Up-to-date documentation on the current scope of the research of Rapid Prototyping, Tooling and Manufacturing.

Explains and details the latest techniques and materials used for RP, RT and RM.

Develops methodologies and technologies to support in a customer-focused product design and mass customization approach to production.

"Engineering Design and Rapid Prototyping" offers insight into the methods and techniques that allow for easily implementing engineering designs by incorporating advanced methodologies and technologies. This book contains advanced topics such as feature-based design and process planning, modularity and rapid manufacturing, along with a collection of the latest methods and technologies currently being utilized in the field. The volume also: -Provides axiomatic design and solution methodologies for both design and manufacturing -Discusses product life cycle development and analysis for ease of manufacture and assembly -Offers applied methods and technologies in rapid prototyping, tooling and manufacturing "Engineering Design and Rapid Prototyping" will be extremely valuable for any engineers and researchers and students working in engineering design.

Modular products are products that fulfill various overall functions through the combination of distinct building blocks or modules, in the sense that the overall function performed by the product can be divided into sub-functions that can be implemented by different modules or components. An important aspect of modular products is the creation of a basic core unit to which different components (modules) can be fitted, thus enabling a variety of versions of the same module to be produced. The core should have sufficient capacity to cope with all expected variations in performance and usage. Components used in a modular product must have features that enable them to be coupled together to form a complex product. Modularity will promote: reduction in product development time; customization and upgrades; cost efficiencies due to amortization; quality design standardization; and reduction in order lead time. The purpose of this book is to develop a structured approach to the design of products using the concept of modularity, assembly, and manufacturability. The book has proposed and developed a structured and systematic approach to product and systems design using the modularity concept. Mathematical and genetic algorithm models are developed to support the developed methodology.

The current marketplace is undergoing an accelerated pace of change that challenges corporations to innovate new techniques to respond rapidly to an ever-changing environment. At the center of this changing environment is a new generation of empowered buyers (customers) equipped with fast evolving technologies that allow them to buy from markets scattered across the globe. Empowering the customers has deprived organizations of what was once their right-to introduce new products slowly, at their own leisure. Organizations used to introduce new products every few years, and, for the most part, products offered limited functionalities and features. A low-priced quality product-irrespective of customer satisfaction-was a guaranteed ticket for success. New global economies and global markets changed business practices and focused on the customer as the major player in the economy. Organizations now fail or succeed based upon their ability to respond quickly to changing customer demands and to utilize new technological innovations. In such an environment, the advantage goes to the firm that can offer greater varieties of new products with higher performance and greater overall appeal. In order to compete in this fast-paced global market, organizations need to produce products that can be easily configured to offer distinctive capabilities compared to the competition. Furthermore, organizations need to develop new methods and techniques to react rapidly to required changes in products and market trends and to shorten the product development cycle, which will enable them to gain more economic competitiveness."

With coverage that draws from diverse disciplines, Systems Engineering Tools and Methods demonstrates how, using integrated or concurrent engineering methods, you can empower development teams. Copiously illustrated with figures, charts, and graphs, the book offers methods, frameworks, techniques, and tools for designing, implementing, and managing large-scale systems and includes case studies that exhibit the effect of the systems engineering (SE) concept and its importance during the design and development of a complex system. These case studies provide realistic insights into SE methods. Emphasizing the importance of an integrated approach to the design life cycle of complex systems, the book stresses the relationship between SE and project management. It reviews the principles of functional analysis as design activities, discusses verification, validation, and testing (VV& T) methodologies and tools for complex systems, and presents a framework for assessing technology integration at the systems level. It also delineates the development of a business process reengineering plan based on one used for the restructuring, retraining, and redeployment of elements of the Kennedy Space Center workforce. The book includes examples of the design and development of several large complex systems from the DoD and NASA. Each system provides the backdrop for SE learning principles such as technical decision making, requirements definition, logistics support planning, verification, and risk mitigation. Discussions of a proposed integrated reliability management system for faster time-to-market electronics equipment, a new integrative approach to the allocation of adjustability, the importance of manufacturing with regard to designing components of a system, and methods and algorithms used in the solution of combinatorial optimization problems rounds out the coverage. Waste, inadequate system performance, cost overruns, and schedule problems often result from failure to apply advanced systems engineering early in project development. By applying the methods outlined here, you can anticipate and avoid these costly roadblocks when possible, and quickly mitigate their damaging effects when necessary.

Direct Engineering (DE) is the creation of a product development cycle into a single, unified process. The design process in most industries is an evolutionary one (i.e., incremental changes to some existing design). DE is a manufacturing process that seeks to improve the design processes by providing complete archival documentation of existing designs. It uses three-dimensional geometric models with integrated manufacturing information throughout the design process. DE reduces the design cycle, and the variety and number of engineering changes. This process decreases the design cycle time, increases productivity, and provides a higher quality product. The required technologies and methodologies that will support the development of the DE environment are: (1) product representation using feature-based modeling; (2) knowledge-based applications that will support the entire product development cycle; (3) an engineering environment implemented around distributed computing and object-oriented systems; (4) direct manufacturing techniques using rapid prototyping. Direct Engineering: Toward Intelligent Manufacturing addresses the following recent topics related to the development, implementation, and integration of the DE environment: (1) the current scope of the research in intelligent manufacturing; (2) the results of the technologies and tools developed for integrated product and process designs, and (3) examination of the methodologies and algorithms used for the implementation of direct engineering.

This book offers insights into the methods and techniques required to implement a consumer-focused product design philosophy. It does this by integrating capabilities for intelligent information support and group decision-making utilizing a common enterprise network model and knowledge interface through shared technologies. It includes discussion of applied methods developed in the field of the product design and gives the latest research results.

This superb study offers insights into the methods and techniques that enable the implementation of a Collaborative Engineering concept on product design. It does so by integrating capabilities for intelligent information support and group decision-making, utilizing a common enterprise network model and knowledge interface through shared ontologies. The book is also a collection of the latest applied methods and technology from selected experts in this area.

Mass Customization: A Supply Chain Approach is a text on the emerging topic of mass customization in manufacturing. The contributed chapters in this book provide a unified treatment to the topic by offering coverage in four main categories - concepts and current state of research; problem solving frameworks, models, and methodologies; supportive techniques and technologies for enabling mass customization; and future research agenda. The book blends theory and practice and includes prototypical applications to illustrate this complex, yet emerging field of inquiry.

As industries adopt consumer-focused product development strategies, they should offer broader product ranges in shorter design times and the processes that can manufacture in arbitrary lot sizes. In addition, they would need to apply state-of-the-art methods and tools to easily conduct early product design and development trade-off analysis among competing objectives. Methods in Product Design: New Strategies in Reengineering supplies insights into the methods and techniques that enable implementing a consumer-focused product design philosophy by integrating design and development capabilities with intelligent computer-based systems. The book defines customer focused design and discusses ways to assess changing demands and sources, and delves into what is needed to successfully manufacture goods in a demanding market. It reviews proven methods for assessing customer need. Then, after showing how changing needs impact the reengineering of products, it explains how change can be efficiently achieved. It details how IT advances and technology support customer-focused product development, discusses cutting-edge mass customization principles that maximize cost-effective production, and illustrates how to implement effective predictive maintenance policies. Methods in Product Design: New Strategies in Reengineering provides methods, state-of-the-art technologies, and new strategies for customer-focused product design and development that allow organizations to quickly respond to the demanding global marketplace.

"Intelligent Transportation and Evacuation Planning: A Modeling-Based Approach" provides a new paradigm for evacuation planning strategies and techniques. Recently, evacuation planning and modeling have increasingly attracted interest among researchers as well as government officials. This interest stems from the recent catastrophic hurricanes and weather-related events that occurred in the southeastern United States (Hurricane Katrina and Rita). The evacuation methods that were in place before and during the hurricanes did not work well and resulted in thousands of deaths. This book offers insights into the methods and techniques that allow for implementing mathematical-based, simulation-based, and integrated optimization and simulation-based engineering approaches for evacuation planning.

Up-to-date documentation on the current scope of the research of Rapid Prototyping, Tooling and Manufacturing. Explains and details the latest techniques and materials used for RP, RT and RM. Develops methodologies and technologies to support in a customer-focused product design and mass customization approach to production.

"Engineering Design and Rapid Prototyping" offers insight into the methods and techniques that allow for easily implementing engineering designs by incorporating advanced methodologies and technologies. This book contains advanced topics such as feature-based design and process planning, modularity and rapid manufacturing, along with a collection of the latest methods and technologies currently being utilized in the field. The volume also: -Provides axiomatic design and solution methodologies for both design and manufacturing -Discusses product life cycle development and analysis for ease of manufacture and assembly -Offers applied methods and technologies in rapid prototyping, tooling and manufacturing "Engineering Design and Rapid Prototyping" will be extremely valuable for any engineers and researchers and students working in engineering design.

"Intelligent Transportation and Evacuation Planning: A Modeling-Based Approach" provides a new paradigm for evacuation planning strategies and techniques. Recently, evacuation planning and modeling have increasingly attracted interest among researchers as well as government officials. This interest stems from the recent catastrophic hurricanes and weather-related events that occurred in the southeastern United States (Hurricane Katrina and Rita). The evacuation methods that were in place before and during the hurricanes did not work well and resulted in thousands of deaths. This book offers insights into the methods and techniques that allow for implementing mathematical-based, simulation-based, and integrated optimization and simulation-based engineering approaches for evacuation planning.

Direct Engineering (DE) is the creation of a product development cycle into a single, unified process. The design process in most industries is an evolutionary one (i.e., incremental changes to some existing design). DE is a manufacturing process that seeks to improve the design processes by providing complete archival documentation of existing designs. It uses three-dimensional geometric models with integrated manufacturing information throughout the design process. DE reduces the design cycle, and the variety and number of engineering changes. This process decreases the design cycle time, increases productivity, and provides a higher quality product. The required technologies and methodologies that will support the development of the DE environment are: (1) product representation using feature-based modeling; (2) knowledge-based applications that will support the entire product development cycle; (3) an engineering environment implemented around distributed computing and object-oriented systems; (4) direct manufacturing techniques using rapid prototyping. Direct Engineering: Toward Intelligent Manufacturing addresses the following recent topics related to the development, implementation, and integration of the DE environment: (1) the current scope of the research in intelligent manufacturing; (2) the results of the technologies and tools developed for integrated product and process designs, and (3) examination of the methodologies and algorithms used for the implementation of direct engineering.

The current marketplace is undergoing an accelerated pace of change that challenges corporations to innovate new techniques to respond rapidly to an ever-changing environment. At the center of this changing environment is a new generation of empowered buyers (customers) equipped with fast evolving technologies that allow them to buy from markets scattered across the globe. Empowering the customers has deprived organizations of what was once their right-to introduce new products slowly, at their own leisure. Organizations used to introduce new products every few years, and, for the most part, products offered limited functionalities and features. A low-priced quality product-irrespective of customer satisfaction-was a guaranteed ticket for success. New global economies and global markets changed business practices and focused on the customer as the major player in the economy. Organizations now fail or succeed based upon their ability to respond quickly to changing customer demands and to utilize new technological innovations. In such an environment, the advantage goes to the firm that can offer greater varieties of new products with higher performance and greater overall appeal. In order to compete in this fast-paced global market, organizations need to produce products that can be easily configured to offer distinctive capabilities compared to the competition. Furthermore, organizations need to develop new methods and techniques to react rapidly to required changes in products and market trends and to shorten the product development cycle, which will enable them to gain more economic competitiveness.

Mass Customization: A Supply Chain Approach is a text on the emerging topic of mass customization in manufacturing. The contributed chapters in this book provide a unified treatment to the topic by offering coverage in four main categories - concepts and current state of research; problem solving frameworks, models, and methodologies; supportive techniques and technologies for enabling mass customization; and future research agenda. The book blends theory and practice and includes prototypical applications to illustrate this complex, yet emerging field of inquiry.

As industry adopts a consumer focus in its product development strategy, it offers broader product ranges, shorter model lifetimes, and the ability to process orders in arbitrary lot sizes. This offers the ability to conduct early product design and development trade-off analysis among these competing objectives. The use of information technologies and networking capabilities is essential in the dissemination of product knowledge in order to integrate the decision-making process among heterogeneous and distributed partners / units. "Computer-based Design and Manufacturing" offers insights into the methods and techniques that enable implementing a consumer-focused product design philosophy by integrating capabilities for intelligent information support and group decision-making utilizing a common enterprise network model and knowledge interface through shared technologies.

The book will be a collection of the latest methods and state-of-the-art technologies in intelligent product and customer focused design. This book will offer:

- Discussion of applied methods developed in field of the product design

- Latest research results

- Discussion on the need and solutions for new engineering paradigm and philosophy required for product design

- Coverage of advances in information systems and technology in support of CFPD

- Discussion of how to use web-based design environments

This superb study offers insights into the methods and techniques that enable the implementation of a Collaborative Engineering concept on product design. It does so by integrating capabilities for intelligent information support and group decision-making, utilizing a common enterprise network model and knowledge interface through shared ontologies. The book is also a collection of the latest applied methods and technology from selected experts in this area.

Modular products are products that fulfill various overall functions through the combination of distinct building blocks or modules, in the sense that the overall function performed by the product can be divided into sub-functions that can be implemented by different modules or components. An important aspect of modular products is the creation of a basic core unit to which different components (modules) can be fitted, thus enabling a variety of versions of the same module to be produced. The core should have sufficient capacity to cope with all expected variations in performance and usage. Components used in a modular product must have features that enable them to be coupled together to form a complex product. Modularity will promote: reduction in product development time; customization and upgrades; cost efficiencies due to amortization; quality design standardization; and reduction in order lead time. The purpose of this book is to develop a structured approach to the design of products using the concept of modularity, assembly, and manufacturability. The book has proposed and developed a structured and systematic approach to product and systems design using the modularity concept. Mathematical and genetic algorithm models are developed to support the developed methodology.

As industries adopt consumer-focused product development strategies, they should offer broader product ranges in shorter design times and the processes that can manufacture in arbitrary lot sizes. In addition, they would need to apply state-of-the-art methods and tools to easily conduct early product design and development trade-off analysis among competing objectives. Methods in Product Design: New Strategies in Reengineering supplies insights into the methods and techniques that enable implementing a consumer-focused product design philosophy by integrating design and development capabilities with intelligent computer-based systems. The book defines customer focused design and discusses ways to assess changing demands and sources, and delves into what is needed to successfully manufacture goods in a demanding market. It reviews proven methods for assessing customer need. Then, after showing how changing needs impact the reengineering of products, it explains how change can be efficiently achieved. It details how IT advances and technology support customer-focused product development, discusses cutting-edge mass customization principles that maximize cost-effective production, and illustrates how to implement effective predictive maintenance policies. Methods in Product Design: New Strategies in Reengineering provides methods, state-of-the-art technologies, and new strategies for customer-focused product design and development that allow organizations to quickly respond to the demanding global marketplace.