This book is intended to be used as a textbook on senior/graduate level courses in human factors engineering and ergonomics. It will provide students with a background in physiological, biomechanical and anthropometric bases of ergonomics, and then focus on the applications of ergonomic principles in designing work systems for efficient human-machine interfaces.

The need exists in the private sector and government manufacturing sites to reduce product development time, production lead times, inventory, and non-value added activities. At the same time, there is increased pressure to improve manufacturing process yields, produc tion efficiency, and resource utilization. Much of the technology required to meet these needs already exists, but an integrated structure that can demonstrate the potential for the technology in a concurrent engineering context does not. This book provides a road map for building the integrated technology environment to...

In today's business environment, reliability and maintenance drastically affect the three key elements of competitiveness - quality, cost, and product lead time. Well-maintained machines hold tolerances better, help reduce scrap and rework, and raise consistency and quality of the part in addition to cutting total production costs. Today, many factories are still performing maintenance on equipment in a reactive manner due to a lack of understanding about machine performance behaviour. To improve production efficiency, computer-aided maintenance and diagnostic methodology must be applied...

The international perspective for this book is the unprecedented level of concern over deforestation, recognized by the meeting of world leaders at the 1992 Earth Summit, in Rio do Janeiro, and culminating in the appoint- ment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Forests (IPF), under the auspices of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development. The wide range of issues covered by the authors in this volume reflects the breadth of the interna- tional debate, from national policies and activist campaigning, through eco- nomic and social objectives, to the sustainable management of forest and soil...

During the last two decades, a tremendous growth in the popularity and applications of computers in manufacturing has occurred. Computer aided design, computer-aided manufacturing, flexible manufacturing systems, group technology and many others are considered by many manufacturing executives as the most promising technologies and philosophies that, if successfully implemented, can reduce costs and enable the US manufacturing companies to become more competitive in the global market. In the computer-integrated manufacturing environ ment, the decision processes are often more involved. The...