Download or read book Flexibility in Engineering Design written by Richard De Neufville and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2011-08-12 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A guide to using the power of design flexibility to improve the performance of complex technological projects, for designers, managers, users, and analysts. Project teams can improve results by recognizing that the future is inevitably uncertain and that by creating flexible designs they can adapt to eventualities. This approach enables them to take advantage of new opportunities and avoid harmful losses. Designers of complex, long-lasting projects—such as communication networks, power plants, or hospitals—must learn to abandon fixed specifications and narrow forecasts. They need to avoid the “flaw of averages,” the conceptual pitfall that traps so many designs in underperformance. Failure to allow for changing circumstances risks leaving significant value untapped. This book is a guide for creating and implementing value-enhancing flexibility in design. It will be an essential resource for all participants in the development and operation of technological systems: designers, managers, financial analysts, investors, regulators, and academics. The book provides a high-level overview of why flexibility in design is needed to deliver significantly increased value. It describes in detail methods to identify, select, and implement useful flexibility. The book is unique in that it explicitly recognizes that future outcomes are uncertain. It thus presents forecasting, analysis, and evaluation tools especially suited to this reality. Appendixes provide expanded explanations of concepts and analytic tools.

Download or read book Software Design for Flexibility written by Chris Hanson and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2021-03-09 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Strategies for building large systems that can be easily adapted for new situations with only minor programming modifications. Time pressures encourage programmers to write code that works well for a narrow purpose, with no room to grow. But the best systems are evolvable; they can be adapted for new situations by adding code, rather than changing the existing code. The authors describe techniques they have found effective--over their combined 100-plus years of programming experience--that will help programmers avoid programming themselves into corners. The authors explore ways to enhance flexibility by: Organizing systems using combinators to compose mix-and-match parts, ranging from small functions to whole arithmetics, with standardized interfaces Augmenting data with independent annotation layers, such as units of measurement or provenance Combining independent pieces of partial information using unification or propagation Separating control structure from problem domain with domain models, rule systems and pattern matching, propagation, and dependency-directed backtracking Extending the programming language, using dynamically extensible evaluators

Download or read book Real Options in Engineering Design Operations and Management written by Harriet Black Nembhard and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2009-10-27 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Given that engineering flexibility can potentially provide a competitive advantage, the question then becomes: Precisely how valuable is this flexibility? However, traditional methods often fail to accurately capture the economic value of investments in an environment of widespread uncertainty and rapid change. The real options method represents th

Download or read book Design for Flexibility written by Guy André Boy and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-06-19 with total page 122 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Design for flexibility requires anticipation, preparation, creativity and experience. Future highly digital sociotechnical systems should contrast with those stemming from technology-centered engineering that produces objects and machines with the immensely codified and rigid practices we know today. Most of the time, current technologies are designed and developed for normal situations, leaving users to manage abnormal and emergency situations themselves, sometimes under unforeseen, extreme and/or dangerous conditions. Putting humans at the center of the design of flexible sociotechnical systems means visualizing possible futures, modeling them, simulating them and leading them down the right paths. This book is for the engineering designers, who seek to better understand the roles of humans and organizations developing complex life-critical systems. It is also for those who train future designers who will have to take into account the well-being, safety, sustainability and efficiency of the actors of future sociotechnical systems. It is about an emergent discipline, human systems integration (HSI). The aim of the flexibility challenge is to put the artificial at the service of the natural, and not the other way around. The author, an aerospace engineering designer, has worked for 40 years in the field of human-centered design (HCD) of complex systems, discovering repeatedly that automation leads to rigidity, especially when things go wrong. It is urgent we had a new paradigm where flexibility is a major asset in human systems integration. HCD is seen here as the combination of practices and technologies to come.

Download or read book Protective Armor Engineering Design written by Magdi El Messiry and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2019-09-24 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is increasing interest in the area of protective vests, either for protection against bullets or protection from the most realistic threats within domestic frontline operations: edged weapon, knives, and medical needles. This volume addresses that need. This new book provides an in-depth survey of the state-of-the-art research and practical techniques in the area of protected fabrics, especially stab-resistant and bulletproof fabrics. The book covers: • The history of protective armor: the long history of the art of protective armor manufacturing. • Materials used for body armor: the design and materials used for soft armor to increase its perforation-resistance utilizing high-performance fibers. • Anti-stab and anti-bullet armor design: the different design parameters required for the design of flexible armor in order to stop high-velocity projectiles. • The comfort of the body armor design: the flexibility, thermal resistivity, and evaporative moisture resistivity through the fabric. • Methods of testing the flexible body armors: testing the components of flexible body armor, according to the level of the protection required, such as NIJ Standards, HOSDB Body Armour Standards for UK Police, and the German SK1 Standard, among others. Written by an expert in textile composite material engineering, this volume fills an important gap in the area of protective fabric against stabbing or bullets and provides invaluable practical knowledge for body armor design.

Download or read book Engineering Design Communication written by Shawna D. Lockhart and published by Peachpit Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This text presents a different approach to the traditional engineering graphics course by emphasizing the importance of sketching, 3D solid modelling and the use of design data bases throughout the engineering process.

Download or read book Mobile Information Systems written by Barbara Pernici and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2006-09-02 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a framework for mobile information systems, focusing on quality of service and adaptability at all architectural levels. These levels range from adaptive applications to e-services, middleware, and infrastructural elements, as developed in the "Multichannel Adaptive Information Systems" (MAIS) project. The design models, methods, and tools developed in the project allow the realization of adaptive mobile information systems in a variety of different architectures.

Download or read book A Guide for Achieving Flexibility in Highway Design written by and published by AASHTO. This book was released on 2004 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Context-sensitive solutions (CSS) reflect the need to consider highway projects as more than just transportation facilities. Depending on how highway projects are integrated into the community, they can have far-reaching impacts beyond their traffic or transportation function. CSS is a comprehensive process that brings stakeholders together in a positive, proactive environment to develop projects that not only meet transportation needs, but also improve or enhance the community. Achieving a flexible, context-sensitive design solution requires designers to fully understand the reasons behind the processes, design values, and design procedures that are used. This AASHTO Guide shows highway designers how to think flexibly, how to recognize the many choices and options they have, and how to arrive at the best solution for the particular situation or context. It also strives to emphasize that flexible design does not necessarily entail a fundamentally new design process, but that it can be integrated into the existing transportation culture. This publication represents a major step toward institutionalizing CSS into state transportation departments and other agencies charged with transportation project development.

Download or read book Improving Engineering Design written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1991-02-01 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Effective design and manufacturing, both of which are necessary to produce high-quality products, are closely related. However, effective design is a prerequisite for effective manufacturing. This new book explores the status of engineering design practice, education, and research in the United States and recommends ways to improve design to increase U.S. industry's competitiveness in world markets.

Download or read book Rigid Flexibility written by Pei Wang and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2006-09-01 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is the most comprehensive description of the decades-long Non-Axiomatic Reasoning System (NARS) project, including its philosophical foundation, methodological consideration, conceptual design details, implications in the related fields, and its similarities and differences to many related works in cognitive science. While most current works in Artificial Intelligence (AI) focus on individual aspects of intelligence and cognition, NARS is designed and developed to attack the AI problem as a whole.

Download or read book Human Systems Integration written by Guy André Boy and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2020-01-27 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Human–Systems Integration: From Virtual to Tangible Subject Guide: Ergonomics and Human Factors This book is an attempt to better formalize a systemic approach to human–systems integration (HSI). Good HSI is a matter of maturity... it takes time to mature. It takes time for a human being to become autonomous, and then mature! HSI is a matter of human–machine teaming, where human–machine cooperation and coordination are crucial. We cannot think engineering design without considering people and organizations that go with it. We also cannot think new technology, new organizations, and new jobs without considering change management. More specifically, this book is a follow-up of previous contributions in human-centered design and practice in the development of virtual prototypes that requires progressive operational tangibility toward HSI. The book discusses flexibility in design and operations, tangibility of software-intensive systems, virtual human-centered design, increasingly autonomous complex systems, human factors and ergonomics of sociotechnical systems, systems integration, and changed management in digital organizations. The book will be of interest to industry, academia, those involved with systems engineering, human factors, and the broader public.

Download or read book Aircraft Design written by Mohammad H. Sadraey and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2012-11-20 with total page 811 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive approach to the air vehicle design process using the principles of systems engineering Due to the high cost and the risks associated with development, complex aircraft systems have become a prime candidate for the adoption of systems engineering methodologies. This book presents the entire process of aircraft design based on a systems engineering approach from conceptual design phase, through to preliminary design phase and to detail design phase. Presenting in one volume the methodologies behind aircraft design, this book covers the components and the issues affected by design procedures. The basic topics that are essential to the process, such as aerodynamics, flight stability and control, aero-structure, and aircraft performance are reviewed in various chapters where required. Based on these fundamentals and design requirements, the author explains the design process in a holistic manner to emphasise the integration of the individual components into the overall design. Throughout the book the various design options are considered and weighed against each other, to give readers a practical understanding of the process overall. Readers with knowledge of the fundamental concepts of aerodynamics, propulsion, aero-structure, and flight dynamics will find this book ideal to progress towards the next stage in their understanding of the topic. Furthermore, the broad variety of design techniques covered ensures that readers have the freedom and flexibility to satisfy the design requirements when approaching real-world projects. Key features: • Provides full coverage of the design aspects of an air vehicle including: aeronautical concepts, design techniques and design flowcharts • Features end of chapter problems to reinforce the learning process as well as fully solved design examples at component level • Includes fundamental explanations for aeronautical engineering students and practicing engineers • Features a solutions manual to sample questions on the book’s companion website Companion website - www.wiley.com/go/sadraey

Download or read book Enabling Flexibility in Process Aware Information Systems written by Manfred Reichert and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-08-28 with total page 517 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In today’s dynamic business world, the success of a company increasingly depends on its ability to react to changes in its environment in a quick and flexible way. Companies have therefore identified process agility as a competitive advantage to address business trends like increasing product and service variability or faster time to market, and to ensure business IT alignment. Along this trend, a new generation of information systems has emerged—so-called process-aware information systems (PAIS), like workflow management systems, case handling tools, and service orchestration engines. With this book, Reichert and Weber address these flexibility needs and provide an overview of PAIS with a strong focus on methods and technologies fostering flexibility for all phases of the process lifecycle (i.e., modeling, configuration, execution and evolution). Their presentation is divided into six parts. Part I starts with an introduction of fundamental PAIS concepts and establishes the context of process flexibility in the light of practical scenarios. Part II focuses on flexibility support for pre-specified processes, the currently predominant paradigm in the field of business process management (BPM). Part III details flexibility support for loosely specified processes, which only partially specify the process model at build-time, while decisions regarding the exact specification of certain model parts are deferred to the run-time. Part IV deals with user- and data-driven processes, which aim at a tight integration of processes and data, and hence enable an increased flexibility compared to traditional PAIS. Part V introduces existing technologies and systems for the realization of a flexible PAIS. Finally, Part VI summarizes the main ideas of this book and gives an outlook on advanced flexibility issues. The book’s target groups include researchers, PhD students and Master students in the field of information systems. After reading the book, they will better understand PAIS flexibility aspects. To support the easy use as a textbook, a series of exercises is provided at the end of each chapter and slides and further teaching material are available on the book’s web site www.flexible-processes.com. Professionals specializing in business process management (BPM) who want to obtain a good understanding of flexibility challenges in BPM and state-of-the-art solutions will also benefit from the presentations of open source as well as commercial process management systems and related practical scenarios.

Download or read book Aesthetic Flexibility written by Torbjörn Andersson and published by Linköping University Electronic Press. This book was released on 2021-03-09 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Competition among companies that produce complex or large product portfolios has created a need to use modularity strategies not only to flexibly manage technical complexity in a cost-effective manner but also to produce visually appealing products. This research aims to understand how the visual appearance of products is affected by modular product development strategies and creates coherent product brands. Thus, this study examines the intersection of design aesthetics, product portfolio management, product brand management, and design management. Specifically, this study aims to understand how such strategies constrain and generate possibilities when the industrial design process concerns itself with visual appearance. The main research approach has been qualitative multi-case methodology (Miles et al, 2014; Eisenhardt, 1989) and design theory building (Chakrabarti and Blessing, 2016) that collects data through interviews, experimentation, and theoretical studies based on findings in the literature. Sixteen face-to-face interviews were conducted with design vice presidents, senior designers, and senior design engineers at five Swedish manufacturers from the automotive, MedTech, consumer goods, commercial vehicles, and materials handling industries. This approach has resulted in the description of three theoretical models and a design method, product gist, for investigating prototypicality in a product category. Aesthetic flexibility reflects the requirement that under certain circumstances an industrial designer has to plan for future (as yet unknown) changes in a design. Each of the three theoretical models has a different focus: one model describes three ways manufacturing companies organise a strategic in-house design function; one model describes how design decisions are made on a general level through an intuitive and knowledge-based judgment process; and one model describes the strategies a manager needs to consider when developing an existing product portfolio and how the strategies influence industrial design practice. Understanding visual flexibility serves as a starting point for further investigations of how development strategies affect visual product design. This understanding provides industrial designers insight into how they can develop product systems that share design components across product lines to promote brand identity. The findings of this work illustrate and explain a complex and multi-facetted design phenomenon that many designers manage more or less intuitively today; therefore, this study advances the understanding of the field for academics, teachers, and professional designers.

Download or read book Value of Information and Flexibility written by Martin J. Vilela and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-10-21 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a consistent methodology for making decisions under uncertain conditions, as is almost always the case. Tools such as value of information and value of flexibility are explored as a means to make more complex and nuanced decisions. The book develops the complete formalism for assessing the value of acquiring information with two novel approaches. Firstly, it integrates the fuzzy characteristics of data, and secondly develops a methodology for assessing data acquisition actions that optimize the value of projects from a holistic perspective. The book also discusses the formalism for including flexibility in the project decision assessment. Practical examples of oil- and gas-related decision problems are included and discussed to facilitate the learning process. This book provides valuable advice and case studies applicable to engineers, researchers, and graduate students, particularly in the oil and gas industry and pharmaceutic industry.

Download or read book Engineering Design and Graphics with SolidWorks 2019 written by James D. Bethune and published by Macromedia Press. This book was released on 2019-06-12 with total page 1532 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Engineering Design and Graphics with SolidWorks 2019, award-winning CAD instructor and author James Bethune shows students how to use SolidWorks to create engineering drawings and designs. The textbook has been updated to cover the new features in SolidWorks 2019, including a brand-new chapter with sample problems to help students prepare for the CSWA Exam. It focuses on the creation of engineering drawings, including dimensions and tolerances and the use of standard parts and tools. Each chapter contains step-by-step sample problems that show students how to apply the concepts presented in the chapter. Effective pedagogy throughout the text helps students learn and retain concepts: OBJECTIVES: Each chapter begins with objectives and an introduction to the material. SUMMARIES: Each chapter concludes with a summary and exercise problems. NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS: The multitude of illustrations, accompanied by explanatory captions, present a visual approach to learning. Students see in the text what they see on the screen with the addition of explanatory text. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: The text provides hundreds of exercise projects of varying difficulty (far more than any other computer graphics text). These exercises reinforce each chapter’s content and help students learn by doing. FLEXIBILITY: With the hundreds of problems presented in the book, instructors can assign different problems within the same class and from year to year without repeating problems for students. MEETS STANDARDS: The text teaches ANSI standards for dimensions and tolerances. This helps students understand how their designs are defined for production and the importance of proper tolerancing. STEP-BY-STEP APPROACH: In presenting the fundamentals of engineering drawing using SolidWorks, the text uses a step-by-step approach that allows students to work and learn at their own pace. CSWA EXAM PREP: This edition includes sample problems to help students prepare for the CSWA Exam.

Download or read book Design for X written by Charles M. Eastman and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 499 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bringing together the expertise of worldwide authorities in the field, Design for X is the first comprehensive book to offer systematic and structured coverage of contemporary and concurrent product development techniques. It features over fifteen techniques, including: design for manufacture and assembly; design for distribution; design for quality; and design for the environment. Alternative approaches and common elements are discussed and critical issues such as integration and tradeoff are explored.