This book is a primer of lean manufacturing, also known as the Toyota production system, developed by the automaker decades ago. The text is also an argument to convince managers of the authors' belief that lean is the best way to manufacture products. The authors, John Nicholas and Avi Soni, are both engineers by background but tell us that they come to the material from different directions. Nicholas is a professor of operations management at Loyola University. He says he has taught lean production since 1990. Soni is a retired manager of manufacturing services and quality assurance. Part of the framework for the book is that each chapter begins with an anecdote from Soni's career as he learned and implemented different ideas associated with lean production. The portal of the title is a diagram representing how the authors see the parts of lean production fitting together. Among the foundation blocks, you can find workplace organization, error proofing, and employee involvement and teamwork. The pillars, which include robust design and supplier relationships, support a lintel labeled "elimination of waste" and "continuous improvement." At the top of it all are customer focus and process focus. The text goes into considerable detail, but remains readable. It is not a dense textbook, and the reader is introduced to only a few words of Japanese.
Guidebook for the Design of ASME Section
VIII Pressure Vessels. Third Edition.
This book is useful whether you are a beginning
design engineer or an experienced engineering manager developing a mechanical
integrity program. This updated volume provides an examination and review
of the requirements applicable to the design, materials selection, fabrication,
inspection, and testing of pressure vessels and their components. The
authors review background issues, reference materials, technology, and
techniques necessary for the safe, reliable, cost-efficient function of
pressure vessels in the petrochemical, paper, power, and other industries.
Solved examples throughout the book illustrate the application of various
equations given in Section VIII.
The theory and technology of turbomachinery is continually evolving and while the basics don't change, research can lead to refinements in popular methods, while new data can emerge from industry. For example, research is currently being conducted in methods of computational fluid dynamics analysis, resulting in gradual improvements in those analytical methods and effecting major changes in the way research in fluid mechanics is conducted and presented. This new edition of Fluid Mechanics has applications for professionals and students in many subsets of the mechanical engineering discipline, including fluid mechanics, combustion, and heat transfer; dynamics and vibration, as well as structural mechanics and materials engineering. Brief reviews are included on many important aspects of turbomachinery, giving pointers toward more advanced sources of information. A long overdue new chapter on wind turbines, with a focus on blade aerodynamics, is included in this edition.
In this book, the authors present core topics within the general themes of fluid and solid mechanics. They cover a range of topics, including viscous flow, agnetohydrodynamics, atmospheric flows, shock equations, turbulence, nonlinear solid mechanics, solitons, and the nonlinear Schrödinger equation. This second edition is a resource for those studying continuum mechanics at the advanced undergraduate
or beginning graduate levels, whether in engineering, mathematics, physics, or the applied sciences. Exercises and hints for solutions have been added to the majority of chapters, and the final section on solid mechanics has been expanded.
Boundary Methods: Elements, Contours,
and Nodes
In this book, the authors present the results
of research in boundary-based mesh-free methods. These methods combine
the dimensionality advantage of the boundary element method with the ease
of discretization of mesh-free methods, both of which, for some problems,
hold distinct advantages over the finite element method, according to
the publisher. After introducing some novel topics related to the boundary
element method, the authors focus on the boundary contour method, a variant
of the BEM that further reduces the dimensionality of a problem. The final
section of the book explores the boundary node method, which combines
the BEM with moving least-squares approximants to produce a mesh-free,
boundary-only method. The authors are the primary developers of these
methods.
Engineering Mechanics of Composite Materials.
Second Edition.
The use of composite materials—with
their unique properties of high stiffness, high strength, and low density—is
expanding in aircraft, cars, ships, biomedical products, and energy production.
This second edition of Engineering Mechanics of Composite Materials
has been revised, updated, and expanded based upon advances in the field,
the authors' research, and feedback received from users of the first edition.
This edition contains a more complete treatment of the fundamental theory,
including three-dimensional effects; more emphasis on widely used materials,
such as textile composites; and a presentation and discussion of failure
theories and their applicability. Throughout, theoretical descriptions
are compared with experimental results. A chapter is devoted to experimental
characterization and testing, including the latest test methods and ASTM
standards.
Birdmen, Batmen, and Skyflyers: Wingsuits
and the Pioneers Who Flew in Them, Fell in Them, and Perfected Them
Contributing Editor Michael Abrams has written
a thorough account of man's endless attempts to fly like a bird—meaning
without an engine. The results of these flights were often lethal, and
few of the birdmen portrayed seemed to have learned much from their predecessors.
The history of "personal flight," as Abrams tells it, falls
into three categories: the largely unsuccessful, often feather-draped,
tower jumpers of centuries past; the somewhat successful canvas-clad parachuting
showman of the 1930s and '40s—known as "batmen";
and the largely successful wingsuited skydivers of today who can fly for
several minutes at a 2:1 glide ratio before opening their parachutes.
Certain members of this last group are now skilled enough to skim down
mountainsides mere feet above the ground in wings no wider than their
arm span. Their eventual goal is the ultimate birdman dream: landing without
a parachute.
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© 2006 by The American Society of Mechanical Engineers