Technology: general issues

In the competitive world of modern engineering, rigorous and definite design methodologies are needed.

It is with great pleasure that we welcome you to the inaugural World Congress on Engineering Asset Management (WCEAM) being held at the Conrad Jupiters Hotel on the Gold Coast from July 11 to 14, 2006.

Congratulations and thank you for reading this book!

Recent years have seen an upsurge of interest in knowledge.

Mass customization is an emerging paradigm gathering growing interest in many industrial fields.

Few would deny that small entrepreneurial firms play an important economic and social role.

Recent worldwide advances in manufacturing technologies led to a metamorphism in the industry.

In recent years, the supply chain has become a key element to the survival and prosperity of organisations in different industry sectors.

Modelling is an activity that is found in every domain of research and science, and takes place even when we are not aware of it.

In the early years of the 21st Century, as a result of many changes, it has become possible for the first time for tens of thousands of companies to offer manufactured products to customers across six continents.

Digital video for user-centred co-design is an emerging field of design, gaining increasing interest in both industry and academia.

In today's competitive world, industries are focusing on shorter lead times, improved quality, reduced cost, increased profit, improved productivity and better customer service.

Engineers and scientists often need to sell an innovative idea for a new product or a new product improvement to top management.

Developed from a course taught to senior undergraduates, this book provides a unified introduction to Fourier analysis and special functions based on the Sturm-Liouville theory in L2.

Presented here are 88 refereed papers given at the 35th MATADOR Conference held at the National University of Taiwan in Taipei, Taiwan in July 2007.

In process modelling, knowledge of the process under consideration is typically partial with significant disturbances to the model.

Machining dynamics are vital to the performance of machine tools and machining processes in manufacturing.

Rapid and unprecedented population ageing poses a serious social and economic challenge across the developed world.

Semiconductor spintronics is expected to lead to a new generation of transistors, lasers and integrated magnetic sensors that can be used to create ultra-low power, high speed memory, logic and photonic devices.

"e;Automatic Autocorrelation and Spectral Analysis"e; gives random data a language to communicate the information they contain objectively.

This book traces the development of a personal research programme over a period of many years.

Computer software reliability has never been so important.

Flexible mechanical systems experience undesirable vibration in response to environmental and operational forces.

Make and test projects are used as introductory design experiences in almost every engineering educational institution world wide.

This book is a sequel to The Practice of Machine Design, and The Practice of Machine Design, Book 3 - Learning from Failure.

Many processes and systems manifest an increasing integration of mechanical and electronic components with information processing capacity.

Purchasers of manufactured goods need assurance that they will perform well over their expected life.

A common sense of time among the elements of a distributed measurement and control system allows the use of new techniques in solving problems with complex synchronization requirements or arising from the interaction of many sensors and actuators.

Many real systems are composed of multi-state components with different performance levels and several failure modes.

Since the last century, the postulational method and an abstract point of view have played a vital role in the development of modern mathematics.

Decision-making Support Systems (DMSS) are computer-based systems that support individual or organisational decision-making processes.

Many serious accidents have happened in the world where systems have been large-scale and complex, and have caused heavy damage and a social sense of instability.

Switched linear systems have enjoyed a particular growth in interest since the 1990s.

Globalisation of the world's economy is leading to rapid change and uncertainties in society, politics and markets.

The topics of control engineering and signal processing continue to flourish and develop.

Efficient assembly line design is a problem of industrial importance.

Tuning, Timbre, Spectrum, Scale focuses on perceptions ofconsonance and dissonance, and how these are dependent on timbre.

Focussing on the manipulation and representation of geometrical objects, this book explores the application of geometry to computer graphics and computer-aided design (CAD).

Composite decisions consist of subdecisions and correspond to a composite system.

Every day we experience the annoyance of having to queue.

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), a new paradigm for product manufacturing, enables a company to manage its products all the way across their lifecycles in the most effective way.

Recent developments in constrained control and estimation have created a need for this comprehensive introduction to the underlying fundamental principles.

vi The process is important!

Parametric cost estimating, when properly used, is a powerful and cost effective technique.

New manufacturing technologies have made possible the integration of entire systems on a single chip.

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1011 1 2 31 The continual effort to improve performance in business processes attracts 4 increasing attention in research and industry alike.

This book aims to present a state-of-the-art survey of theories and methods of reliability, maintenance, and warranty with emphasis on multi-unit systems, and to reflect current hot topics: imperfect maintenance, economic dependence, opportunistic maintenance, quasi-renewal processes, warranty with maintenance and economic dependency, and software testing and maintenance.

Engineering design must be carefully planned and systematically executed.