications in maintenance and repair, and addresses human factors and safety considerations in robotics workplaces. The book concludes with chapters on robot testing, costing, and failure data as well as six mathematical models for reliability and safety analysis. Written by a well-known expert in reliability engineering, this book will be useful to system, design, reliability, and safety engineers along with other engineering professionals working in the area of robotics. It can also be used in courses on system engineering, reliability engineering, and safety engineering.

The moment of truth-that instant when consumers experience and judge service quality-is often a deciding factor in business success. Designing Service Excellence: People and Technology provides practical information on the design, management, and organization of many different types of service industries, such as hotels, restaurants, banks and financial institutions, retail, and the public sector. The authors investigate the consumers' experience and judgment on service quality, which ultimately determines the success or failure of the service. They then consider people, usability, and technology in the automation of high-quality service. This research-driven book identifies service-in a variety of forms-as an area of business and management where rapid change is taking place. The authors examine how service has become a balance between people and technology and explore this relationship as one of the key drivers of change. They discuss how social, cultural, and technological developments influence the ways in which customers contact, negotiate, and purchase services from their chosen service providers. These same developments are also driving communications between customers relating to the services they buy and are willing to recommend to others (or otherwise). Intermingled, these features of our current-day lives have changed the nature of service provision and service use. When your organization has its moment of truth, how will it measure up? Organizations whose business has service at its core and whose activities focus mainly on service design, management, and delivery are likely to find increasingly that, for survival, service is a matter of life or death. This book provides a deep understanding of the relationship between people and technology along with an ergonomic approach to the design and management of service delivery that helps you deliver the value and benefits that customers not only want, but increasingly come to expect.

In a presentation that formalizes what makes up decision based design, Decision Based Design defines the major concepts that go into product realization. It presents all major concepts in design decision making in an integrated way and covers the fundamentals of decision analysis in engineering design. It also trains engineers to understand the impacts of design decision. The author teaches concepts in demand modeling and customer preference modeling and provides examples. This book teaches most fundamental concepts encountered in engineering design like: concept generation, multiattribute decision analysis, reliability engineering, design optimization, simulation, and demand modeling. The book provides the tools engineering practitioners and researchers need to first understand that engineering design is best viewed as a sequence of decisions made by the stakeholders involved and then apply the decision based design concepts in practice. It teaches fundamental concepts encountered in engineering design, such as concept generation, multiattribute decision analysis, reliability engineering, design optimization, simulation, and demand modeling. This book helps students and practitioners understand that there is a rigorous way to analyze engineering decisions taking into consideration all the potential technical and business impacts of their decisions. It can be used in its entirety to teach a course in decision based design, while selected chapters can also be used to cover courses in subdisciplines that make up decision based design.

Applied Mechanics with SolidWorks aims to assist students, designers, engineers, and professionals interested in using SolidWorks to solve practical engineering mechanics problems. It utilizes CAD software, SolidWorks-based, to teach applied mechanics. SolidWorks here is presented as an alternative tool for solving statics and dynamics problems in applied mechanics courses.Readers can follow the steps described in each chapter to model parts and analyze them. A significant number of pictorial descriptions have been included to guide users through each stage, making it easy for readers to work through the text on their own.Instructional support videos showing the motions and results of the dynamical systems being analyzed and SolidWorks files for all problems solved are available to lecturers and instructors for free download.

Design for Global Challenges and Goals charts the developments, opportunities and challenges for design research in addressing global challenges facing developing contexts focusing on the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. The book explores the role that design and social responsibility play in the UN Sustainable Development Goals and how design works in developing contexts. It presents 10 design-led case studies addressing different Sustainable Development Goals ranging from reducing poverty and hunger, improving health and wellbeing, promoting gender equality, developing more sustainable cities and communities, encouraging more responsible consumption and production, and tackling climate change. Design for Global Challenges and Goals also addresses the future, offering foresight into the research in global challenges by identifying the opportunities and emerging trends for researchers. Providing a guide to the state of the art of design research that addresses the Sustainable Development Goals, this book will be of interest to researchers, practitioners and students who want their research to address global challenges.